First up I asked Mike Hirtle , who helps judge the competition and has dinner with the winner, to give some advice on how to create a game and present it.  Mike has a great deal of experience looking at game inventions and he was the Head of Global Product Acquisition at Hasbro for many years and now travels the world to look at game concepts for a couple game companies including Ravensburger.  In his 38-year career, he estimates that he’s seen over 25,000 concepts!  Amazing!  Here’s what Mike had to say:

1. Try to think outside the box. That means try to be different. Most entrants will have what we call a “flat down board game”. This is a game where you roll a die or dice to move on a path and involves collecting something, or answering questions, or just racing to the end. Try to be different. Think about an action game, or a game that looks different. DIFFERENT is the thing that will attract the most attention.

 

2. Don’t worry about making a really polished model. You should do your best and make it as neat and clean as possible but no one expects it to look finished like a production model.

 

3. The main thing to do in your presentation is get the essence of your game across as quickly as possible. The essence is the one main thing that you have that is new or the main element of your game that makes it fun. We call it the “Big Wow” in the industry. Focus on your Big Wow.

 

4. Remember that you won’t have a lot of time for each presentation. You should be able to describe your game in 30 to 45 seconds. Really. Start your presentation like this: “Hi. My name is _______, My game is called _________. The object of the game is ___________. The coolest thing about my game is ____________. “

 

5. Speak clearly and make eye contact with the person you are presenting to. Mumbling and looking at the floor is not the best way to get your audience excited about your game.

 

I have been talking about Games because 99.9% of the entrants at YIC invent games. I think that it must be easier to invent a game rather than a toy. One way to be really different is to invent a TOY. The comments above can apply to toys just as they do to games.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

In a recent interview I was asked “Are games for adults too?” and I think I had a coronary because in my world, OF COURSE games are for adults too.  They’re for little kids, big kids, anyone who is a kid at heart and even those adults who haven’t let the little kid inside them out for years.  But again, this is my world — my game-filled world, and while I have a hard time believing it, there are lots of people out there who don’t play games or haven’t played a game since they were a kid.

At my last game night one player said, “ooh, SORRY! I played that when I was a kid” and that comment was closely followed by someone saying they had never played it.  WHAT??!  SORRY! has been on the market since the 1930s how did they not have a copy on their game shelf or see it on a friend’s game shelf when they were a kid?!  Yes, again it struck me that not everyone plays games.  I recall the hours of fun my family has had playing SORRY! and a small part of me felt bad because this nice person missed out.  Therefore, I’m writing an article on SORRY!  Not just a review, because I anticipate and sincerely hope that most of my wonderful readers have played SORRY! at least once, but I’m also going to share a little history on the game.  Consider this a tiny service project and I urge you to share it with your non-SORRY! playing friends.

I’m sure many of you gamer types have noticed, SORRY! looks a bit like Indian Pachisi, better known as Parcheesi to us Americans and Ludo to those in the UK.  This classic Indian game is actually a version of the ancient “cross and circle” games, which have been around for more than a millennium.  In all these games the goal is to be the first to get your pieces all the way around the board.  In SORRY! you need to be the first player to get your 4 movers from Start to Home, but the key difference for SORRY! is the element of revenge.  Sweet, sweet revenge.

William Henry Storey from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, invented the game and it was initially patented in the UK before applying for patents in the US and Canada.   The UK patent was applied for in 1929 and the US one in 1930 – which of course takes a couple years so he doesn’t get it until August 11, 1933 (see picture of the patent drawing at right).  So W. H. Storey & Co. is manufacturing SORRY (minus the !) just outside of London when Robert Barton, president of Parker Brothers in 1933, hears from the Parker Brothers’ London office that there is this Parcheesi-like game that’s selling really well.  With the blessing of George Parker (although slightly reluctant as he saw it as a Parcheesi variant), they pay $25,000 to purchase the US rights for SORRY!  Around the same time, Waddingtons starts selling it in the UK.

