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

A friend of mine was over recently and asked if I could recommend a card game that’s “like UNO, but not UNO, but is easy for non-game people to get, like UNO — oh and it also has to be fun for two players.”  Huh.  So we headed up to my hallway of games and I started pulling products out for him to look at.  He really wanted something simple, fun and that takes 2 seconds to learn.  Something “familiar.”

The game that really resounded with him was Ratuki by USAOPOLY.  This game has been through testing several times and has made it to my list of games to review, but it kept getting pushed down the list because it almost felt “too familiar” in my opinion.  All of the play testers really enjoyed playing the game, but EVERY ONE of them said “it feels like another game I’ve played with just cards.”  And they’re right, it does BUT it has one neat and unique feature that makes it different and those are the cards themselves.  Instead of all of the cards being numbered in the same fashion, they have five different ways of writing the numbers 1-5.  They use pips on a die, roman numerals, the word, a hand and the standard number.  (see the image above)  This little change makes all the difference – and makes the game worth owning.

Ratuki is all about speed and each round ends when a player runs out of cards.  During a round, there is the potential of three stacks in the center of the play area and everyone can play on those three stacks.  Using the deck of cards in front of them, players build on the center stacks by playing a number one above or below the top card on the stack.  The goal is to get play a five and capture the stack.  At the end of the round, players count up the cards they captured, subtract any cards of their own they were left with and that’s their score.  Play by rounds or play to a certain number – it’s up to you!

The game is fast and frenzied, and to reset for a new round is a snap because players have their own color cards.  My friend and I played one quick round of the game and he really enjoyed it.  Like the other game testers, he thought the game had a familiar “feeling,” which was exactly what he was looking for, a “comfort food” kind of game.

Also, if you don’t have time to read the directions – check out the nice graphic explanation at www.playratuki.com.

Ratuki Stats:
$10-$15 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Specialty Retailers
2-5 Players
3+ Minutes (totally depends on how many rounds you play or how many points you play up to)
Ages 7 and up

ChickyBoom is a balancing game in which you pile up hay bales, wagon wheels, and adorable wooden chickens on top of a long platform and once you’re all set, you carefully move the platform to the rocking perch.  That’s where the game begins.  One at a time, each player removes an object.  Hay bales are worth 3 points, wagon wheels are worth 1 and the chickens are 2-3 points depending on their size.   The goal is to have the highest number of points when the platform comes crashing down.  And as an additional stroke of bad luck, if you’re the player that caused the crash you lose 5 points from your total.

The rounds are quick and without the “you touched it, you must remove it rule” it’s a really satisfying game to play.  I think the only negative the game has is that it can be hard for little ones to get the platform onto the perch and then balanced once it’s stacked high with chicks and hay.  Still, that’s very minimal setup help from mom or dad!

Like many other Blue Orange products, ChickyBoom is a beautiful all-wood game that is durable and cute.  Blue Orange makes it a priority for their company to be “green” and plants two trees for ever one that is use to make their games.  And bonus to you parents who are always losing pieces rendering games unplayable they have a replacement piece shop on their website!  You can find that here: http://store.blueorangegames.com/repi.html

We here at The Game Aisle think that Blue Orange did a great job on this game and I’m sure this one will stay in our collection for a long time!

ChickyBoom Stats:
$20 – $25 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Target and some specialty retailers
2-4 Players
5-7 Minutes
Ages 4 and up

You don’t really need to have a huge vocabulary to win – you just need to be quick.  You get 1 point for 3-4 letter words and more for longer words.  So if you come up with zillion 3-letter words, you can beat the person who found only a couple of crazy long ones.  And I must admit, my favorite part (besides winning) is when you get to the end of the round it’s really satisfying to see how many great words you have that no one else found.

I like Boggle so much that in the past I’ve been known to have paper, pencils and a mini dictionary crammed into the Boggle box so I could take it with me on trips.  But the bad thing was, the old Boggle game was designed so if you put the clear plastic cover on top of the dice tray, it wouldn’t fit in the box.  Annoying right?  Then Hasbro fixed that problem by giving the lid a new odd shape, but the dice didn’t shake as well in that one (and it felt kind of cheap) so I didn’t even bother purchasing it.  Well now they’ve completely redesigned the dice holder and it’s a very cool travel-friendly solution.  You twist it to shake the dice, then twist back to lock them in place.  So now, with the absence of a removable lid, you don’t have to worry about losing one of the dice.  And then to make it an all-in-one game, it’s got a timer built in.  Now all you have to do is hunt down some pencils and paper and you’re ready to roll!

Boggle’s been around since 1972 although it failed and was relaunched in 1976 after some revisions – including the addition of a shaker.  It was invented by Alan Turoff and as a fun bit of trivia the longest words that can be made are 17 letters long because the Q and U are on the same tile.  They are: inconsequentially, quadricentennials, and sesquicentennials.  Personally, I’ve never been able to get any of them.

