If you follow me on twitter you may have seen the tweets from certain twitter folks who might be a bit disgruntled that Santa left a very hard to find copy of King of Tokyo under the tree for me.  As I pointed out to them – and now to you too – if you look to eBay it’s not super hard to find.

The theme of King of Tokyo is really compelling; each player is an enormous monster causing destruction and mayhem while vying to control Tokyo.  Who won’t like a crazy campy monster brawl board game?!  Overall it’s a press-your-luck game where you battle other giant monsters to get into Tokyo and stay there.   Tokyo is on the game board as is Tokyo Bay (but that’s only used for games with 5-6 players).  Each player selects a giant monster mover and takes the matching card that is used to count Victory points and monitor your Life points.  The goal is to reach 20 Victory points before anyone else does – and before you end up with zero Life points.

There are six dice that each have a 1, 2 and 3 which are Victory Points plus three symbols: Energy (thunderbolt), Attack (paw) and Heal (hearts).  On each turn players roll the dice 3 times and keep and re-roll what they want.  At the end of the third roll they “resolve” the dice meaning they have to score any victory points, collect any energy cubes, collect life points and/or attack.  Monsters who aren’t in Tokyo attack the monster only in Tokyo but the monster in Tokyo creates mayhem my attacking EVERYONE!  Energy cubes are used to buy cards, which help you in your journey to conquer Tokyo and your monster adversaries.  It sounds a little complicated, but really isn’t.

The game gets interesting when you have to decide to stay or leave Tokyo because being there can be brutal with attacks coming from every direction, but then it’s pretty fun to be doling out destruction too!  When you decide to abandon ship and leave Tokyo because you’re too wounded to stay, it forces whoever attacked you to enter Tokyo.  The bonus of being in Tokyo is that you receive 2 Victory points every time you start a turn there, so it’s definitely helpful when you’re aiming for 20, the minus is you cannot heal yourself when you’re there even if you roll a heart.

Overall King of Tokyo is a fun game with amazing artwork that will satisfy the gamers and casual gamers in your life.  The one thing I should warn about is that the box says 2-6 players but playing with 2 isn’t anywhere near as interesting – actually I’d call it “clunky” as it just doesn’t play as it should.

King of Tokyo Stats:
~$40 eBay, Specialty Retailers and Amazon.com —> right now it’s hard to find but I know there’s also lots of demand
3-6 players (don’t bother playing with 2)
~20-30 minutes
Ages 8 and Up

Back in the summer of 2009 I wrote an article on one of my FAVORITE dice games: Can’t Stop by Sid Sackson.  In this article I mentioned that I got my copy back in 2007 and it wasn’t going to be the easiest game to find — but good news for all, NOW IT IS!

You can scroll down to read my original review, but before that I’d like to rave about it’s new design.  The new Gryphon Games version is on the right and the older Face2Face games version is on the left in the pictures below. (*there are many older versions of Can’t Stop, this just happens to be my older copy.)

The games looks pretty similar but there are several improvements that I really appreciate.   First and by far the most important, the movers are so much easier to hold.  Maybe it’s the Industrial Designer in me, but the old game’s movers irked me — but since I loved the game so much I overlooked that they were small and really hard to hold.  When I heard that Gryphon Games was redoing Can’t Stop I was praying they redid the movers — and they did!  The new movers are taller and don’t nest as well but that actually makes it easier to see whose piece is stacked underneath. (see picture at the top of the page for the new version, and scroll down to see the old pieces in action.)  I also appreciate the built in cups in the plastic box insert — they’re not necessary, but boy are they handy!  And when you lift the board up the insert has a spot for the dice and the “runners” which is nice too.  Overall, the only negative I could find is that the new version is a tad bit larger box (13×13) — now, in all fairness, it was already a large game box (12×12) so does the extra inch of height and width make a difference?  Not really.  So go, buy, enjoy and win!  (Updated game stats are listed after the 2009 review below.)

My July 2009 Review:

Today’s pick is Can’t Stop by Sid Sackson.  Currently this dice games tops tall the others because I’m just so addicted to it and it’s an oldie but a goodie.  It was originally published in 1980 by Parker Brothers but was reprinted by Face 2 Face games back in 2007 and that’s when I got my copy.