In an interesting twist, SORRY! ends up being the very first game to have the signed “Parker Brothers” logo on the box according to The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, by Phil Orbanes.  The “signature” was written by George S. Parker, and who for those of you who don’t know your game history, he was the founder and president of Parker Brothers from its inception in 1883 when he was 16 until he handed over the reigns to Robert Barton in 1933.  Barton was George’s son-in-law having married George’s only surviving child, Sally, in 1931.  So the decision to bring SORRY! to the US was one of Barton’s first acquisitions as president – one that turned out to be a good one too! (If you want to know more about the history of Parker Brothers, I highly recommend The Game Makers.)

The English game of SORRY! looked much like the patent drawing with weird blob-like shapes on the board (see above), whereas it was given quite a face-lift for the US market. The first US version of the game said, “The Fashionable English Game SORRY!” on the box cover and the board on the inside looks extremely similar to the SORRY! we’ve seen for years (at right is the board from 1934).  One of key features of the game is that the deck of number cards, which players use to move their pieces around the board, assigns some numbers special attributes.  For example, if you pull an 11 you can move 1 piece 11 spaces OR swap spaces with another player, if you pull a 4, you must  move 1 piece backwards 4 spaces.  The deck also includes SORRY! cards which allow players to take a piece out of Home and knock any opponent off the outer path of the board, returning them to their Home.   The two slides per side is another fun feature to knock other players off.  You can’t slide on your own color slide, but if you’re caught on any side when someone’s coming down it you’re booted back home!  These great classic “revenge” tactics have made the game a perennial classic and have inspired numerous spin-offs including Shakin’ SORRY!, SORRY! Spin, SORRY! Sliders, SORRY! Card Revenge and many more.

So now that you know little more history of this Hasbro classic, I have to ask, who wants to play?!

SORRY! stats:
$15-20 pretty much anywhere games are sold
2-4 players
10-20 minutes (the original directions said it “If after playing FOUR games the AVERAGE time taken per game is over twenty-five minutes, the rules should be CAREFULLY read again.” and in that version each number’s attribute had to be looked up in the rule booklet)
Ages 6 and up

In a moment of extreme weakness I joined Words With Friends.  I was fully aware of how addictive it could become for a self-employed game-addict such as myself, but it was late and I was itching for a word game.  Let’s just say that one thing lead to another and any day now I’m going to need to find a group to help battle my Scramble With Friends addiction.  But I don’t want to talk about how addictive these games are – instead I want to address the “Resign” button that these games include.

The first Words with Friends games I played I won because the other player “resigned.” The score was 335 to 236 and 13 tiles remained, so I celebrated my victory and looked for another random player.  The second time, the same thing happened only this time there were three times as many tiles left and immediately after they resigned they requested to play me again!  I was speechless!  I’ve never been a great Scrabble player and I really struggle with the end of the game because I never bothered to study the long list of crazy 2 and 3 letter words that, when placed correctly on a Scrabble board, may earn a savvy opponent 20+ points to my single-digit moves.  But here, I’ve chalked up two victories in games with loads of tiles left!

Call me old school but I was taught that you play a game to the end.  You don’t just give up part way in because you feel that you got off on the wrong foot.  Sure, I know that there are games that have a “slaughter rule” providing a quick end for the losing player or team, and I’m okay with that.  If I’m getting squashed in bags or ping-pong, please put me out of my misery.   In those games there is a minimum amount of game you must play before you can gracefully accept defeat but I also understand conceding when there are only a handful of Scrabble tiles left and it’s obvious that there is no hope of a comeback.  But what are we saying by allowing players to quit after 2-3 bad turns or whenever else they want?  Is it okay to call a “do-over”?

Maybe we’ve been playing games on our phones and computers for so long, hitting the reset button when we get tiles we don’t like, that we’ve forgotten that there’s someone playing against us out there in the ether.  In this digital age we can easily hide behind our avatars ignoring those lessons of being good winners and losers that we learned in pre-school.  So I ask, is the respect we showed to our opponents in the past coming to an end because of digital gaming?  Are we all out for the win when it comes to playing board games turned apps online?  Well, not me.  And while I’ve yet to complete a Words with Friends game without my opponent resigning, I am playing a real life friend who promises she’ll play to the end.

