I think that games should look fun to play.  It’s much easier to convince a newbie to play a game if looks fun – granted it should also be fun, but I think that almost goes without saying.

Today’s game review is on Gobblet Gobblers.  It’s the colorful, cute version of the abstract strategy game Gobblet which has been a success for Blue Orange games for a couple of years now.  Invented by Blue Orange’s founder Thierry Denoual, the game is easy to play and learn but takes a bit of time to master. The wooden game consists of 6 (2 small, 2 medium and 2 large) blue Gobblers, 6 orange Gobblers and a playing grid.  On each turn a player can place a Gobbler in a space or move a Gobbler to another space and larger Gobblers can cover up either player’s smaller Gobblers.  A player wins when they get three in a row; it’s simple enough!

Gobblet Gobblers is really like an addictive and more complex game of tic-tac-toe.  You need to think about moves ahead but also remember what’s hiding underneath each of the Gobblers.  At the beginning you will make some stupid moves but the learning curve is very quick so you won’t have that “wow am I dumb” feeling for more than a game or two.  And trust me, that feeling just makes you want to have an immediate rematch, and since the games only take about 2-5 minutes each it’s easy to demand one – or six.

Because it is an offshoot of the schoolroom classic tic-tac-toe, it’s great for kids and parents to play together.  The manufacturer says it’s for ages 5 and up and while I didn’t test it with a kid that young, I’m pretty certain that a 5 year old would enjoy it – especially with the cute faces and funny felt hair that makes Gobblet Gobblers so much cuter than it’s parent game Gobblet.

Gobblet Gobblers Stats:
~$19 at Target, Borders, Amazon.com, local Mom & Pop stores
2 Players
2-5 Minutes
Ages 5 and up

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve got a degree in industrial design and ending up in the game industry was somewhat a fluke.  I needed a job, they were the only ones hiring after 9/11 so voilà -  “toy/game inventor Kim.”

Now if you don’t know what an industrial designer is, consider what a graphic designer does for 2D designs; industrial designers do that for 3D products like cars, electronics, household goods, furniture and the list goes on.  Essentially it means that I have a weakness for beautifully designed products.  And the sad truth is that I don’t come across much in the game aisle that makes me drool, so when I opened the Pentago box it was like I could hear the design angels singing.  It’s BEAUTIFUL.

I purchased mine at Target so it’s the plastic version of the game (as seen in the photo here).  I know there are wooden versions but I am so satisfied/enamored with my mass-market copy.  The plastic feels nice, the moving parts are smooth, the marbles are real marbles – not cheap plastic things.  It’s so amazing that I’ve been raving about it since I opened the box.

The game is simple: you need to get 5 of your colored marbles in a row.  The catch is, on each turn you must place a marble on the board (or move a marble) AND rotate one of the quadrants ninety degrees.  The movement of the quadrants is so fluid.  It slides out and rotate with such ease I had to stop the first game we played to take a closer look at it’s manufacturing.  And then to boot it comes with a nice plastic clip on cover that holds the marbles in place if you decide to drag it with you somewhere and don’t want the fuss of a big box.

The game itself definitely falls into the “abstract strategy” category, but it’s so simple to learn and satisfying to play that it’s really enjoyable.  It was invented by Tomas Flodén in Sweden and in 2006 it received the Mensa Select Award, but don’t let that deter you non-strategy game people from trying this one out.

As a side note here – Pentago has been around for a little while (2004-ish) but just showed up in my Target now.  It’s been on my “to purchase list” but as I am not a huge fan of abstract strategy games it wasn’t purchased until I saw it on the shelf there and I felt guilty that it was not already in my collection.  Points to the Target game buyer for snatching this one up; it’s not often that we see something like this amongst the boxes and boxes Twister, Clue and Monopoly games but it truly is a treasure.

Pentago Stats:
~$20 at Target, Amazon.com
2 Players
3-30 Minutes (30 minutes seems really high…but this is what it said on the box.  None of my games have been anywhere near that long, but I’m still working on mastering this game.)
Ages 6 and up