The MAJOR FUN Awards

Monopoly Deal

2009-07-05T11:53:00.001-04:00

Before I go into too much detail, let me tell you this: Hasbro's Monopoly Deal is fun. It's a card game that gives you that Monopoly feeling. You build monopolies and even put houses and hotels on them, and pay for them, in the millions of dollars - all with a deck of cards.

But it's faster, and shorter, and easier, and at least just as much fun. But a different, shall we say, "flavor" of Monopoly-making-like-fun. Because it's shorter and easier and faster, you don't have time to get really invested in the game, you don't even have to spend time setting it up. And because Monopoly Deal still gives you a lot of the kind of fun of the board game, you take it more lightly. Playing Monopoly Deal is more about fun than winning, more about that Monopoly-kind of, taking-someone-elses's property-kind of fun in particular, which makes it such a Major FUN family game, par, pretty much excellence.

The rules are simple and clear enough to keep it a good game, good enough to withstand the inevitable creation of many a monopoly-like "house rules" version for many a different age group and be often even more fun. "Quick Start" rule cards handily summarize everything you need to know to play the game. In addition to the Quick Start cards there are Property cards, Money cards, Action Cards, Property Wildcards, and Rent cards - giving your Monopoly Deal deck a nice fat total of 110 cards.

The Money cards are numbered in the millions - 1 Million, 2 Million, 3, 4, 10 Million - just to give the game a more realistically modern financial scale. Action cards include the "Sly Deal" which allows you to steal any property that has not been completed (making property-completion an even more valuable goal) from another player, whereas the Deal Breaker let's you steal completed properties. The Forced Deal lets you swap any of your less desirable properties with the hugely more desirable properties of your chosen opponent. There's a Pass Go card, of course, which lets you take 2 extra cards from the draw pile. And on and on - a wonderful complexity of luck and strategic potential, explaned in detail on each card.

Easy to learn. Fifteen, maybe 20 minutes to play a round - just short enough to make you want to play again and again. Simple enough for children of gin-playing age. Complex enough for adults of gin-drinking age. All in all a remarkably effective and significantly fun translation of a very long, often agozingly complex family board game into a comparatively brief, frequently delightful, easy to learn family card game.

Brian Sutton-Smith - Defender of the Playful

2009-07-03T07:45:00.010-04:00

Brian Sutton-Smith (shown here with a passel of his playful progeny) - the same guy who said: "The opposite of play is not work, it's depression" - has been a friend of mine for 35-some years. I first came across his name in a book called The Study of Games that he and Elliot Avedon had co-authored. I was at the time working on my Interplay Games Curriculum, and was in the heat of searching for everything I could find out about games and the study thereof, and this particular book turned out to be a godsend. The next godsend occurred a few years later when I discovered that he was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. I don't remember exactly what the next steps were, but for several years he brought his classes to my play study retreat center, the Games Preserve, and he, his students and I shared some wonderfully deep play together.

Dr. Brian Sutton Smith, author of The Ambiguity of Play, Professor Emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania where he taught in the Graduate School of Education and the Program of Folklore and Folklife, had this to say about himself:

"first of all I don't consider myself just an academic. I have reached that point in life where my initial pretenses of being a scholar and of being impersonal no longer serve as a convincing dis guise for myself. I've come to believe that a central issue in understanding life or social science or gaining wis dom about anything that is significant is to determine the way in which one's own internal narrative interacts with their personal scholarship. In New Zealand where I was born, I was deeply influenced by my aggressive and physically active older brother into considering play largely as a matter of power. My father was the Wellington chief postmaster who longed to be a university professor and was active as a storyteller and amateur actor. From him I got my academic interests in drama and in stories. These individuals certainly have influenced much of my life. I wish it was sufficient simply to announce that I have been persistently interested in play and that I think it's important." (from an interview with Dr Stuart Brown).

Dr. Brian Sutton-Smith, "...persistently interested in play and...its importan(ce)," Defender of the Playful.

The Bubble Thing

2009-07-02T08:00:00.002-04:00

Making big bubbles - and I mean really big bubbles - is at least as much a technology as it is an art. David Stein, inventor of The Bubble Thing, has created a really-big-bubble-blowing technology that works well enough for you to make really big bubbles now, and develop the art later.

His Bubble Thing has two components: a really-big-bubble-making wand, and a bottle of the mysterious "Bubble Mix." (David says: "If you run out of mix, baking powder will tide you over and work good too.") ("Tide" you over? Is that Freudian product placement?) The really-big-bubble-making wand (a.k.a. "the Bubble Thing") is a very large open-and-closeable fabric loop on a tubular handle. You dip the closed loop in a bucket of soap suds, raise it, open it, wave it sideways and it makes really, really big bubbles. And then there's a bottle of bubble mix which, when added to water and dish soap, provides, shall we say, the "ultimate solution" for your really-big-bubble-blowing needs. Yes, it can get a bit messy and slimy and soapy. But even more yes, it will astonish you with your suddenly-acquired really-big-bubble-blowing powers.

The instructions even include, bless them, a game called the "Popping Game." You "win one point for popping little bubbles (smaller than a basketball)." But you lose five points when you pop a big bubble. Squirt-gun, frisbee- and finger-popping are all recommended. Ah, a bubble game. Surely there must be a myriad of such.

As a matter of no coincidence at all, bubble-maven Stein has teamed up with the editors at Klutz Press to produce a handy guide to really-big-bubble-making called How to Make Monstrous, Huge, Unbelievably Big Bubbles. The Bubble Wand you get with the book, Stein explains, is the same size as his own version.

It's most definitely an outdoor toy. It's most clearly designed to be used by people old enough to be sensitive to things like a shifting wind and the soap-in-the-eye potential, and young enough to want to make really, really big bubbles. And the fun, the fun, is like totally major.

Pocket Farkel

2009-07-01T09:20:00.004-04:00

The name of the game is Farkel. You could easily confuse it with Farkle, which wouldn't be a major mistake. In fact, you could just as easily confuse it with 10000, 5000, Buzzball, Greed, Hot Dice, Oh Crap, Squelch, Wimp Out, Zilch, or Zonk. And you'd be perfectly entitled, insofar as they are each and all names for basically the same game - a dice game, played with six dice, that is most definitely not Yahtzee.

However, the subject of this review is not Farkel, but Pocket Farkel, as a matter of fact. (One of my very favorite game names, that I find myself obliged to repeat in rapid succession many times each time I open the game box).

Speaking of boxes, that's perhaps the key to what makes Pocket Farkel so fun-worthy. It's a handy little box, with the dice fitting snugly into their little foam niches, and the scoring rules (which are difficult to remember for the novice Farkeler) so clearly printed on the inside of the lid. And, as you would assume, it fits tidily into your pocket. Yes, all you really need are six dice. But the package here is the product. Its elegance, its accessibility all invite play, making the game into something unique.

The rules of Pocket Farkel are slightly different than those of your regular Farkle - simpler, more scoring possibilities, more engaging. On your turn, you first roll all six dice. You then set aside any of dice that score (see the ever-so handy scoring combination chart on the box lid), and then you roll the rest of the dice. But you have to have to score to go on. If you don't score, you Farkel. And to Farkel is to lose all those conceptually hard-earned points you thought you were getting for that round. As in, "O, Farkel!" Which is another way of saying, no matter how disappointed you get, you just can't take it seriously.