Given the time of year, it seems fitting that we talk about a rabbit, with a bowtie, who has been delighting youngsters for generations!  Did you think I was talking about the Easter Bunny?  No!  I’m referring to Uncle Wiggily and the classic board game featuring him on his way to Dr. Possum’s house!

American writer Howard R. Garis created the Uncle Wiggily character.  Born in 1872 or 1873 (depending on the source), Garis was a successful children’s book writer before Edward Scudder of the Newark News approached him.  Scudder asked Garis to write some stories, which he could publish daily, and Garis created a series about an elderly rabbit, Uncle Wiggily Longears, and his friends. Some of his friends are Baby Bunny, Skiller Scaller, Alligator, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.  The first story ran on January 10, 1910 and was a huge success, which lead to national syndication.  The stories appeared every day, except Sundays, and by the time Garis retired in 1947 there were more than 15,000 Uncle Wiggily stories!

The first Uncle Wiggily game was introduced by Milton Bradley in 1916 (early version above right) and has been refreshed numerous times since then.  Here’s an excerpt from the 1967 instructions:

“Uncle Wiggily Longears is an old rabbit gentleman who lives in a hollow stump bungalow in the woods, with Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper.  Uncle Wiggily has the rheumatism, and starts for Dr. Possum’s house. No. 151 Green Moss Avenue, on the other side of the forest.  Uncle Wiggily wants to be cured of his rheumatism.  On the way to Dr. Possum’s office, he has many adventures.” – The Uncle Wiggily Game, © 1967 Parker Brothers

It goes on to say the object of the game is to be the first player to get Uncle Wiggily to the doctor’s and the white cards will poetically tell you how many hops to take along the path.  Example: “Five hops, or jumps as you prefer, And then look back to where you were” The colored cards are special cards that may direct you to a place in the forest and are only drawn when a white card tells you to take one.  Throughout the forest you will land on spaces like the Alligator’s Den, the Rabbit Hole or the Cluck Cluck Chicken House, which may direct you to lose turns or go back spaces.

Over the years The Uncle Wigglily Game has gone through many changes including updates by Milton Bradley in 1923, 1937, 1949, 1954, and 1961 (see above).  In all of the updates the artwork changed and in some of the newer versions the path was altered as well. The original game used to have multiple paths, which changed to only one in the 1961 version, making it similar to Hasbro’s Candy Land – which strangely, was advertised in this version of The Uncle Wigglily Game (at right).  As a side note, I have to say out of all of the games I really think the 1961 version has the best artwork.

In 1967 Parker Brothers obtained the rights to Uncle Wiggily and returned to making multiple path boards (see below center).  They refreshed their artwork in 1971 and 1979.  The next version seen on the market is a 1988 Milton Bradley version, which goes back to the single path.  The other big change in the 1988 version was the numbering of the spaces; instead of spaces numbered 1-151 (Dr. Possum’s office was No. 151 Green Moss Ave.) they’re numbered 1-100. Perhaps this change reflects the amount of time children and their parents are willing to spend playing a game.  I can imagine in 1916 children had a bit more free time and longer attention spans than those who played in late 1980s.  As for how Milton Bradley got the rights to Uncle Wiggily back, I’m not entirely sure.  (As a reminder Hasbro bought Milton Bradley in 1984 and then gobbled up Parker Brothers in 1991 so at this time they’re still competitors.)  My best guess is that it could have been because Uncle Wiggily entered the public domain, but I was unable to find that information.

Today, Hasbro doesn’t manufacture any version of the game, but fear not, you can still get a copy of The Uncle Wiggily Game as it is currently manufactured by Winning Moves (top of page).  This is going to be the singular path game, which reflect the changes made by Milton Bradley in the late 1980s.  While you’re at it buy Scattergories Categories from Winning Moves – it’s an awesome game (very very shameless plug).