The game is so easy to learn and play.  You’re trying to move your pieces from the bottom of the board to the top in columns numbered 2-12.  There are only 3 spaces in the 2 and 12 columns and 13 in the 7 column and since 7s are the easiest to roll using a pair of standard dice, it makes sense. The board is shaped like a giant stop sign which is a little ugly, but the shape easily lends itself to the bell curve that defines the odds in rolling dice.  So on a turn, you get 4 dice to roll and once rolled, you choose how to pair up the dice so it’s most advantageous to you.  Then you use 3 “runners” to move your pieces up the columns towards the top of the board.  And since there are only 3 runners you can only attempt 3 columns per turn.  The “Can’t Stop” part of the game comes in when you are holding the dice saying “I can roll just one more time, just once more, I can get a 2,7 or 9…then I’ll stop.”  You end up saying the same thing turn after turn until you gain some willpower to actually stop and move your pieces to where your runners are or you bust and don’t roll a 2,7,9 and the runners are removed from the board and without any advancement of your pieces, you pass the four dice to the next player and say “why did I keep going?!”

As the game progresses people who are really lucky or have the “slow and steady” mentality start to close out columns by reaching the top first.  Once a player closes out a pre-determined number of columns they win.  (The number of columns depends on the number of players.)

The thing about this game that I love isn’t that I have to fight my dice addiction to have a chance of winning – no, it’s that there is some luck mixed with a little mental game too.  The question becomes, how far in the lead do I have to be in a column before I should start working in other columns?  It kind of depends on how if your opponents are lucky, but also how gutsy they are.  It really makes me kind of antsy for my turn – and if I lose I want to play again…right away…because I just can’t stop playing.

So I guess Sid Sackson knew what he was doing when he created this game.  Addictive + fun is always a good combination in my mind.  Somewhere I read a quote from Sid that said something like “games should be easy to learn, give lots of strategic possibilities, include interaction amongst players and be played within 90 minutes.”  He had me until the last part.  I hate long games (which is why you won’t find a review for Monopoly on this site).  I think games should be played in 30 minutes or less and then if I have time to play it again, great.  Besides, it keeps people who want…er need… to win interested in the game even if they are getting killed because they know they have a chance of starting over in a couple minutes.  Ha!

So if you can find it get, yourself a copy of Can’t Stop.  It may be a bit of a hunt to find – try little mom & pop online retailers and eBay, though why someone would want to give up their copy of this classic is beyond me.  Maybe they don’t know what kind of fun they’re missing.

UPDATED Can’t Stop stats:
~$30 Amazon, FunAgain Games, some mom & pop stores
2-4 players
~15-30 minutes
Ages 7 and up (but I think the box says 9)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a big fan of dice games.  Therefore, when I saw Farkle Frenzy at the Patch booth at Toy Fair I was excited to get my hands on a copy!  (It was mentioned in my 2011 Toy Fair article, part 2.  See HERE) This time it wasn’t just because it’s a dice game that looks fun, but because it took away one of the things I dislike about classic Farkle – the waiting.  You see, Farkle Frenzy is an all-play game, so you no longer have time to get the mail and grab a Coke before it’s your turn again and I really like that.

If you know how to play classic Farkle getting started playing Farkle Frenzy is going to be a snap.  If you don’t know how to play classic Farkle, the instructions are at the beginning of the Farkle Frenzy instructions and it might be advantageous to walk through a round without using the tower before you get started because the game can get a little crazy!

As many of you know, Farkle is a game played with 6 dice and in Farkle Frenzy everyone shares the sixth die.  So each player has 5 dice in their hands, a stairway with 5 spaces in front of them that leads up to the communal 6^th die at the top of the pyramid.  To start the round, one player pushes the bubble at the top down into the pyramid and it does this fun multi-pop action back up to the top.  If die shows a 5, 1, 2x everyone starts rolling their dice right away.  If the communal die shows a Wild, the player who “popped” the 6^th die rolls once and picks which number (1-6) will be the wild and then everyone else starts.