And so the game goes, people scoring. People Farkeling. There's laughing. There's muttering. And then there's more laughing. For a family with kids who can keep score - and not care too much about it - it's something you might want to take with you everywhere.

The Pocket Farkel people make an astounding variety of Farkel sets - there's Pirate Farkel and Froggy Farkel and Moose Farkel, Bear Farkel and Equine Farkel and Gator Farkel. There's Glow-in-the-Dark Farkel and Full Contact Farkel, Fat Free Lo Carb Farkel, and no matter what they're called, they're all Farkel. The dice might look different, but the game's the same. Enticing. Engaging. Major FUN.

Bananagrams - a crossword tile game you can play everywhere with anyone

2009-07-01T07:31:00.004-04:00

Bananagrams is a word game that uses letter tiles - 144 unusally finger-friendly, bakelite letter tiles. It will remind you of other letter-tile word games, many other letter-tile word games, until you actually read the rules (which are simple enough to summarize on the 1x2-inch tag that is attached to the banana-like zippable package).

Basically, you draw a bunch of tiles and try to assemble all of them into a crossword array. If you succeed, you draw more. That's about it, basically-wise. The full rules are a bit more complex. Players all get the same number of letter tiles, the exact number depending on the how many are playing. They race to assemble all their letters into a crossword. As soon as one player succeeds, she calls "peel," at which time every player has to take a another letter tile. And so it goes, on and on, until almost all the letter tiles are used up. Naturally, the first player to have used all her tiles shouts "bananas" (if she still has the presence of mind to remember), and wins the game.

Everything about Bananagrams is Major FUN, the quality of the tiles, the portability and storability, the adaptability and flexibility. Because the game is so simple to explain, it is also simple to change - to adapt to different skill levels, different environments and time constraints. Read, for example, Lance Hampton's exemplary story of how he plays Bananagrams with his kids. We're working on variations for teams, and maybe even cooperative versions.

The Nathanson family, Bannanagram designers, comment:

"Obsessed by all the word games that could be found, we all hankered after something a bit more fluid than the classics we all love and wanted a game that the family could play together – ALL ages at the same time. We sought something portable, that we could take with us on our various travels and simple enough (with no superfluous pieces or packaging) that we could play in restaurants while waiting for our food. We love that one hand can be played in as little as five minutes, but as it’s so addictive, it’s often hard to put away!"

If you like playing with words, it's very likely that you'll be taking a banana-case full of Bananagrams with you everywhere.

Quarto

2009-06-30T09:30:00.003-04:00

Quarto will remind you of Tic Tac Toe, until you actually play it. Like Tic Tac Toe, you're trying to get all your pieces in a row. And that's about it, Tic Tac Toe-wise.

There are 16 pieces. Eight blond pieces and eight dark pieces. But if you look a little closer, you'll notice that each piece is different. Nobody's a "color." Each has an attribute (size, color, shape, hollowness) that it shares with three other pieces. So your tall square blond solid piece is like the tall round dark piece that has a hole in it, because they are tall.

Your object is to add the piece that completes a row, column or diagonal of 4 pieces, all of which have the same attribute. Not necessarily all blond pieces or all short pieces, and certainly not all "your" pieces. Maybe all round pieces or all solid pieces. Or all pieces with a hole.

So things are not, as they say, merely black or white. To win, you have to continually change what attribute your looking for. Much more like life, strategically-speaking.

And then there's one more intriguingly life-like rule you should know about: You decide what piece your opponent will play next. Really. That's what you do. When your turn is over, you hand the piece of your choice to your opponent. And now that we're speaking about strategy, suddenly everything becomes much more subtle, even more interesting. Because you're trying everso hard to give your opponent the very piece she really wouldn't want. A piece, in fact, that might very well be the one piece that will make you win.

It's a unique concept in the world of strategy games - and uniquely welcome. Because you have to think even more closely about what your opponent might be thinking.

The designer, Blaise Müller, suggests a variation for those who need yet more strategic depth. How about counting 4-in-a-square as well as 4-in-a-row? Ah, how subtle. How challenging. Which makes you wonder about 4-in-an-L, or 4-in-a-zig-zag, even.

In other words, Quarto, like the majority of games in the Gigamic line, has just about all the elements that make a game Major FUN. It takes maybe 5 minutes to learn and maybe 5 minutes to play, and yet it's deep enough to be worth playing over and over. It's as easy to learn as it is because it's based on something familiar. It's as intriguing as it is, because it offers something unique. It's elemental enough to be easily modified to increase or decrease the challenge. It's made of wood. It's durable. It even has a drawstring bag to house the pieces. And, for a modest mailing fee, Fundex will replace any lost piece.

Reb Zalman

2009-06-24T19:40:00.001-04:00

I met Zalman more than 30 years ago. We have been friends ever since that first meeting. Deep friends. Sharing with each other our most profound insights, and our equally profound laughter.

Of all the people I've known who have had a positive influence on religion - any religion - Reb Zalman has been one of very few who has been a voice for playfulness as much as a voice for spirituality. With Zalman, there really is no difference. His playfulness has helped thousands of people to reclaim their spirituality, renew their connection with religion, and redefine both. He has gone far beyond Judaism, making connections between spiritual disciplines of every religion he can touch. And his touch is as light as it is enlightening. He brings love and laughter to all those who hear him. When he leads people in prayer, he also leads them in dance and song and an ever-deepening joy.

It is not an easy path he has chosen for himself. Zalman is widely known as a champion of silliness. Religious people tend to take things very seriously. So, for many, he is seen as a threat. Virtually unsupported by the establishment, he has found his own support. His laughter draws followers. His faith sustains them. His playfulness heals them. Instead of denying the forces that have denied him, he affirms those very traditions, and goes at least one step further. He embraces the best in all traditions, he celebrates the deep fun of each, and the deeper delight that exists between them.

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Defender of the Playful.

Gobblet Gobblers - cute and challenging

2009-06-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

Do not be misled by cuteness or the obvious similarity to tic tac toe, Gobblet Gobblers is an abstract game worthy of serious strategic contemplation.

No, it's not chess. It's not even checkers. But it's not like any tic tac toe game you've ever played, unless you've already played the Major FUN Award-winning Gobblet Jr.

Repackaged and revisioned, Gobblet Gobblers plays the same as Gobblet Jr., but introduces a new level of whimsy and fantasy that invites children to view the often serious challenge of abstract reasoning with a light and playful heart.

Players build the board out of four, brightly colored wood pieces. Using these pieces, instead of a solid board, gives the game a friendlier feeling - integrating the game a bit more with its environment (kitchen table, play table, carpet, floor). The pieces all have little felt feather-like things sticking out of their "heads," adding to the whimsy and offering a practical and compelling way to lift and move the pieces from place to place. There are two different color pieces - blue and orange (oddly, but probably not coincidentally reprising the name of the publisher). Both players get six pieces - two sets of three nesting cylinders.