Happy Easter Everyone!

***For More Photos, visit The Game Aisle’s Facebook Page Album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150656706786169.390223.155100046168&type=1

Sources:

University of Waterloo, Elliott Avedon Virtual Museum of Games: http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/Whitehill/wiggly/index.html

Hasbro “The Uncle Wiggily Game Rules” from 1967 and 1988: http://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/UncleWiggily1967.PDFhttp://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/UncleWiggily1988(english,spanish).PDF

“Recalling Newark News Writer Howard Garis and His Rabbit” By Nat Bodian, Old Newark: http://www.oldnewark.com/memories/newspapers/bodiangaris.htm

The Strong Museum’s online collection: http://www.thestrong.org/online-collections/search/index.php?q=uncle+wiggily+game&op.x=13&op.y=24&op=Search

Board Game Geek’s “Uncle Wiggily” entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3074/uncle-wiggily

Photos from eBay and Flickr searches

Further Reading:You can read/download some of the Uncle Wiggily stories at The Guttenberg Project’s site: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/g#a808

I’m one of those “picky candy” people and frankly, some of the easter classics just don’t do it for me.  I’m not a fan of jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, malted milk balls,  — even chocolate bunnies meet a slow demise as little bits are chopped off and eaten over a period of weeks or even months.  I’d much rather find only a chocolate egg or two keeping a game company in my Easter basket!  Can you guess where this is going?  YES!  Let’s talk about some great Easter basket games!

So here’s the deal, I scoped out some games that are under $10 and are small enough to fit in an Easter Basket allowing the “Easter Bunny” to choose what is right for each basket recipent.

1. IQ Twist, by Smart Games

Smart Games is a Eurpoean company that manufacturers brainteasers and logic puzzles much like those 1-player games we’ve seen from ThinkFun — and actually I believe ThinkFun use to distribute Smart Games back in the day.  Regardless, Smart Games are now available in the US and I recently had a chance to try out one of their best sellers, IQ Twist, and really enjoyed it.  Now it’s a brainteaser and not really a game – but it’s compact and fits easily into an Easter basket, purse or backpack.  A little guidebook tells you where to put the colored pegs on to the 8×4 grid and then you have to use the rest of pieces to fill up the grid.  The catch is openings in the pieces must cover like-colored pegs.  Challenges range from really easy to pull-out-your-hair impossible!

IQ Twist stats:
~$10 Amazon, AreYouGame.com, and other SMART Games retailers
1 players
How long do you want to play?
Ages 6 and up

2. Farkle Flip, by Patch Products

The classic dice game Farkle now has a card game!  Farkle Flip was introduced this past February at Toy Fair and although classic Farkle is played with dice, the game testers all agreed that this would make a great little gift to anyone who is a fan of Farkle.  Instead of rolling the dice you are drawing cards from a deck and placing them in front of yourself or other players.  Every player has cards in front of them, although they don’t “own” these cards.  If you place a card in front of a person to make a scoring combination, like a 3 of a kind or a straight, you can moved these cards to the middle of the playing area.  Choose to stop drawing and score the cards in the middle OR keep going and try to earn more points.  Just don’t draw a Farkle card and end your turn early!

Farkle Flip stats:
~$8 Amazon
2 or more players
~10 Minutes
Ages 8 and up

3.  Who Would Win and Joe Name It, both by Gamewright

In cute little square boxes, both of these party games are easy to take with you to a friend’s house, party, spring break, bar… whatever!  In Who Would Win

In Joe Name It a player rolls the die and then reads a card filling in the blank with the number they rolled. You might get: “Name the Italian word for  5 “ or “Name  4 one-word celebrities.”  Questions are either for “Any Joe” (the whole group) or “Just Joe” (the player who pulled the card).  If you win the round, collect a card.  First player to 10 wins!