Every die a player wants to keep is placed in a stairway step starting at the bottom and play is just like regular Farkle, like I can only keep three 6s if I roll them all at once.  If I roll two 5s and the communal die is a 5 that’s 500 points!  I’ll admit that there was a bit of confusion regarding when to use a communal 1, 5 or wild # – was it anytime during your rolls to get to the top of the stairway or on your first roll only?  We decided you could use it once anytime on your way up to the top of the pyramid, but it can’t be used to save you from “Farkleing” (aka “going bust” because you didn’t roll a die you could keep).

The round ends when all players decide to stop and keep their points, when everyone Farkles, or when one player reaches the top of the pyramid and yells STOP!  If a player makes it to the top and yells STOP! everyone must stop rolling and only the player with all of their dice nestled in the stairwell gets to decide if they want to take all of their dice and reroll them – which means they would get to use a communal 1, 5 or wild # again.  When the round ends, all points are totaled up and the game is over when one player reaches 10,000 points.

Now, because I’m a fan of making a game fit your group we made a few changes along the way.  We didn’t bother with yelling out STOP!, instead we allowed players to keep going if they could.  We did make them jot down their score at the end of the each trip up the pyramid just because it was so easy to forget!

Overall the game was a blast (even though I lost A LOT).  A couple people commented that they missed a 6^th die when the communal die was a 2x – but they were getting double points so really, what’s to complain about?!

Farkle Frenzy Stats:

• ~$18 Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, FunagainGames.com, and FatBrainToys.com
• 2-4 players
• ~15 min.
• Ages 8 and up

I’ve come to realize that either you like speed games or you don’t – which is similar to people who like games that require great fine motor skills like Jenga or Topple.  You’re either good at them and you like them or you stink and you probably hide when someone suggests playing one. (go figure, no one likes losing) Well, in general I like speed games – but I LOVE dice speed games.  It goes back to that little dice addiction I have.  (Read: “I LOVE Dice Games” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) So Ligretto Dice definitely gets a thumbs up from me!

You may have heard of Ligretto as it’s a pretty popular card game (and also called Dutch Blitz) but the dice version isn’t quite as popular (but it’s also newer – 2009 versus 1988).  But it doesn’t really matter because you don’t need to know anything about the card game to enjoy the dice game!  The game is simple, all 24 dice are put in the black bag and each player blindly draws a set number of dice.  (12 for a 2-player game, 8 for a 3-player game, etc.)  The dice go in your cup and when someone yells Ligretto! (or in my world Go!) everyone starts frantically rolling.  The goal is to be the first to get rid of all of your dice and you get rid of dice by placing them on the matching spot on the board.  There are 4 rows (1 for each color die) and there are spaces showing dice numbered 1-6 in each row and you can’t put your yellow 2 down until someone has placed a yellow 1 and you can’t place a red 4 until there’s a red 1, 2, and 3 on the board.  Got it?  So once you’ve placed all of the dice on the board that you can, you put the remaining dice back in the cup – including your yellow 2 — and keep rolling.

All of the players are going to be frantically rolling & placing dice, which makes the game a bit chaotic, but it’s also extremely quick.  So if you were bested in the first game – go ahead and play a second since you probably have time.  There is also a scoring system if you plan on playing a bunch rounds or you’re just that competitive.

Ligretto Dice Stats:

• ~$15 Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, AreYouGame.com, FunAgainGames.com, some mom & pop retailers
• 2-4 players
• ~3-20 minutes depends on if you are using the games scoring or just playing a couple rounds
• Ages 8 and up (although I’d say 6 and up)

**Like this and want to find out about other speed games? Click the SPEED GAME in the tag cloud to your right.

It’s officially the first day of fall.  I don’t have any idea where my summer went, but it’s indoor volleyball season again so I’m not too upset.  And for some unknown reason, I play volleyball with a lot of teachers and on numerous occasions I’ve suggested games to use in their classroom.  I try to pick games that I think are fun but have some element of learning in it – but really, I think any game that forces you to think ahead a turn or two can provide an extremely valuable life lesson, but I’m pretty sure that they need to validate their game-playing with a stronger argument than that.  My most recent educational find is A-BEE-C Match Game, invented by Matt Nuccio for Endless Games.