The game plays like tic tac toe (the object being to get three of your color pieces in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row), but, unlike the traditional game, in Gobblet Gobblers you can move your pieces once they are placed, and, if your piece is larger than another, you can temporarily "gobble" it by placing your piece on top. Being able to move pieces is departure enough to make Gobblet Gobblers something more than your paper-and-pencil version of tic tac toe. But being able to cover a smaller piece takes the game to a new level of strategic complexity - new enough for it to become a unique invitation to abstract thinking - unique enough to invite serious attention from adults as well as children. And there's that added component of having to remember what gets covered. And the subsequent, sometimes delightfully agonizing experience of losing the game because of what lies beneath.

Designed by Thierry Denoual, who designed all of the current Gobblet variations, Gobblet Gobbler, with its humorous design (and lower price), is Major FUN, at least - especially for kids who have already mastered the traditional versions of tic tac toe, and even more especially for their parents.

Yamslam - like Yahtzee, but not Yahtzee at all

2009-06-24T08:33:00.001-04:00

No, it's not Yahtzee. On the other hand, yes, it's a lot like Yahtzee. You roll five dice. You get three rolls during which you can re-roll all or any of the dice. You want to get maybe two pairs, or even better, three-of-a-kind, or better yet a small straight, and then there's a flush, which you can't get in that other game, which is better yet, and then there's a full house, and four-of-a-kind, or even better a full house, and your large straight, and, of course, your all-dice-of-the-same-number Yamslam, which makes you yell "Yamslam," take any chip you want, and an extra turn. And what all of this Yahtzee-likeness does is make Yamslam easier to learn. But, no, it's not Yahtzee.

There are chips, for example, which you don't get in that other game - four for each of the possible winning combinations. Each chip is worth more points, depending on probabilities. When you succeed, you collect a chip, making scoring for that particular combination one chip less likely. When there are no chips, that combination can no longer score. Then there's the possibility that you might gather one or more of each of the seven kinds of chip, for which you score more points, or that you might get six out of the seven, or all of a particular kind of chip, or take the last remaining chip - in which case you score yet more.

And then there's the "flush" possibility. The odd numbers on the dice are one color, the even another. You score a flush (if you want it) when all the dice are the same color.

Put all these together and you have something that is clearly not Yahtzee. Fewer combinations, a faster game, more possibilities for scoring, all stored in a metal tin that contains the game with efficiency and grace. Place the chips in their well-marked holders, leave the dice on the pleasingly-cushioned felt-lined bottom, close the lid, and no matter how hard you shake the set, everything stays in place. Forget the rules? All the score possibilities are conveniently described on the perimeter of the box.

Designed by Thierry Denoual (who also designed the Gobblet games), Yamslam is a gift of light-hearted, undemanding fun for anyone in the family who is old enough to add. And then there are variations to try, including at least one for those times when you just need to be by yourself.

Yahtzee? Most definitely not. Fun? Majorly!

Stixx

2009-06-18T18:52:00.002-04:00

Stixx is a strategy game. It's lovely to look at. Easy to understand. And yet, surprisingly subtle.

There are six different colors of Stixx (the game pieces). There are seven of each. To set up the game, players place the Stixx randomly (trying to keep the colors as far apart as possible) in the 42 grooves around the board. There's an extra Stixx. It's gray. It's used as a marker, replacing the Stixx that has just been collected, and indicating which Stixx are now collectable (those that are adjacent to either point of the marker).

Before the game begins, each player draws from a collection of six "hidden color tokens." This identifies the color of the Stixx the players are trying to collect. The object is to collect more of your Stixx than anybody has been able to collect of theirs.

There are many levels contemplation-worthy strategic complexities. Whenever you pick up a Stixx you determine which Stixx the next player can select from. If you're ahead, and you can isolate the grey Stixx so it's not touching any pieces, the game is over, and you win. If you try to collect too many Stixx of your color, your opponents will be able to guess what color you're trying to collect, and either keep you from collecting more, or take those colored Stixx themselves, just for spite.

Having to keep your goal secret while trying keep others from achieving theirs is an aspect of the game that adds greatly to the depth and humor of it all. If it gets too much for you, you can guess someone's color - forcing them to reveal it to everyone and, if you're correct, winning you two extra moves. If the possibility of taking those two extra moves becomes strategically attractive to you, and no one has yet guessed your color, you can reveal your secret color.

Stixx is easy enough to understand, and has a short enough playing-time, to meet the attention span of your average, gifted seven-year-old. It's also deep and intriguing enough to engage the serious-minded adult. And it often makes you laugh. Which is another way of saying Stixx is Major FUN.

Designed by Odet L' Homer and published by Goliath Games, Stixx can be played by two to six players, and, as good as it is, it seems to be just as good (if not better) when more than two want to play. Stixx is nicely packaged, very easy to store. It has a lot of colorful, irreplaceable plastic parts - 49 of them. But rest easy, wise Stixx-owner, Goliath will replace your losses for free.

Chicken Cha Cha Cha

2009-06-18T08:01:00.006-04:00

Chicken Cha Cha Cha is kids' game that is even more fun as a family game and at least as fun at a grown-up games party.

Short-term memory is an important aspect of this game. Which is part of what makes it such a good family game. Considering whose memory is shorter term, it's very likely that they'll have at least as good a chance at winning as you.

The real fun of the game, however, comes from chasing each other around a board of thick, cardboard, egg-shape tiles. There are four wooden chickens (two are supposed to be roosters, but that's where the game begins to get abstract). Each of these chickens have appropriately located places where one can put tail feathers - wooden sticks topped by egg-shaped balls, each corresponding to a chicken color.

Then there are the thick, cardboard, octagonal tiles which are placed face-down, and surrounded by the egg track. The images on these tiles correspond to images on the eggs.

You place your wooden chicken with its one wooden tail feather anywhere on the egg track. When it's your turn, you first have to find the octagonal tile that matches the egg tile in front of your chicken. If you are correct, you move your chicken to that tile, and go again, trying to guess which octagon matches the egg tile that is now in front of you. You can play in teams, even - which makes it more fun, and more likely that your collective recollection might be good enough to find which octagon matches which egg tile.

If you get immediately behind someone else's chicken, and it's still your turn, you can, if you can identify the octagon tile that matches the egg tile that is in front of the opponent's chicken, jump over that chicken, and get his or her proverbial tail feather.

The first chicken with all four tail feathers wins.

Chicken chasing is great fun. It's as fun as playing tag or duck-duck-goose. And, as the game progresses, you remember (especially if you're young enough) more and more of the octagonal tiles, so you can run (or, as the game designers would want you to think of it, "cha cha") further and further. So the chase speeds up. And the tension increases. And sometimes you get so excited you forget where anything is. And sometimes you remember everything. And then you win.

Designed by Klaus Zoch, and graced by the endearing art of Doris Matthäus, Chicken Cha Cha Cha is a remarkably versatile, and engaging game, for a surprisingly wide range of ages. It's one of a relatively few games that kids can play as well as their parents can, that appeals to teens as much as pre-schoolers, that could find as much welcome in a games party for grown-ups as with the kids in the family room on a rainy afternoon.