Who Would Win stats:
$10 Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many others
2 or more players
10-40 minutes (depending on HOW you play)
Ages 8 and up

Joe Name It stats:
$10 Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many others
2 or more players
10-40 minutes (depending on HOW you play)
Ages 8 and up

4.  Toss Up!, by Patch Products

This maybe the smallest item on the list and one that often finds its way into my carry-on bag!  Toss Up is a push-your-luck dice game based on the idea that green means “go,” yellow means “caution” and red means “stop.” Earn points for each green you roll but beware of rolling a red, which can end your turn and cause you to lose all your points.  It’s simple to learn and easy to bring along with you!

Toss Up stats:
$7-8 Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ToysRUs.com and many others
2 or more players
10-40 minutes (depending on HOW you play)
Ages 8 and up

5. LCR Dice Game, by George & Co.

LCR is a great party game that is small enough to toss in your pocket before you head out to the bar to meet up with friends or to bring to family parties to play after dinner!  The game has a bunch of chips and 3 dice, each with an L, a C and an R and 3 sides with just a dot.  On your turn you roll the dice and if you roll an L and 2 dots you must pass 1 chip to the left or if you roll two Cs and an R you must put 2 chips in the center kitty and pass 1 chip to the right.  The goal is to be the last player with a chip as they are the one who will win the chips in the kitty!  The great part about this game is that once you’re out of chips, you’re not out of the game as someone may pass you a chip to bring you back in! But I’m guessing you thought I was going to say that it’s great because you can substitute chips for money – well, I guess that makes it fun too!

LCR Dice Game stats:
$7-8 Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walgreens, Target.com and many others
2 or more players
10-40 minutes (depending on HOW you play)
Ages 8 and up

Other suggestions:

There’s a Moose in the House By Gamewright REVIEW

Dweebies By Gamewright REVIEW

Chips, by Jax REVIEW

Yahtzee, by Hasbro REVIEW

Mille Bornes, by Hasbro REVIEW

My mother was a math teacher and my father’s a CPA so there was never any lack of math “learning opportunities” when I was growing up.  Unfortunately, not every child lives with parents who love and embraced math as much as my parents did.  In fact, when my relatives brought out a calculator to total up their Yahtzee scores, I could see the horror in my mother’s eyes growing with every number that was pressed.

Many adults and parents don’t like math, and I’ll be one of the first ones to admit that most of the calculus I learned has fallen right out of my head.  But what remains strong are my basics.  Adding and subtracting accurately and quickly is something no calculator app on your iPhone can compete with.  So then, what’s the best way to become good and quick at basic math?  No, not boring flashcards – GAMES!

To prove my point, I’ve selected a couple games that require quick, easy calculations to be successful – and of course the game masks the fact that everyone playing is actually brushing up on their speed math skills. YAY!

Adios Amigos, by Pegasus Spiele 

A game for 2-4 players that takes 10-20 minutes is about Wild West desperados having a shoot out over gold.  Players place 3 cards in front of them and each card has 2 numbers that can be added together or the lower number can be subtracted from the higher number (no negative numbers here folks!)  At the start of a round players get to flip over tokens and if any numbers on their tokens match the sum or difference of any of their opponents cards they place their token on the card effectively “shooting” at the other player.  Once all three of your cards have been shot, you’re out.  Last desperado standing wins the loot from the round. There are other fun tidbits to the game that involve wooden bullets and dynamite, but the key to winning is quick adding and subtracting.

Adios Amigos stats:
$25 Amazon, FunAgain Games, and mom & pop retailers
2 or more players
10-40 minutes (depending on HOW you play)
Ages 8 and up

7 Ate 9, by Out of the Box

A great speed math card game from Out of the Box publishing, 7 Ate 9 is comprised of numbered cards with a +/-1, +/-2 or +/-3 in the corner.  After a number card is played, the next card must be a number that is either plus or minus the number in the corner.  So if the card is a 4 with a +/-2 in the corner, you can play either a 2 or a 6.  First player to get rid of all of their cards wins so doing quick math in your head is the only way to win this game!

