The neighborhood I live in here in Chicago, well let’s just say it’s “up and coming” and it’s been “up and coming” for pretty much the entire 7 years that I’ve lived here.  During those years, it’s definitely been getting better and this year huge strides have been made with great new bars, restaurants and shops going in nearby including an upscale toy store!  The owner of the new toy store *Play, asked for my help picking out games for their target age group (8 and under).  Trying to pick out stuff that is fun and unique, one of the games I suggested was Chicken Cha Cha Cha – another game in the “Chicken Family of Zoch” which includes the previously reviewed Pickomino (see here).

Now, Chicken Cha Cha Cha isn’t the easiest game to find (it’s being re-released in October), and with a $30+ price tag it makes it even harder to cough up the money to buy it before trying it but I really thought it was a great purchase.  The game’s been around since 1998 and it was invented by Klaus Zoch (hence the “Chicken Family of Zoch”).  Unlike Pickomino, Chicken Cha Cha Cha is aimed at a younger crowd – 4 and up.  The game is simple, each player gets a beautiful wooden chicken with one tail feather that is placed on an egg shaped tile that is one of 24 laid out in a circle.  (Eggs, laid…get it?)  Inside the circle there are 12 octagonal tiles scattered about face down.  On your turn, you look at the egg space in front of you and try to flip over the tile in the middle that has the matching image.  Obviously in the beginning it’s all guessing, but as you get going it’s a great memory game!  If you flip a matching tile, you “cha cha” your chicken one space forward and your turn continues until you don’t flip over a matching tile.

The point of the game is to collect all of your opponents tail feathers.  To do that, you must catch up to, and then jump over another player.  After which you collect ALL of their tail feathers.  If the game has just started, they may only have their own feather but as things get going they could have collected a tail feather or two already.

Chicken Cha Cha Cha is definitely a fun twist on classic memory with exciting head-to-head play.  And while the $30 or more price tag is really steep for a kid’s game, it’s one that adults can definitely enjoy – even without the kids!  I also have to say that this game is amazingly well made.  The tiles are really thick and durable and the wooden chickens are something you won’t find in games at Target or Wal-Mart for sure

Chicken Cha Cha Cha Stats:

$30-$45 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com,  FunAgainGames.com
2-4 players
15-20 minutes
Ages 4 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

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