Because the game is so elegant (there are really very rules) and so easily learned, it is also easily varied. If the game is too hard for some players, you can turn all the tiles over periodically for review. If it takes too long, you can have the chickens cha cha in opposite directions so they encounter each other more frequently. Since you make the board, you can always make it smaller, eliminating some eggs and their corresponding octagons as needed. You can even, if you're playing with people of my memory strengths, you might also consider increasing the number of guesses a player can make when octagon-hunting.

Chicken Cha Cha Cha - available in the US from Rio Grande Games. Not complex. Not profound. Most definitely Major FUN.

Gulo Golo

2009-06-17T07:38:00.002-04:00

First of all, just saying "Gulo Gulo" is fun. Especially if you're a kid. In addition, there are the six little, kid-appealing, bear-like playing pieces. And the funny illustrations on the 23 thick, octagonal tiles you use to make the board. And the 22 colorful (five colors) wooden eggs with the wooden bowl you put the eggs into and the wacky "alarm pole" that you stick into the egg pile. And the velvet drawstring for eggs and bowl storage. All in all, everything looking like fun.

Then there's getting the game ready, which is also kind of fun. There's no board. Instead, you make a track out of all those lovely octagons (first you have to find the Gulo Junior tile, and set it aside). This is also kind of fun because there are at least four different edges you can use in connecting the octagons. And you put them face down, which makes you wonder what color they'll be when you turn them over. And just before you finish the track, you take the last four tiles, add the Gulo Junior tile, shuffle them, and place them face down as the last space on the track leading up to the wooden bowl nest. And either now or sometime before, you also put all the eggs into the nest, and stick the alarm pole deep into the eggs so it's as close to standing straight up as you can make it (this itself is challenging, and especially fun in retrospect).

Then there's the game. You start at one end of the track (the stack of 5 track pieces and the nest are at the other end). You turn over the first tile. That tile has a color. You "steal" the egg of the same color from the nest. Did you set off the egg alarm (make the pole fall)? No? Good. Now you can move your Gulo on to that tile. The next player can either steal an egg of the same color, or turn over the next tile, and try to steal the egg of that color. As the game continues, the players who are still closest to the start have the most choices - since they can move to any tile that has already been turned over and is the same color as the tile they are already on. Some of the eggs are smaller. They are harder to remove (especially for those of us who are fat-of-finger). Some of the eggs are larger. They are easier to remove, but also are more likely to cause the pole to fall. The player who reaches the last tile without triggering the egg alarm draws tiles from the tile pile. If she draws any tile but the Gulo Junior, she has to remove another egg. If she manages to free the Gulo Junior, she has to steal the purple egg. And if she manages to do that, without, and the alarm pole is still in the nest, she wins.

Recall the observation about the fat-of-finger. Compare the finger width of a 5-year-old to that of a 30-year-old. That explains why Gulo Gulo is such an excellent family game - it is one of the few children's games in which adults are actually at a disadvantage - just enough of a disadvantage to make playing with a 5-year-old a meaningful challenge.

Brought to the US by Rio Grande Games, Gulo Gulo was designed by Hans Raggan, Jürgen P. Grunau and Wolfgang Kramer (with noteworthy art by Victor Boden). Gulo Gulo has lasting play value, especially for families with children between the ages of 3 and 7. The design keeps everyone involved. Because of the increasing number of tiles that get exposed during the game, players who are behind have a good chance to leap forward, while players who are furthest ahead and set off the egg alarm have to move all the way back to the nearest tile of the same color. The game is easy enough to learn, at least to start. And the rest of the rules become clearer as the game progresses. And if not, don't worry. The mechanics of the game are fun enough and strong enough to keep the game fun, even if you don't use all of the rules. And if the game still proves too challenging, there's a set of easier rules for younger children. And for those adults who are terminally thick of finger, consider asking your kids for help.

Crazy Old Fish War is crazy fun in an old fish war kind of way

2009-06-16T08:08:00.000-04:00

You know those card games kids play, like Crazy Eights, and Old Maid and Go Fish and War? Remember how much fun they were? And how they kind of stopped being so much fun after a while, and you kind of stopped playing them? So, let me ask you, do you think you might find those games fun again if you combined all of them, yes, all of them together into one?

So let me tell you about a new card game from Hasbro, called, oddly enough - and I do mean oddly, Crazy Old Fish War. You get this special deck of cards - 58 of them. They all look, well, fishy. You get your funny goldfishy-looking cards which are one color, and your funny blowfish-looking cards which are all another color, and your funny sawfish which are yet another color, and your kind of almost scary lantern fish-like looking, yet other-colored cards, and your crazy octopus-looking cards which all the same color and, appropriately octopus-like, are "8"s. Most of them (55) are numbered. Three are not numbered at all. They are mermaids. Not old mermaids. But, nonetheless, maids, of the mer-variety.

You deal seven cards out to everybody (up to six players) and put the rest face-down in a pile. Then you turn over the top card, and the next player, Crazy Eight-style, plays a card that matches either the color or the number of the card just played. And so forth and so on, until a player doesn't have a match, at which time that player may play the eight-tentacled Crazy Octopus card, which looks and is wild, and can, also Octopus-like, be any color. Or the player can choose to Go Fishing, hoping to find a match in someone else's hand, or the player can declare a War against any other War-like player. Should that other player have a higher card, or an Old Mermaid, she wins the war. If need is dire enough, and it's your turn to lead, and you don't have a match, and you don't want to declare a War or Go Fishing, you can play an Old Mermaid, who, as we know, is also wild, but who makes the player have to pick up five more cards.

All of which results in a new, yet hauntingly familiar game, that oft-times leads kids who are old enough to have grown bored with War to engage in long, friendly bouts of rule clarification, and more oft-times into longer bouts of laughter.

Quoridor - an elegant game of strategic wall-building

2009-06-11T13:10:00.001-04:00

The rules for Quoridor are a paragraph long. You can understand everything you need to play the game in just a few minutes of watching someone play. The whole game takes five, maybe ten minutes. And yet it's completely absorbing, deeply challenging, often surprising, uniquely compelling.

The game is played on a 9x9 grid. Deep channels separate the squares. These channels are deep enough to hold a "wall" - a thin wooden rectangle wide enough to span the border of two squares. Each player has a wooden pawn. The object of the game is to be the first player to advance her pawn to the opposite side of the board. Each player, in the two-player version, also gets ten walls. On your turn you can either move your pawn one square horizontally or vertically, or you can add a wall. These two choices seem remarkably familiar, elegantly embodying a fundamental political dynamic: to advance our own cause, or to prevent the opposition from advancing. The result of this debate is the creation of an evermore complex maze, again depicting something remarkably familiar to anyone engaged in political discourse. Republicans, democrats, lovers, parents, children.

As Rob Solow reports, Quoridor is such an elegant game that it can be easily played (with some minor modifications) with a 5-year-old. And that is another important thing to note about Quoridor - because it is so easy to understand, because it's components are so few and so functional, it is also easy to modify. Like tic tac toe, Quoridor invites you to come up with new ways to play. Rob talks about giving the weaker player more walls. Since you can play several games in a half-hour, it is easy to create a handicapping system where the losing player gets two more fences for the next round.