7 Ate 9 stats:
$9 Amazon, ToysRUs.com, FunAgain Games and many others
2 -4 players
10 minutes
Ages 8 and up

Math Dice, ThinkFun

Unlike the last two games, Math Dice requires more advanced math including multiplication.  You start by rolling two 12-sided dice and multiply the numbers to get your target number.  Then you roll the three 6-sided dice and use those numbers to create an equation that gets you as close as possible to the target number.  So if the target number is 36 and you roll a 2, 3, and a 5 you can get 3*5*2 = 30 or if you’re ready to use roots and squares you can use: 2 to the 5th power + 3 = 35.  Now with a name like Math Dice you’re not going to be fooling anyone about what they’re learning, but it’s definitely fun, challenging head-math – if you’re ready for it!

Math Dice stats:
$6 Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many others
1 or more players
5+ minutes (depends on how you play)
Ages 8 and up

Two weeks ago I ranted about two player games and while I have no intention of revisiting that rant for more than a sentence or two, I should mention that if you would like to read it you can HERE.  In the article I lamented that some games that say they are intended for 2 players (or more), but they really shouldn’t say that.  This week’s game is a GREAT 2 or more player game, and I think I like it best with 2 people.  Definitely an exception to my rant!

Smart Mouth is a word game from ThinkFun that has been on the market for quite a while; long enough to get a box redesign and some new game play a year or two ago.   The game revolves around the same plastic sliding “letter getter” centerpiece that’s used in ZINGO (read review HERE).  I mentioned it in the ZINGO review, and I’ll mention it again: I love the “letter getter” or as I call it “the chook chook machine” – it’s really satisfying to use!  Like the old credit card machines you move it forward and back and 2 new letter tiles appear.

When you get these letter tiles, players try to come up with a word that starts with the letter on the left and ends with the letter on the right.  So in the picture above I might say BOOK or BIRTHMARK. If I were the first to answer, I would get to collect the B and K tile.  Now, that was the premise of the old game (and the one I still play most often over a drink or two), but the new game has a die that gives you categories and more than one player can score per round.  In the new game, the die is rolled to select one of these categories: Adjective, Famous People, Verb, Natural Object, Man Made Object, or Free Play.  Then the “letter getter” gets some letters and the first player to yell out a word within the category that either uses the two letters as “bookends” (like the old game) like BUTTERMILK or words that have B and K anywhere in them like BROKEN and BARKEEPER .  Which words are acceptable needs to be determined ahead of time and whoever yells an acceptable word first wins the green letter.  Then all players have 60 seconds to come up with the LONGEST word using B and K – again players decide if they are playing only with bookend words or any words including the 2 letters anywhere in the word.

When the “letter getter” is out of letters the game is over and players count up their tiles.  Obviously the winner is the player with the most tiles, and in case of a tie we always toss 2 random letters into the machine and whoever gets a bookend word first wins.

I really enjoy Smart Mouth and have for a long time.  Honestly, I was going to write a review about it years ago but heard about the then-upcoming redesign and I just sort of forgot.  How?  I don’t know…but in a way I feel like I’ve let you, my wonderful readers, down.  Sorry about that.  Will be scouring my collection for other forgotten goodies!

I should also mention that Smart Mouth was invented by the Coster family (Ora, Theo and their sons Boaz and Gideon).  Their company, Theora Design is also responsible for Hasbro’s classic Guess Who? along with a couple other titles from ThinkFun like What’s Gnu, ZINGO and Snack Attack.  Amazingly, Theo and Ora have been in the inventing biz for more than 40 years… quite impressive!

Smart Mouth stats:
$20 Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ToysRUs.com, and many others
2 or more players
10-40 minutes (depending on HOW you play)
Ages 8 and up

There are all sorts of great design quotes out there – but the one that really stuck out when I saw the packaging for BBQ Blitz was, “Design must seduce, shape and more importantly evoke an emotional response.”  Yea…I wanted…I mean REALLY wanted to be a kid again when I saw this box.  Often I can appreciate games for their great design, but not often have I had the intense yearning to be a child again so my 5-year-old self could enjoy a product.  BBQ Blitz’s definitely seduced me into tearing open the box, and let me tell you, I was definitely not let down when I saw what was inside.

