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 …

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 …

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.  …

There is just something about the look of Blue Orange games that I love.  Previously I reviewed Gobblet Gobblers (see here) and I got quite a bit of good feedback on that one.  It’s cute, fun to play and easy to learn – three things that they were able to successfully replicate in their game ChickyBoom!  Though unlike Gobblet Gobblers, ChickyBoom is a game is really a kid’s game – not an all-ages game in kid’s clothing.  But for the children in your life this one is going to be …

I like word games, but only specific word games.  You will probably never see me review Scrabble on this site because I think it takes far too long to play and I find waiting for slower players to take their turn agonizing.  I also refuse to memorize the Scrabble dictionary, which I feel that you need to do to gain a solid win against the stronger players.  Boggle, however, I love.  It’s “the 3-minute word search game” that everybody plays at the same time.  And for those of you who …