Quoridor comes with four different-color pawns. In the four-player version, each player gets five wall pieces, and the pawns start out in the center of the board rather than on the opposite ends. This points to yet another variable - the starting position of the pawns. Then there's the rule for what happens when two pawns meet. In the standard rules, they get to jump over each other. But that, clearly, is only the beginning. And one can't help but gleefully contemplate the implications of a two-player version with four pawns.

Quoridor exemplifies the kind of thinking game that prompted the creation of the Major FUN award. It can be intensely competitive, but its elegance and brevity make playing the game itself fun, no matter who wins.

Designed by Mirko Marchesi, Quoridor is another beautifully rendered wooden game from Gigamic, available in the US through the wise auspices of Fundex Games.

The Big Bilibo - better than the box it came in

2009-06-09T10:20:00.000-04:00

Bilibo is a toy. A large, colorful toy. With no moving parts, unless you count the children who play with it. Like any toy, it is designed for a certain kind of child with equally certain kinds of parents - creative, imaginative, active children, whose parents understand and support unstructured, unpredictable, non-directed play.

The Bilibo is the mother of the Bilibo Game Box - the very Bilibo Game Box glowingly reviewed here just last month. For children between the ages of 18 mos and 8 years, the Bilibo is something to sit in or on, to rock or twirl or scoot in, to stand on, to wear. It is a water toy and a sand toy and a family room toy. It is a toy for storing other toys in.

Just what this toy means to kids depends on the adult as much as the child. The way you play with your child, the expectations you have, the limits you impose, the other toys you have out for play... all impact the way your child experiences the Bilibo, and you experience your child. Alex Hochstrasser, the inventor of what has become the Bilibo system, comments: "...most children have fun with Bilibo anyways, because that's how they play. They learn much more when they explore and discover things by themselves...I wanted to create a toy that was not gender or age specific but rather grows with the kids and, depending on age and interests, can be used in ever new ways. The closest I had as a role model was probably the card board box."

But it is also true that if adults are present, they influence the child's play, overtly or covertly. Parents need to be careful of their expectations. Even the most gifted children might not immediately take to the Bilibo. They need time with it. Time to explore or not. To kick it around, sit on it, or ignore it. Its presence in their play environment, like the presence of an empty cardboard box, will, in time beckon to them.

The best influence you can have, especially with a toy like Bilibo, is in your willingness to let the child discover and define the toy for herself. For example, from the persepective of a physical therapist who has obviously allowed the child undirected access to the toy, it becomes a multi-purpose tool. The therapist writes:

"I thought I would tell you how much one child I work with enjoys the Bilibo toy. He is 5 and totally blind. He spins quite fast around in it on a hard surface floor. He is able to catch himself with his arms what ever direction he tips over which is helping him with upper body development and balance skills.

"It also cradles small/multi involved children with low tone, very nicely encouraging them in bringing their hands to midline. When a large enough child is in there (and I am supporting the Bilibo not to roll about), rather than arms/hands flopping about at the sides, the arms end up more in the middle of the body, to hold a toy. Of course with experience many of these kids like a bit of gentle rocking to and fro as well."

Alex adds: " the stimulation of the child's vestibular system by spinning and balancing in the shells would be an interesting area where Bilibo shines. (The vestibular and proprioceptive systems play a key role in the development of the brain and reading and writing skills in particular.)"

If you already have the Bilibo Game Box, the big Bilibo makes an ideal expansion component, and vice versa. It's almost a given that children will weave family fantasies around the relationship between the big Bilibo and mini-Bilibos. Then there are the profound discoveries to be made about mini-Bilibo-spinning inside a big-spinning-Bilibo, spinning, perhaps, in a different direction. And what about the Bilibo Pixel? Does it roll and bounce and do even more fun things when it's inside a big, spinning Bilibo?

And if you can afford more than one (child or Bilibo), there's yet other orders of magnitude of games and fantasies, probability and physics, social and biodynamics to explore.

For kids (or parents) who don't yet have a Bilibo, there's an ample collection of inspirational clips on YouTube. On the other had, once your kids start playing with their Bilibo collection, they'll have all the inspiration you need. If you're good, maybe they'll let you play, too.

Tylz engages your spatial, perceptual and strategic skills - and it's fun, too

2009-06-08T08:52:00.000-04:00

Tylz, as a passerby noted, looks like some kind of Scrabble® game played with colors instead of letters. There are racks to hold your tiles and a large, lovely, unfolding board, with special double-scoring squares marked with stars, even.

But, my friends, Scrabble it is most definitely not. You could compare it to dominoes, if your dominoes had colors instead of numbers, and were made of three instead of two squares, and were all L-shaped.

It turns out that Tylz is a unique board game combining strategic, perceptual and spatial skills with a welcome balance of fun-inducing luck. One to four players (yes, there is a solitaire version) score points by laying down tiles whose edges match in color to at least one of a growing configuration of tiles, or to a space on the board. The more edges matched, the more points you get. And, if you match more three or more edges, you get an extra turn.

Tylz pieces are magnetic, and adhere lovingly to the large board. The game comes with 80 tiles, no two of which are alike. Well, they are all the same shape (an "L" made of three contiguous squares), but every tile has a unique combination of colored squares. This makes you want to consider the strategic implications of each of the three tiles on your rack. Should you play your all blue (or black or red or yellow or green) piece or hold on to it? Should you throw all your tiles back into the pot, and replenish your hand with three new, and hopefully more playable tiles?

And then there are those profoundly moving moments when you approach something close to an ecstasy of scoring - matching three edges, picking a new tiles, getting another turn, matching three more, picking another new tiles, getting another turn, and, what, matching four?!

Designed by Andy and Elliot Daniel and published by their own company, Enginuity Games, Tylz is Major FUN - fascinating, flexible, adaptable. The rules are brief and easy to learn. There are rules for a shorter game, rules for a more challenging game - and suggestions for modifying them so that younger and older players can all be fairly and fully engaged. And there's even a solitaire version.

The colors are so vivid, the shapes so interesting, the board so large and attractively magnetic that the game can be enjoyed by children as young as 5 and adults who are even older than I am.

Jumbulaya - a severely challenging strategic word game

2009-06-07T14:25:00.000-04:00

If I wanted to explain the concept of "excruciating fun" to a word game player, I would start with Jumbulaya.

You get 100 letter tiles, which are played onto a 9x10 matrix. Some of the letter tiles contain two-letter combinations (QU, CH, ED, ER, LY, ST, TH). Each row in the matrix is for another word. To start the game, the three center columns are seeded with tiles randomly drawn from a conveniently included drawstring bag. Each of up to 4 players then draws 5 more tiles to put on their letter rack. And the game begins.

On your turn, you make a new word by rearranging, adding to, trading letters with the letters on any single row. You (temporarily) claim that word by using one of your color-coordinated scoring cubes (matching your tile rack). Until someone else rearranges, adds to, or trades letters with your word, that particular word remains yours. The longer it is, the higher your potential score.