BBQ Blitz is a beautifully balanced mixture of food play and game.  Each player gets spatula and a paper plate depicting 4 bottom buns.  The bottom of the box is decorated like a grill and all plastic mini-burger patties and buns are placed face down on the “grill.”  Players race to flip burgers to find the ones that have the topping that matches the ones on their paper plates and when they find one they must transport them on their spatula to their plate.  First player to find all of their burger patties and top them with buns is the winner!

Yes this is simple matching game play that kind of feels like games I’ve played before, but I really believe that the design has elevated this game to a wonderful place.  The packaging is amazing, and I love the incorporation of plastic food.  And lastly, the all-play frenzied-ness of the game makes BBQ Blitz a winner in my book.  Only downside… the box is a little big, but really it’s just about the size of a small grill so it makes sense!

BBQ Blitz stats:
$25 Amazon, EducationalInsights.com, and others
2-4 players
~5 minutes
Ages 4 and up

An article I wrote for Global Toy News, you can view the post HERE: 

Last year there was some research that revealed that the average American has only 2.03 good friends despite having hundreds of “friends” on Facebook (see article HERE).  While I don’t know why they it felt necessary to include the .03, what I do know is that 2 is not a very big number.  What this research indicated was that our circle of good friends has been dwindling over the past decades despite the increased online connectivity.  Sure, we play Words With Friends with all sorts of “friends” online, but how many of these people would hang out at your home and play a board game?  Outside of designated “game nights” it can be hard for most adults to wrangle more than a player or two.

In gaming one may be the loneliest number, but two doesn’t feel much better.  Sure there are classics like chess and backgammon and a handful of great new games like City Square Off (Gamewright, see HERE for review) that are intended for 2 players, but how many times have you and a friend played a game that said it was for 2 or more players and found the game was a dud?  There are many games that say “2-X players” but really what they mean is “it’s playable with 2 players, but you need at least 3 to really enjoy it.”

Most seasoned inventors know that 2 player versions of a game can greatly differ from the 3 or more player version of the same game. A great example is the classic card game UNO.  I’ve spent many happy hours playing UNO with family and friends, but most people know that it doesn’t play as well with 2 players.  Skips and Reverses have the same effect on play, and a player with a hand-full of non-number cards can win without much effort.  Whereas, if you have 3 or more players, Reverse and Skip cards no longer give the same result and can be strategically played.  UNO is not the only one.  Through my experience as game reviewer, I’ve seen games where just about every 5^th card is unusable with 2 players, where special rounds need to be omitted, and like UNO, specific portions of the game do not have the same effect on play as it would in a 3+ player game.  In all of these instances I end up recommending that people don’t play particular games unless they have a minimum of 3 players.  But if they don’t have the guidance of a reviewer, will they revisit the game with more players if they have a negative experience with 2?

Now before I end up with a list of great 2 player games in the comments section below, I’d like to reiterate that I’m not saying that all 2-X games are guilty of having sub-par 2-player experiences.  I’m just saying that it’s surprisingly more common than one would think.  Which really makes me wonder why so many boxes say “2-X players” when it’s obvious that playing with 2 and not 3+ diminishes the quality of play.  I’m going to speculate that it’s more appealing to the consumer to know that they are going to buy a game that can be played with 2 players – although they will find out soon enough that just because they can, doesn’t mean they’ll want to.

Going back to the study that shows our average of 2.03 good friends and shrinking circle of friends, does this trend indicate that it’s time for game companies to revisit the playability of the 2-player versions of their “2 or more player” games?  Could more companies consider including alternative directions for more a satisfying 2-player experience?  Whatever the solution, I’d like to be able to say more often “It’s playable and enjoyable with 2 players just as much as it is with 3 or more!”

