Is it me or is Easter REALLY close to Mother’s Day this year?  And because they’re so close you really can’t get your mother flowers and candy since the Easter Bunny delivered those two weeks ago.  So what are you going to do?!  Sounds like the perfect time to give Think Fun’s Chocolate Fix!

I know – a lot of you out there don’t consider 1-player puzzle things “games” but we’re going to ignore that just like we did for the Rush Hour and Solitaire Chess reviews.

Chocolate Fix has been out for a little while, but the folks at Think Fun just issued all new puzzles so it seems like a good time to do this review.  (Side note: you can tell the new ones because they have the blue chocolates, not the pink ones) The game is well loved by many because it’s so easy to jump right into a challenge when you’ve got some spare minutes.  The challenges are bound in a cute little spiral notebook and they give you hints on where to put the chocolates so the right color and shape end up in the correct position.  Sometimes the hint will say what color needs to go in a particular spot, sometimes it only gives you the shape.  Other hints may tell you what colors or shapes go near each other.  You can see an example of what this looks like in the pic at the right.  It may look a wee bit complicated but you will pick it up really quickly.  For example – look at #5; this means that you will need to have a pink, dark chocolate and light chocolate in one of the three rows in that order.  And #7 tells you that in the upper right hand corner it will DEFINITELY be a triangular dark chocolate.  So from #7 you now know that the row shown in #5 is NOT the top row.  Get it?  You will.

Like all Think Fun puzzles, Chocolate Fix comes with challenges that range from “a monkey-can-do-it” easy to my “brain’s-really-flexing” hard.  And it all fits neatly into a little nylon bag for easy travel and storage.  It’s cute, it’s sweet and Mom will thank you for not breaking her diet!

Chocolate Fix Stats:

• ~$18 Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and pretty much any store that sells Think Fun products (*It’s $14 right now at Amazon!)
• 1 player
• as long as you’d like to spend playing it!
• Ages 8 and up

I mentioned the ThinkFun game Solitaire Chess in my 2010 Picks article and said I needed to play it some more.  Well I got to play it some more during the holidays and I really enjoy it….to the point I leave it on my desk in case I have some down time.  (which I don’t ever, but it motivates me to try to make some!)  Before I tell you about Solitaire Chess, we’re going to do a little flashback to the late 1980s…

When I was in grammar school I was lucky enough to be pulled out of class a couple times a week and put into what my school called “challenge.”  We played board games, did logic puzzles, played with tangrams, learned advanced problem solving techniques.  At the time I truly had no idea why I was being pulled out of class and to this day I’m convinced it was just so I didn’t end up totally disenchanted with school because I was unhappy or bored when I wasn’t in “challenge.”  Maybe this is why I invent games, regardless I think that veering away from the traditional math/English/social studies/science made my school experience far more enjoyable and I wish every kid got a “brain recess” a couple times a week!

Sadly, most schools out there that don’t have anything similar to a “challenge” program but I think every kid — and adult — should get a “Brain Recess.”  I guess I should specify that “Brain Recess” is not when students’ brains take a time out – we have TV for that – instead it’s when students get a break from the math equations and science terms that they are bombarded with all day and have the opportunity to let their brains play!  Luckliy, there are plenty of products out on the market today that can be fun, challenging and can be enjoyed solo.  Personally, I’m a fan of tangrams, pentominoes, logic grid puzzles, edge-matching puzzles and of course products that come from ThinkFun (which was called “Binary Arts” back when I was a kid!).  They have the fantastic Rush Hour puzzle series which has been out since 1996  (read my review of that HERE) and now I’m totally geeked about their newest puzzle product, Solitaire Chess!