And so the game continues, turn-by-turn, word-by-word, until someone builds a 10-letter word, claims all 9 rows, or calls a seven-or-more letter JUMBULAYA.

A JUMBULAYA? A JUMBULAYA is a word that can be made by taking one letter from 7 or more of the words already on the board. You can skip word lines, but you can't rearrange the letters. Once all 9 rows contain words, JUMBULAYA can be called at any time during the game, whether or not it is your turn.

As for the excruciating part: in the early phases of the game, when it's your turn, you have to consider each of the 9 possible word rows - even those you've already claimed. If you can make one of your words longer, you might be able to keep it from getting claimed by someone else. If you can change someone else's word, you can add to your scoring potential (you get points for every word that you've claimed by the end of the game, the longer the word, the more points). Even when it's not your turn, it pays to think ahead as many moves as you can possibly contemplate (albeit highly likely that the most exciting opportunity for you gets claimed by someone else before its your turn again). And then, any time after all 9 rows have been made into words, there's the JUMBULAYA possibility. There's also the possibility that someone might make a 10-letter word, or that someone might claim all 9 words (either event resulting in ending the game), but the JUMBULAYA possibility is more common and far more fun to contemplate. Since anyone can call JUMBULAYA at any time, you must always reckon with the possibility that if you don't claim enough words quickly enough, the game will be over.

As for the fun part, there are so many things for you to think about, so many opportunities for you to surprise even yourself with your uncanny brilliance, that you become totally absorbed in the challenge. At first, it's a little slow. You have to wait for your turn. Even though you can plan for various possibilities, the unforeseen has it's way of happening before it's your turn again. But once all nine words are claimed and the JUMBULAYA possibility is activated, you are thoroughly engaged, all the time, regardless of whose turn it is.

Designed by Julie and Karl Archer of Platypus Games, and distributed by the Farkel Factory, Jumbulaya proves itself to be Major FUN, of the excruciating kind - for people who like word games, and like to think hard. The rules are long, but logical, well-written, and not overly complex. Newbies will probably start playing in less than 15 minutes. The tiles are wooden, rounded, and pleasant to touch. Though it can be played by anyone old enough to appreciate Scrabble®, it is such an intense game that we recommend it especially for groups that are roughly the same age and of similar maniacal tendencies.

Want more? Watch this.

Improv Everywhere - Defenders of the Playful

2009-06-05T04:22:00.002-04:00

If you've been watching any of the many well-documented, pervasive play antics of Improv Everywhere, you'll understand why they are being presented with the coveted title of Defender of the Playful. You may even, given such spectacular displays of in-your-face playfulness as in the Frozen Grand Central and Food Court Musical events, wonder why it took us so long to acknowledge their contribution to playfulness anywhere. Clearly, they are breaking boundaries, bringing play where no play has dared to go. And their MP3 Experiments are as least as fun and surprising and play-engendering for the participants as they are enticingly puzzling for their unsuspecting audiences.

But for me, it wasn't until their most recent mission, the Surprise Wedding Reception, that Improv Everywhere demonstrated the kind of playfulness that the award was created for. Take a look at one of their most celebrated, and closely related events, called "The Best Game Ever." This, too, was a surprise, and it most definitely led to the delight of everyone involved, players and performers. But unlike The Best Game Ever, the couple who served as the focus of the Surprise Wedding Reception were not so much surprised as they were invited to play. Though the host wasn't above the minor subterfuge of passing himself as a representative of the Mayor's Office, and describing the event as a "free wedding reception," this enlightened willingness to include everyone, the receivers as well as the givers of the performance, led to something that seemed to me much more inclusive, and, because of that, much more of an accomplishment for all playkind.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Qwirkle Cubes - an elegant game of strategic roll-playing

2009-06-02T05:55:00.000-04:00

Setting aside the fact that Qwirkle (the tile version) has won the Major Fun Keeper Award, and resisting any attempt to compare Mindware's Qwirkle (the tile version) to Mindware's Qwirkle Cubes (the dice version), let us proceed as if there were no precedent, and treat Qwirkle Cubes for the unique game it really is. O, sure, we could compare. We could even contrast. But we shall set these temptations aside, for the nonce, at least.

Qwirkle Cubes comes in a Qwirkle Cubes box that is cleverly cube-like. Open the cleverly cube-like box and you find a sturdy cloth drawstring bag, under which are packaged 90 wooden cubes. You release the cubes from their plastic wrappedness, allowing them to cascade onto the table and make a pleasingly muted woodish sound. You fondle them, because they, in their lovingly polished one-inch, wooden, dice-like way, almost beg you to do so. You roll them, observing how each die has a different shape on each face, all of the same color. And, further, how there are six different colors of dice. And then you place all 90 of these smoothly finished colorful cubes into the bag, as instructed.

You are now ready to play. So you, and another, or perhaps 2 or 3 others, take turns extracting 6 dice from the bag. You place those dice in front of you. Perhaps you give them one more roll, just to celebrate the randomness of it all. And so the game begins.

You all look at your dice. Do you notice perhaps a pattern? Are some of your dice of the same color, and each of those dice showing a different shape? Are more of your dice all showing the same shape, and each a different color? Whoever has the longest of either of the aforementioned goes first.

From then on, you take turns, adding to the grid in crossword-fashion, gathering points for the number of dice you place, and for any adjacent rows or columns of dice you add your dice to, garnering yet 6 more points should you complete a row or column of same-color, different shape symbols. One might be tempted to compare it to something a game of rummy played Scrabble®-fashion. Ah, so simple, so easy to learn, and yet, so rife with strategic significance and tactical titillation.

Before you take your turn, you may, if you so desire, re-roll any or all of your dice. And herein lies the wrinkle of conceptual delight that, dare we compare, is new, even to those who play Qwirkle (the tile game). You see, everyone can see what everyone has. Unlike that other Qwirkle game to which we are not referring, there is nothing hidden. But that very openness is thought-provoking, to say the least. Now that you can see the other players' hands, you have everso much more to analyze. And, in being able to re-roll your dice, you find yourself with the yet further thought-provoking opportunity to see what fate has so far hidden from you. A decision to make. A risk to take. True, you can do nothing about the color of the symbols. But equally true, with the re-rolling option, you might be able to change the shape. So you ponder, and roll, and combine, and add to the ever-unfolding matrix (which is conveniently less table-top-consuming than the matrix that ever-unfolds when playing Qwirkle (the tile game).

The more you play, the deeper your appreciation for the strategic implications of playing with dice, and the clearer it becomes to you that Qwirkle Cubes (the dice game) really can't be compared to Qwirkle (the tile game), even though the colors and shapes and rules for matching and the designer (Susan McKinley Ross) are the same. If you already own one, you will probably want the other, not because it's better or more portable or cuter, but because it's unique, and it's uniquely fun. The symmetry of both versions (6 colors, 6 shapes), the visual, conceptual puzzles they both present make both games endlessly fascinating. The dice really make a difference. And so do the tiles. If you own neither, you should consider buying either. Or both. For kids (probably at least 8 years old). For adults. For families. Maybe 10 minutes to learn. Maybe 30 minutes to play. Fun that makes you think. Fun that even, from time to time, makes you laugh. Fun, most satisfyingly Major FUN.