CONTINUING TREND: Cooperative Games

Peaceable Kingdom’s booth grew this year and includes many more of their signature “cooperative play” games.  I recently reviewed one of their new titles, Feed the Woozle, but their booth was packed with new games like Peggy Brown’s Snug as a Bug in a Rug.  A surprising entry into the cooperative play area is Spin Master with their new family game, Volcano Countdown.

CONTINUING TREND: iPhone/iPad Integration

Not much of a surprise here, but Hasbro really jumped on this bandwagon this year with many new titles requiring the use of Apple products.  The Game of Life zAPPed and Monopoly zAPPed are board games plus an app you need to download onto an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPad.  Battleship zAPPed is similar, but you can only use an iPad to play.  You’ll need your iPhone or iPod Touch and a downloaded app for the new Lazer Tag blaster.  When your iPhone or iPod is inserted it’s a little screen so you can run around, shoot stuff, see it on the screen and the best part (and the part the First Lady will love) you’re not sitting on your couch!

As for technology we’ve already seen, Discovery Bay Games was still showing Duo and Identity Games still had a lot of interested customers looking at Game Changer in their booth.

CONTINUING TREND: Brand Building

Brand extensions and expansion packs were seen in booths of all sizes.  There were new “junior” versions like Spot It Jr. and ThinkFun’s PathWords Jr.  Word on the Street got an expansion pack, while Educational Insights’ Blurt! got a travel tin and   Zobmondo’s Would You Rather got a “Late Night” Edition.  Connect 4 Dunk is one of Hasbro’s many new line extensions and Patch introduced a Farkle card game called Farkle Flip.  And this is really just the tip of the iceberg.

SOMETHING TO WATCH: A Boy/Girl Division at Hasbro

Hasbro’s lineup of children’s game and been gender-ized! (yes, I made that word up)  Classic games like Candy Land, Twister, Clue and Connect 4 have been redesigned to appeal to one gender.  Connect 4 is no longer yellow and blue, now it’s black, gold and red with very masculine packaging.  The Connect 4 line extension, Connect 4 Dunk, will have a basketball themed commercial that will target boys.  Obviously, with the Battleship movie on the horizon, we all know that Battleship is solidly in the boy’s group of game and that will continue, and Clue will join the ranks of boy’s products with this year’s into Clue Eliminiation.  On the other end of the spectrum, Candy Land and Twister are going to be girls’ products.  Candy Land Princesses and a new version of Twister Dance featuring Britney Spears were featured in the Hasbro showroom.

I’ll admit that I’m sad to see Connect 4 go to the boys, but I think it will be interesting to see how gender-izing previously gender neutral games will go.  I believe the idea is to be more successful marketing the product as it’s easier to target girls with girly ads and vice versa.  I think girls will still play with products for boys, but I wonder if boys will be missing out on the opportunity to enjoy classic titles like Twister because they’ll think it’s too “girly.”  Guess we’ll have to wait and see…

TRENDS THAT WE’VE MOVED PAST

Some of trends I saw last year that I didn’t see this year:

1. Tile Placement Games: Last year I felt there were an abundance of tile placement games ala Blokus, but this year the only new tile game I recall seeing was PathWords Jr. from ThinkFun.

2. Letter Games: Games with letter cubes, cards or tiles are introduced pretty regularly, but last year there was a deluge of new letter games like Kabam from Educational Insights and Letter Go!  from ThinkFun (which I don’t believe ever made it to store shelves).  I’m sure there were a handful of new letter games this year, but nowhere near the number I saw last year.

3. In-A-Row Games: Like “letter” games, new takes on “in-a-row” style gaming are always popping up, but again not in the numbers I saw last year.   Even Connect 4‘s new introduction Connect 4 Dunk isn’t about getting 4 in a row, but the first to get a certain number of tokens launched into the vertical token holder.  Guess the launcher portion of Connect 4 Launchers was deemed the successful part of the game!

4. Tiered Games: I saw a bunch of tiered games last year but I don’t recall seeing a single new tiered game this year.  I’m sure I missed the one new one but definitely wasn’t a trend anymore.