A-BEE-C is a dice and matching game for kids who are old enough to know not to swallow dice, but are still mastering letter recognition, reading and spelling.  There are 22 letter dice in the game and a bunch of cards with 3-letter words.  Make 2 teams, give them each half the dice and then lay three cards out.  One team uses the bee cup to roll their dice and using the letters rolled, they start to spell out the word/item on each card.  If they can spell the whole word they get to keep the card, if not the other team rolls their dice and tries to complete the word and capture the card.  Personally I like that it isn’t just about matching but it’s also got that “am I going to have a lucky roll?” feel to it.  First team to collect 7 cards wins.  To make it a little more challenging, use post-its to cover up the written word on the cards to make it more of a spelling game and less of a letter-recognition game.

Now, because this isn’t an article for Games for Educators (which I also write for), I asked Matt Nuccio how he came up with the game.  His PG-13ish answer:

“I was sitting in a bar downing Ketel drinks with [Brian Turtle, of Endless Games], when it crossed my mind that we might be able to make a game by capitalizing on this literacy thing that’s become a fad around world because of that Gutenberg dude…not the “Hey Mahoney” Police Academy Gutenberg, but the Johannes Gutenberg printing press German inventor guy. Anyway, the next thing I remember I woke up the next morning in an alley wearing a yellow and black striped shirt that read “just BEE you”, dice in my hand, and a cocktail napkin with the instructions written on it. I look over at Brain and he had poorly painted his flask to look like a bumble bee.”

Doubt it’s the truth – but I like it.  If inventing was only that easy!

A-BEE-C Match Game Stats:
~$14.99 at Creative Kidstuff, Boscovs and mom & pop shops
2 or more players, always played in 2 teams
Time needed to play really depends on the skills of the players
Ages 5 and Up

If I bought every game I thought looked cool, I’d be broke.  No really, my “to buy” list is very, very long.  Lucky me I got a freebie version of the game Q-bitz and I LOVE IT!  Why I waited when I knew it was a Peggy Brown game is somewhat perplexing me right now, but hindsight is 20/20 right?

Peggy is an inventor chum of mine and so I asked her to tell me a little about how she came up with the game.  She was also nice enough to share a picture of her Q-bitz prototype and inventor “sell sheet” which provides a great glimpse into the inventor side of this game! (Click to enlarge the sell sheet below.)

“Q-bitz is the game I wish I would have had as a kid. That’s where it came from. I wanted to make something fun based on graphic images – not recognizable graphics like logos or typefaces, but on some kind of graphic fine art. I also wanted to level the playing field between brainiacs and regular folks, and between people who could and couldn’t draw. I thought if I started with a few simple graphic elements, black and white squares, a black dot on white, a white dot on black, black and white triangles… these elements could be combined in a limitless number of ways to make graphic art in it’s purest form. Putting these images on cubes rather than on tiles was kind of a logical evolutionary step, and it turned out to be a pretty elegant way for players to make these little works of art, without having to think really hard, and without having to draw. All the cubes are identical, so you know that no matter which one you pick up, it’ll fit in any spot on your tray… all you have to do is orient it a certain way. And I secretly loved making up all the different “works of art” on the cards… by the way, I just got to make 120 new cards for a booster pack, and was so excited to do it, I couldn’t stop ’til they were all done! The rules are simple – in fact, you barely have to read them. Just use your cubes to recreate the image on the card. That’s it. It’s almost a toy with rules. I’ve watched kids whomp their parents, (which is what an overgrown kid/game designer like me lives for), and I’ve watched people who generally don’t excel at other kinds of games, like word games or strategy, go nuts over Q-bitz because they can really compete, and even win! Sometimes, from a game designer’s perspective, it takes so much time and gnashing of teeth to get a game over all the hurdles on its way to market, I’m kinda tired of it when it finally comes out. Not true with Q-bitz. I could still play it ever day!”

And I agree with Peggy, I could play it ever day too.