I’ll admit I’m not a huge chess player, mostly because I don’t have the time to play and study it enough to be a decent player, but I love the idea that different pieces can move in different ways and this is what Solitaire Chess capitolizes on.  It’s a logic puzzle with 60 challenge cards that dictate which of the pieces you’ll be using and where they go on the 4×4 grid.  Then it’s up to you to find out how to knock off all of the pieces so only one piece remains on the board (you must knock a piece off every move you make).  If you get stuck there’s a booklet that will give you hints like which piece should remain on the board and which is the first piece you should move, so it’s not horrible to people who give up easily when they’re stuck.  I’ve really enjoyed playing with my copy of Solitaire Chess and I think it would have been something we would have had in our “challenge” room if it existed in the mid-80s.

Last Thursday the folks at ThinkFun released the Solitaire Chess app!  (awesome)  Try it now:

And a funny video about Solitaire Chess…(not by me.)

Solitaire Chess Stats:

$17-$20 at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Fat Brain Toys, and mom & pop stores
1 Player
How long do you want to play for?
Ages 8 and up

]]> http://www.thegameaisle.com/solitaire-chess/feed/ 9 http://www.thegameaisle.com/rush-hour/ http://www.thegameaisle.com/rush-hour/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:15:33 +0000 Kim Vandenbroucke http://www.thegameaisle.com/?p=839 Ever have one of those Christmases where someone gives you something you don’t want – like a terrible cold?  That was my Christmas this year.  I spend a chunk of time on my couch trying to get into the holiday spirit but really I just kept the tissue companies in business.  One good thing came out of all of this – I got to play a lot of ThinkFun’s Rush Hour.  Now I know in the past I’ve said that one-player products aren’t games and this is a game review website, but I’m going to make an exception for this one because I like it so much.

Rush Hour is a great brain-teaser/puzzle.   The game consists of 15 cars and trucks that block your little red “fancy” car from getting off the grid.  To play you select one challenge card and set up a little traffic jam.  The goal is for you to get your car off the grid and it may take quite a bit of shuffling the other cars back and forth to make this happen.  The puzzles range from very easy to pretty challenging and the folks at ThinkFun were kind enough to include answers on the back of each card in case you are stumped.  There are also add-on packs that come with new cars, like a white stretched limo and a yellow taxi, that create all new puzzles so you have something to tackle after you’ve managed to conquer the forty it comes with!

Since it was released in 1996 more than 5 million copies of Rush Hour have been sold and it can be purchased in 32 countries! Rush Hour is used in schools to teach kids critical thinking skills including problem solving and strategy and this February ThinkFun is planning another Rush Hour iPhone Contest in which they will donate copies of Rush Hour to needy schools in the winner’s name!  (for more info: click here)

Rush Hour was invented by Nob Yoshigahara, a famous Japanese puzzle inventor who brought the concept to ThinkFun (then Binary Arts) back in 1995.  At the time is was called “Tokyo Parking” and instead of being a traffic jam, it was a hellish parking lot.  (Frankly, those seem pretty similar to me living in Chicago – our expressways at rush hour always look like one long parking lot!)  Anyway, ThinkFun improved upon Nob’s concept by placing it in a nice grid with cars that easily slid back and forth.  They also changed the name from Tokyo Parking to Rush Hour and insisted on keeping the message positive.  Instead of being angry at the terrible parking skills of the other cars, players see getting out of the tangled mess of rush hour traffic a challenge.  And with some of the more difficult cards – it really is!

In addition to the physical Rush Hour game, if you own an iPhone you can get the Rush Hour app that was released right before Christmas.  For less than a buck you can get over 2500 puzzles!  Quite a deal.  (And don’t be fooled by any of the similar apps – you really want the official Rush Hour one!)

So despite not really being a “game” this puzzle gets high marks with the game testers here at The Game Aisle.  It’s a great product to enjoy when no one wants to play any games against you!

Rush Hour Stats:
$15-$25 at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Target.com, and many more.  Other versions like a Railroad, Safari and Junior are available.  Add-on packs will run you about $8 for 1 new car and 40 new challenges.
1 Player
Time depends on level and skill
Ages 8 and up