Boggle Stats:
~ $15 at Wal-Mart, Target, Toys ‘R Us and pretty much everywhere that sells games
2 or More Players
~5 Minutes per round (including scoring) so it’s up to you
Ages 8 and up

To me it’s sad that there are so many fun, entertaining and overall good games on the market that are virtual unknowns – especially when they cost less than a single movie ticket.  And all we really need is a glowing review from someone who’s actually played the game to convince us to try it.  So maybe there’s a lesson here.  Read more articles on this website (shameless plug) or ask your friends to play or borrow their favorite games.

I’m sure you’re wondering which game was so good that I insisted on recommending it to a total stranger; it was Gamewright’s There’s a Moose in the House.  While Gamewright isn’t the biggest game company out there, I’m sure you’ve seen at least a couple of their games marketed under the “12 Minute Games” brand (of which my favorite is Wig Out).   There’s a Moose in the House takes approximately 15 minutes, so it didn’t quite make the 12 minute cut but it’s still a winner in my eyes.  Gamewright’s too.  When the inventor, Scott Anderson, showed it to Gamewright it was love at first sight and it quickly rose to be one of their top selling games of all time.  They even liked his photo-real artwork so much that they kept the style when they produced the cards.  This is really impressive since games usually go through a series of modifications and changes so the product you see on the shelf is often quite different from the game that was initially pitched to the game company, especially when it comes to the artwork.  It’s similar to books going to an editor before they are published; they’re polished and tweaked until they are the best they can be.

So then where does one get the idea to make a game around a moose invading different rooms of a house?  You’ll never believe it but Scott got the idea from seeing a moose attempt to wander into a woman’s house on an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos!  With this humorous image in his head, he set out to make a game he could play with his kids and that’s just what he did.  There’s a Moose in the House is a non-reading game for kids 8 and up and it’s just as fun for adults as it is for the under ten crowd.  The goal is to put as many moose as you can into the rooms of your opponent’s house but they can block you by playing door cards to close off a room or trapping a moose by using, what else, but a moose trap.  Who knew an oversized mousetrap baited with lettuce could trap a moose, but then again if it’s going to keep the moose out of my bathtub, that’s fine by me.  In the end, the only place a moose belongs in your house is on your game shelf or in your refrigerator, but only if it’s chocolate mousse.

There’s a Moose in the House stats:

• ~$6 at any major retailer
• 2-5 players (but 2 is not as fun)
• ~15 minutes
• Ages 8 and up

If your family is anything like mine, there’s a whole shelving unit dedicated to old games in the basement of your parent’s house.  There are some well-worn classics like Monopoly, Sorry and the version of Clue with the stable and fountain from the late ‘80s.  But it’s also teeming with games you’ve never heard of and definitely never played because they sound so dull you’d rather clean the basement than play the game.  Like “The IRS Game” I recently unearthed in my father’s house.  He’s a CPA so I’m sure it was some sort of gag gift, but honestly, who would want to play a game about the organization that makes sure we stay good citizens and pay our taxes?  I left that one where I found it.

The game I was looking for comes in a small box and was invented just after the turn of the century — the last century that is.  It’s called Pit and although the name isn’t bad, it’s the “commodities trading” theme that is outright unappealing.  I’ll admit, it’s pretty hard to convince a group of players to sit down for a fun game of commodities trading, but I managed to sucker some friends into playing recently.  They didn’t have much of a choice since we were out of town and their alternatives were pretty slim, but I was happy that they obliged and promised it wouldn’t disappoint.

As one of my all-time favorite party games, Pit is easy to explain, even easier to learn and it’s quick.  The game is made up of rounds that are a free-for-all of people trading cards until they’ve “cornered the market” on one commodity, meaning they managed to collect every single wheat or soybean card in the game.  During this process people are feverishly yelling how many cards they want to trade, reaching across the table and over other player’s hands to conduct the card swap in hopes of finding the last couple cards they are missing.  The frenzy comes to halt when a player triumphantly rings the bell to signal that they have cornered the market.  As the other players sigh, the winner collects points and the next round is started.  The quick, fast rounds keep everyone excited, but adding twists like silent rounds or playing with the bull and bear cards add another level to play with the bull acting like a wild and the bear like an old maid.

While I have an older version of Pit that I found buried in a dusty corner, this game can be purchased new for less than $20.  It comes with eight different commodities to trade and a bell.  Sadly, since this game isn’t as well known as it should be, it probably won’t be available in your local Wal-Mart, but according to the manufacturer, it can be found at Toys ‘R’ Us stores nationwide.  There are also plenty of online retailers including Amazon.com who carry the game and it’s worth the 3-5 day shipping wait.  But if that’s too long, check out www.winning-moves.com to find a store near you that carries this classic game.

In the end, even though my friends had some pretty low expectations going into the game, when we finally decided to stop and grab some dinner they were all amazed at how much fun it was.  There have already been some requests for me to bring Pit with me whenever we get together next.

So grab 3-8 of your closest friends (over the age of 7) and spend the afternoon “cornering the market!”  Maybe just leave out the game’s theme when you ask them to play.

Pit stats:

• ~$15 Toys ‘R Us, Barnes and Noble or online retailers
• 3-8 players
• ~2 minutes a round (so play lots!)
• Ages 7 and up