There are three mini-games in Q-bitz.  One you race to get your cubes into your tray so they match the card.  In the second game you do the same thing but you have to roll the cubes.  You may use any cubes you’ve rolled and you can roll again and again until you’ve completed your image. The last game I’m terrible at – no really, HORRIBLE.  You get 10 seconds to study the card then it’s flipped over and you have to put your cubes into the pattern you just saw.  I can’t win this game to save my life, but I still have a great time trying!

Q-Bitz Stats:
~$25 at Amazon, Mindware.com
1-4 players
1-3 minutes per round
Ages 8 and up (some younger kids might enjoy it too)

Not far from my house there is a dive bar, with scary red lighting that hosts bingo on Monday nights.  It’s really not all that exciting; you win a brown paper lunch bag filled with random odd items.  I was lucky enough to win the first round Monday night and my winnings included some Cheez-It snacks, baby food, a bunny sucker and Chicklets.  By the end of the night our table had a skull candle, a bible card game and three colors of “fun dough.”  But before the bingo festivities began, we played quite a few rounds of the classic, but somehow not super well known, game Shut The Box.

Surprising to me, no one at my table had ever played Shut The Box before but by the end of the night everyone was addicted.  There are lots of variations of this game but traditionally it’s a box with tiles numbered 1-9 that you can flip forward and backward, which allows players to “check them off” as they use them.  The game is simple; you roll two standard dice and total them up.  Then you flip forward any available tile combination that equals the number you rolled.  So if you roll an 11 and it’s your first turn, you can flip forward a 9 and a 2 or a 1, 4 and 6.  It’s totally up to you, but once you flip forward a number you can’t use it again.  Your turn ends when you roll and you don’t have the right combination of tiles to equal your dice total.   You get your score for the round by totaling up the unused tiles.

There are a couple ways to score.  We played that whoever had the lowest number each round got one point.  You can then play until someone reaches a certain number of wins or until you run out of time.  Keeping a running tally of each player’s actual score is another way to play, just make sure you have a pencil and paper handy.  Play a certain number of rounds or until one player reaches a set number, and then the player with the lowest score is the winner.

Other versions of the game include boxes with tiles numbered 1-10 or 1-12.  There are also 2-player versions and 4-player versions.  Blue Orange games also has a game called Double Shutter that has two levels of tiles numbered 1-9 so you can flip two 5s if you roll a 10.  I also own a dice game named The Game of Chips by Jax that is essentially Shut The Box, with no box.  It uses poker chips numbered 1-10 and you flip them over as you use them.  This is a great low-priced travel alternative; it comes in a nice fabric pouch and can be purchased for ~$5.

Fun bit of trivia for you too, there was a TV show back in the mid-1970s called High Roller that was based on the game Shut The Box.  It was hosted by Alex Trebek and players answered “toss up” questions to gain control of the dice and the option of rolling or passing to their opponent.  It was on for a couple years and then again in the late 80s with Wink Martindale, but the new show wasn’t as successful.

Shut The Box stats:
$15 – $65+ at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us,  some mass market retailers, specialty retailers
Shown at top: Melissa & Doug Shut The Box retails for ~$19-$25
Article preview: Front Porch Classics Shut the Box Signature Edition retails for ~$45-$53
1 or more players
Any amount of time
Ages 6 and up

Double Shutter stats:
~$19 at Amazon.com, Toys ‘R Us, Target, specialty retailers
1 or more players
Any amount of time
Ages 8 and up (it’s a bit more complex)

The Game of Chips stats:
~$5 Amazon.com, online game retailers, some specialty stores
1 or more players
Any amount of time, ~15 if you play by their rules
Ages 6 and up

In EXCAPE each player has 2 special EXCAPE dice and a matching X-shaped mover.  While the goal of the game, getting your mover from start to finish, is pretty standard, how you get your piece to move is the fun part.  The EXCAPE dice are unique because each die has a 1, 2, 3 and X but then one die has 4 and 7 and the other 5 and 6.  On each turn, players try to get the highest number when the two dice are combined.  So if you roll a 4 and a 3 you’ve rolled a “43.”  Easy, right?  Once you’ve rolled you can either re-roll for a higher number OR you place your dice on the board (which I’ll get to in a second).  76 is the highest number possible and the Xs count as zeros on your first roll only.  If you roll and X after your first roll, you have to move your mover back one space and you’re turn is over so you don’t get to place your dice on the board.