In fact, we find the FUN so Major that we have come to play more for the glory than the score. Just making some spectacular play, using all the dice on one turn, completing a row and adding on to two or even three more all at the same time - is so wonderfully satisfying that winning, dare I say it, seems almost besides the point.

Dart Wars - world domination is just a toss or two away

2009-05-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

Dart Wars is, as the name implies, a war-like game played with darts - a notably painless form of world-spanning, globe-encompassing war, fought by one-man armies equipped with pointlessly non-lethal, magnet-tipped, plastic-feathered weaponry.

The board is as illustrated: a colorful, rubberish, thickish, magnet-attracting mat, suspended from a pole. It's about 22" wide and 17" high. You get six darts of two different colors, 75 remarkably strong and definitely small round magnets in five different colors, and 5 flag stickers, each of a different color. You stick the flag stickers on their corresponding small magnets and use them to mark your "home country."

In addition to the stylized world map, you'll also find a continent-sized target (southeast of Tierra del Fuego), and outlines of each of the countries around the borders of the playing mat. You claim territory by hitting it with a dart and marking it with one of your magnets. You resolve conflicts by throwing your dart closest to the bulls-eye. You store bonus magnets on the small outlines of countries decorating the border of the mat. Everything else is almost self-explanatory. If you need more instructions, you can find the complete rules here. If you just need a little more inspiration, you can sample some of the many possible variations here. Creating your own variation makes a fun, noteworthily innovative concept even more noteworthily fun.

But before you do, you'll need to get the hang, as it were, of the whole magnetic darts thing. I asked the inventor, Pascal Reymond, for some advice. He explains:

"It's not the same way to throw magnetic darts and standard darts, you have to get used to it. But once you get it, then it's ok.

"The the map has to be hang on a wall with its 2 extremities touching the wall (the 2 kind of caps). It's important to have a good shock absorption.

"I play from 1.5 meters from the board, and I hang the board high. This is important to have a good dart trajectory. So try it with the map very high, the bottom of the map at the level of your eyes."

Available in the US from Asmodee Games, the fun of Dart Wars, especially when you make up your own variation, proves to be indubitably Major. Play it at a party, with friends, with your family, if your kids are old enough to enjoy Risk, they're most definitely old enough to play Dart Wars.

Quads Classic - a puzzle, a strategy game for two, a work of art

2009-05-29T07:21:00.000-04:00

Quads Classic is another beautifully rendered game from Gigamic, compassionately brought to the US by Fundex Games.

There are 36 square, wooden tiles, each of which is backed with a magnetic sheet. The board is made of metal and is supported by 4 wooden corner pieces. Printed on the tiles are geometric patterns made of lines and solid shapes. A drawstring bag is included to store tiles between games.

One player gets the tiles with solid shapes, the other gets the rest of the tiles. Two tiles (one with concentric squares and a solid border, the other with regular patterns of right angles and a border of broken lines) are the first tiles played. The game consists of placing tiles so that they are adjacent to at least one other tile. Adjacent tiles must match, making it illegal to place a solid edge next to an edge with an open pattern.

Players alternate turns. The player making the last legal move wins.

Though you can play a game in as little as 10 minutes, it requires deep, very focused strategic thinking. Our Games Tasters kept on likening it to Othello - probably because it is as visually engaging as it is conceptually challenging. As for learning how to play, it takes about as long as it takes to say "whoever makes the last move wins."

There are a couple recommended variations - to add an element of deductive reasoning, players can place their tiles on edge, rather than flat on the table for all to see. To add more challenge, players have to match the patterns on the edges of the board as well.

As a puzzle, it's endlessly fascinating. No matter how you place the tiles on the board, you get wonderfully satisfying, geometric patterns of light and dark. You can increase the challenge as much as you want, trying to make evermore symmetrical, board-spanning patterns. And even if you fail, it still looks good. What more could you ask?

Quads Classic is what you might call "museum quality" - at least as much a work of art as it is an invitation to play. And here's a little extra reassurance: Gigamic will replace lost parts, for FREE, for the first 10 years of ownership!

Captain Clueless - navigate your way to fun

2009-05-28T12:51:00.000-04:00

Gather enough people so you can have 2 teams - at least 4, maybe 8. Kids, parents, friends, whoever feels like playing something that's a little like a team version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and maybe a little more like a team version of the Major FUN-award-winning Par Out Golf.

Let Team Two start for a change. They select one player. That player picks a Port Card, looks for where that port is on the board - a humorously drawn of a navigator's map of the Caribbean - checks one last time where it is relative to his team's home port, and then puts his blindfold on. Somebody from her team puts a marker in her hand, puts the point of the marker on the home port, while somebody else from the other team starts the 45 second timer, announcing the beginning of the turn with the proverbial "bon voyage." Her team can give her only one-word clues, how many clues depending on the destination number. The first port of call can get up to 5 clues, each subsequent port, one clue less, and the final voyage back to the home port has to be made with only 2 clues. According to the rules, if you are "able to draw a clear route and land your marker in the anchor icon of your chosen port of call, remove your blindfold and marvel at your achievement."

Designed by Ted Cheatham and published by Gamewright Games, Captain Clueless turns out to be Major FUN - for kids (as young as 8), for families (younger kids can do the drawing while the rest of the family helps with the directions), with anybody in a playful, party-like mood. You can easily change some of the rules to keep everyone in play - increasing the number of clue words per turn, opting to play without the timer, allowing only nautical-like clues (hard a-port!). Though it's possible to play the game with just two players, the teamplay aspect of the experience is what really distinguishes this game from anything you've ever played before. It's not Pin the Tail on the Donkey. You're not trying to succeed all by yourself. The other players aren't trying to confuse you or make things harder for you. You're being supported by your team. You're the Captain, and though you might be "clueless" you are most definitely not "crewless."

The board is large and fun to look at. It is finished so that it is very easy to erase. The markers are full-size, and, since you're not allowed to have any part of your body touch the board while you're sailing, help to keep the right distance from the board. The sailing fantasy reinforces the "adventure" feel of the game, conveying the tone as well as concept, adding humor, clarity, and an invitation to practice, or make up your own sailing jargon. It's very easy to learn, the rules are very clearly written (on one, thoughtfully laminated page), and it most definitely makes people laugh.

Kayak Chaos - play your cards, shoot the rapids, grow the river, watch out for boulders and whirlpools and cunning competitors

2009-05-28T11:37:00.000-04:00

You're racing your kayak down-river. Maybe up-river. Well, not really a kayak. More like a brightly-colored wooden playing piece that looks a little like an iron with a knob in the middle. On the other hand, it's enough kayak-like to give you that kayak-racing feeling. And it's not actually a river, you know, but a brightly colored, pleasantly thick, nicely textured piece of cardboard showing something like a rocky river bottom divided into 5 different-colored lanes. One of 8 pleasantly thick river pieces, now that we're counting. Some of them have boulders in some of the lanes. Others have rapids. Rapids good. Boulders bad.