Placing your dice on the board is how you get your mover to advance towards “finish.”  In the center of the board, there are spaces numbered 0-5 and if you’re dice stay on one of those spaces until your next turn, you get to advance your mover that number.  On your turn, you can place your dice on any one of those spaces provided your dice total isn’t less than a dice pair on a lower numbered space.  So if there is a 65 on space 2, you can’t place your 43 above it on space 3.  If, however, there is a 32 on space 4 and you place your 43 on the space below them, you get to remove those dice from the board because they are lower than you.  See how keeping your dice on the board can be somewhat of a challenge?  The dice placing requires a bit of strategy because you want to remove other players so you may choose a lower number, but you also need to advance your mover so you may what to leave your opponents on the board and go for the 5!

There are also a couple of fun catch up factors in EXCAPE like if you roll doubles (1, 2 or 3) you get to move that number of spaces forward automatically.  If you roll double Xs on your first roll, you wipe everyone from the centerboard and can place your dice wherever you choose.  If you roll two Xs after that, your mover goes back two spaces.  Ouch!

This is a great add to any dice-addict’s collection.  It’s not going to be easy to find, because it’s not published here in the US, but I was able to find my copy at Amazon.com.  (Don’t worry, the directions are in English.)  You can also look for it under the name “EXXTRA” but the box art isn’t quite as nice.

*Board Games With Scott is a great site because it has videos explaining how to play the games, but he focuses mostly on “German style” games (which typically take longer than the games reviewed at The Game Aisle).  Unfortunately Scott is currently on a hiatus and isn’t reviewing new games.

EXCAPE Stats:
~$25 at Amazon.com, Fun Again Games and possibly specialty retailers
3-6 Players (for 3 players you may want to omit center space 5)
10-30 Minutes (dependent on number of players)
Ages 8 and up

Like I said, backgammon is old.  Some estimate that it’s has been around close to 5000 years – at least in some form.  It has evolved over time, but by the early in the fourteenth century it looked much as it does today.  Check out this illustration from the Codex Manesse (at left, c. 1304).  The codex is a small illuminated manuscript of love poetry that was made in Zurich for the wealthy Manesse family and that looks identical to the backgammon sets of today!

Between the twelfth century and the sixteenth century views on backgammon changed a bit – in fact, the church even tried to ban the game a couple times.   (How many games can say that?!)  The last attempt was in the early sixteenth century right about the time Hieronymus Bosch completed his work, “The Garden of Earthy Delights. ” (at right, c. 1503)  If youlook at the right panel of the triptych, it depicts hell (whereas the left panel is heaven and the center is Earth – click to enlarge).   This right panel is brimming with people who have succumbed to temptations – like backgammon — and are facing eternal damnation for it.  You can see the backgammon board in the lower left corner of the panel being held up by some crazy looking creature. (below at right, click to enlarge)  It is similarly used in “The Triumph of Death” By Pieter Bruegel the Elder (below left, click to enlarge).   The board is in the lower right corner of the painting and it looks like a jester is stepping over it to hide under a table from the legions of dead that have invaded.

So it hasn’t always been an easy road for backgammon, but yet the game survived.  Guess that says something aboutits playability!

In much more modern times it came back into favor when Hugh Hefner started holding backgammon parties at the Playboy Mansion in the late 1960s and 70s.  (It’s rumored that Lucille Ball was a huge fan!) And actually there is a book called Playboy’s Book of Backgammon with the forward written by Hugh Hefner and backgammon was featured in the magazine from time to time.

But really, you don’t need a book to learn to play backgammon.  The game is simple, each player has fifteen “checkers” (also called “tokens,” “chips,” “pawns” and a ton of other things…) and the goal is to get all of their pieces back into their side of the board and then to remove them from the board.  To start, pieces are setup laid out in a specific form on the board and each player will be moving their checkers in a u-shape in the opposite direction of each other.  Using 2 dice, players roll and may move 1 or 2 checkers the numbers shown on the dice.  Rolling doubles gets you twice the amount shown on the dice!  You can’t land on a space occupied by 2 or more of your opponents checkers – but if there’s only one, you can land on them and move them to the “bar” which essentially means they are starting over from the section of the board furthest from their finish.   Once you successfully move all of your pieces into the area of the board closest to your finish, you can start to remove your pieces from the board.  This is called “bearing off” and it’s like the final race to the finish!