And then there's a deck of 54 action cards - also nicely textured, but sufficiently shufflable and dealable and hand-holdable. And, as advertised, it's in these very action cards where the action takes place - cards that let you move forward or sideways or reposition the river cards, even. Each of up to 4 players is dealt a hand of 5 action cards. On your turn, you get to play as many as 3 cards. Having this choice accounts for much of the fun, significantly enhancing the strategic depth of the game.

The cards are clearly illustrated and color-coded. There are single and double "paddle" cards that allow you to go forward or backwards one or two spaces. There are single and double "swerve" cards which allow you to swerve into an adjacent lane - one or two spaces, in either direction. "Weather Shift" cards allow you to shift any river card so that one lane becomes unplayable (preferably the lane your opponents are on). "Kayak Tipping" cards allow you to rotate a river card. "Whirlpool" cards let you exchange the positions of any two adjacent river cards. And Life Ring cards can prevent another player from playing any of the cards that affect the river cards.

The strategic value of each type of cards encourages players to think hard about what to play and what to keep for another turn. The choice between moving your kayak closer to the goal, or changing the course of the river to keep your opponents from reaching theirs, adds greatly to the tension and the fun of the game.

The name of the game is Kayak Chaos, but the game is only somewhat chaotic. Just chaotic enough to give you hope that you may actually win, but strategically deep enough to make you feel that you can overcome whatever obstacles the river, your opponents, and plain dumb luck send your way.

Designed by SDR Games and published by Simply Fun, Kayak Chaos turns out to be an original and compelling little game. Because of the different kinds of Action Cards and the nature of the river, it takes a little longer to learn (maybe 15 minutes), but it's a game just short enough (maybe 20 minutes) for even your short-attention-spanning computer-playing kids to want to play again and again. With just enough balance between luck and skill to engage kids over 8, and their families, Kayak Chaos proves to be absorbing, glee-evoking, and, from time-to-time, Major FUN.

Letter Roll® - a word game for just about everybody

2009-05-27T10:15:00.000-04:00

It's a word game. It's a party game. It's a family game. It's even a kid's game. It's Letter Roll® - easy to learn, short, intense rounds (lasting one or two minutes each); easily adapted to different skill levels and play preferences, taking some of the best elements from some of the best word games (a little bit of Boggle, a little bit of Major FUN Keeper-award-winning PDQ).

Your Letter Roll® box contains seven, hefty, 20-sided (go ahead, count them) dice in three different colors. Two sand-timers (your orange one-minute and your blue two-minute timer), four commodious worksheet pads and four full-sized, sharpened pencils. The different colors of the dice identify the level of difficulty (letter frequency) each die introduces. The two white dice display frequently-used letters, the three blue dice less frequently-used letters, and the two orange dice the infrequently-used, and hence, the most challenging.

When it's your turn to roll, you select any four of the dice. This gives you some control over the level of challenge. Choose only blue and orange dice, and you have an extremely challenging round. Choose only white and blue dice for a refreshingly less challenging round. Just to keep power where it most comfortably belongs, an other player gets to eliminate one of your chosen dice, so that ultimately it's not totally your fault if the round turns out to be too easy or too challenging.

Once the final selection is revealed, the roller announces the letters rolled, and players race to write down as many unique words as they can think of that use all three letters. As long as each word uses all the letters, it doesn't matter what order the letters are in. (Having the roller announce the letters, by the way, is another welcome, controversy-avoiding touch - as determining which face of the 20-sided dice are actually showing can prove somewhat of a challenge.) Players race to write as many words as they can think of, knowing that at the end of the round they will only score for words that no other player has chosen. When the time is mercifully up, players take turns reading their lists while the rest of the players draw lines through any of the words on their list that get called out. This results in much, somewhat good-natured, but clearly mournful moaning as scoring potential gets graphically reduced. When all lists have been read, players announce and record their scores, getting one point for each unique word remaining on their lists. This encourages originality, cleverness and obscurity, all comfortably confused by a strong element of pure chance.

To further refine the intensity of the game, players can select either timer, the one- or two-minute sand timer, to be used during the duration of the game. The one-minute timer not only shortens the playing time, it also makes the search somewhat less excruciating. The less time you have to think, the easier it is for you to forgive your lexicographic lapses.

Designed by Tushar Gheewala, the challenge presented by Letter Roll is so wonderfully flexible that it can be played by kids as young as 7 or 8 (just reduce the number of dice) or by adults in the prime of their linguistic abilities (increase the number of dice, increase the number of letters required for each word). By allowing each player to determine which dice to be used, players can further refine the challenge as each round of the game is played. It's a great 2-player game, and, with only slight modification of the rules, you can have as many as 20 players happily engaged (team play takes the game to an hilarity-inducing level of collaboration and chaos). As with just about every game published by Out of the Box, the components are designed for years of play, the box for easy storage, the rules for clarity and durability.

Let those good times roll again. Letter Roll® is Major FUN.

Wordquest - probably the most fun you can have with word search puzzles

2009-05-26T09:45:00.000-04:00

What would you call a word search game that is not just a puzzle, but a deeply engaging, and often laugh-provoking contest for 2-4 players? How about if it were not played with paper and pencil at all, but on a board - a very cleverly designed board that reveals the words you are searching for one at a time, and the first person who can find that word must be the first to squeeze a very silly noise maker, and only then can use her own contact-lens-like plastic chips to cover each letter in that word, every letter being connected in a straight line exactly as you would expect in a word search puzzle? And, to top it all off, what if, when the line in which that word was found crosses a word that another player had already created, that player's chips were removed from the board, and, should that result in another word that is already claimed to suddenly become incomplete, those chips as well were to be removed? So that you can never really tell who is winning, even though you might be 40 chips ahead of everyone else, until the very end of the game?

You'd call it two things. You'd call it Wordquest, because that's the name of the game. And the other thing you'd call it would be Major FUN, because it's exactly the kind of game the Major FUN award was designed for.

Like almost every game published by Goliath, every aspect of the game is designed for ease of use and long-lasting fun. Each of the 20, differently-themed word search puzzles is printed on a large, laminated disc. The disc is mounted on a round base. A transparent grid provides concave receptacles for the transparent, concave, playing chips. Because the chips and the receptacles are both concave, it is extremely easy to use a finger tip to place and remove them during play. A mounting ring fits on top of the grid and covers all the target words. Rotating the ring reveals each word to be found. Zip-lock baggies are provided for the chips, and four pits surround the playing area so that the chips are easily accessible during play. At the end of the game, everything fits back in the box with ease.

Being able to remove words that the opponents have already scored is probably one of the most compelling of all the clever mechanics that have gone into making Wordquest as fun as it is. Though there is no strategy involved in playing the game, when you successfully cross words with another player you get the same sense of smug superiority as you would if your victory were actually justified.

And then there's that squeaky, exclamation-mark-like thing that you use to announce that you've been the first to find a word. It makes such a perfectly silly sound that it's almost hard to take it seriously, even if you're the one who didn't find the word.

Younger children who are old enough to successfully solve word search puzzles might have difficulty with the small chips and the competitive aspect of the game. We'd recommend it to families with kids who are old enough to appreciate both. And, of course, to anyone who likes the visual and conceptual challenge of word search puzzles. Even if you don't like word search puzzles.