Games can be quick and fast – so unlike chess, there’s not a lot of mulling over your move.  There are also ways to bet and use a “doubling cube” to increase the dimensions of the game, but it’s not necessary to enjoy the game.  You also don’t need a fancy set to play.  If you have a set of checkers – or two colors of poker chips, you can draw your own board on a sheet of paper.  Sounds really low budget, but it’s how it was played during medieval times.  Players would have dice (made of bone) and stones and they’d draw a board in the dirt.  Guess you could call that the first “travel” version of the game!

Backgammon Stats:
From dirt cheap to very expensive
2 players
~5-15 minutes
Ages 8 and up

A while back I wrote an article about taking games with you when you travel (see here) and Nate Scheidler, Organizer of Chicago Boardgames Meetup Group, said that he packs a game called Pickomino.  Well, at the time I’d never played Pickomino and although I’d heard of it, I hadn’t heard anything about it.  This is really the reason I started The Game Aisle; I know how hard it is to decide which game to purchase when all you’ve got to go on is the box art.  So when a game junkie like Nate says that he takes Pickomino with him on a trip where he may be stuck playing it over and over, I took that as a pretty good sign.  Now I just had to get my hands on a copy!

Pickomino is a dice and tile game published by Rio Grande Games here in the US which has a knack for finding great German-style family strategy games and publishing them in English for the game-loving American public.  They work closely with the German publishers to ensure the essence of the game is carefully translated into English and have produce such games as Puerto Rico, Carcassonne and Lost Cities.  Haven’t heard of these?  You’ll probably only find them in specialty game stores or on the game shelf of your true “gamer” friends.  Personally, I’m not a huge fan of city building, area control or abstract strategy games and my attention usually wanes after about 20 minutes of playing a game so I’m not a big purchaser of Rio Grande Games (although I have a great deal of respect for what they do).  And from people who like these kinds of games – I hear that Puerto Rico and Lost Cities are AMAZING.  Just FYI.

Back to Pickomino, I don’t feel that it is a typical Rio Grande game EXCEPT its inventor is the prolific German game inventor Reiner Knizia (he also invented Easy Come, Easy Go).  And he’s done a great job of adding in a little strategy and some interesting twists to a familiar-feeling dice game.  The goal of Pickomino is to collect as many roast worms as possible (apparently they are all the rage amongst the chickens).  You do this by rolling eight dice and collecting the highest possible point total — without busting.  The eight dice are numbered 1-5 plus one red worm, which is worth five points.  You bust when you’ve used up all the dice and haven’t rolled at least one worm or you don’t roll any new numbers on your turn.  If you don’t bust on your turn, you collect the tile that is the same number, or the next available one down, from the total you’ve rolled.  (If you don’t roll a high enough number for an available tile, this is also considered a bust.)  The tile will have 1-4 worms on it and the winner is whoever has collected the most worms on their tiles at the end of the game!  There’s also a little bit of stealing and you have to return worms if you bust so there’s a bit going on but it’s easy to grasp and explain to others once you’ve sifted through the directions – which took us two reads, but was well worth the effort.

Ironically, I like this game but I’m terrible at it.  I have the worst rolling luck – yet with it’s great catch-up factor I was able to come back from a 12 worms deficit to win last night!  A little stellar rolling by me and some poor rolling by my opponent and I was back in the game!

The Game Aisle game testers found Pickomino fun with 2 players as well as 4-5 (we didn’t try more than that).   There is a bit of adding so this is a great game to play with kids so they learn quick addition without the assistance of their iPhone’s calculator function!

Pickomino Stats:
~$20-$25 at Amazon.com and specialty game retailers
2 – 7 Players
15-30 Minutes
Ages 8 and up