The MAJOR FUN Awards

A Lesson in Game Design from the creator of Triagonal

2008-08-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

I recently received an email from David Barnes, inventor of the Major FUN award-winning Triagonal, telling me about his new, free compilation of 40 different puzzles to explore with your Triagonal set.

With these puzzles, David offers more than a challenging and fascinating resource. He exemplifies a lesson for anyone who is contemplating designing a game: if you hope to make a successful game, you have to create a game that you are in love with.

Love? To what else can you attribute the years Dave has spent exploring the depths this one game concept, the almost heroic effort Dave has been putting in, not only in manufacturing and marketing his game concept, but to a deepening exploration of all things Triagonal (in addition to these puzzles, he's developed at least 12 different games to play with your Triagonal set)?

Everything about the game reflects his passion and devotion and faith in this one invention of his. Understandably so. Because he has created something significantly playworthy. Because, as with anyone who creates something fun, the only logical next step is to devote much of your life to sharing it with, basically, the known universe.

miQube

2008-08-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

miQube is a lovely thing. All wood. Colorful. Sculptural. But that doesn't explain how playworthy it turns out to be.

Playworthy as in something fascinating, challenging, inviting. Like a puzzle, but like a game, too. Like a toy, even. Playworthy as in something that can be played with in enough different ways to make you want to make up your own. Playworthy as in something closely approaching Major FUN.

There are 13 different pieces, and a die. All but one of the pieces is a different combination of 5 cubes. Each is 6-sided, each has faces of different color, depending on orientation. The other piece is made out of 4 cubes. It also has 6 different colors. As does the die, which is made of one rounded-corner cube. All wood. All solid wood.

You don't have to use everything, but you can purportedly fit all 13 pieces into a cube with every face a different color. It's not quite as hard as solving a Rubik's Cube. And the instructions describe 4 different games you can play with your miQube and 1, 2 or even 3 friends. And once you've played all 4 different games and discovered their differences, you can't help thinking about making up a 5th game. Your own. Because of all the different ways you can play with the pieces.

Lovely, lovely thing. Most worthy of a position of honor on the family coffee table. Most conducive to several many hours of happily challenged playtime.

The Homemade Games Guru

2008-07-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Luanga Nuwame, the Homemade Games Guru, has dedicated considerable effort to teaching people how to make their own home made games. A professional game designer himself, Lue has produced a series of instructional videos on the design and production of personalized toys and games using only household materials. For example, a homemade beanbag toss, and, for another example, a set of magnetic refrigerator checkers.

For Lue, the making at home part of the homemade game, regardless of what game gets made or whether or not it's actually made at home, is key. Because, he explains, if you make a game, you can make it your own. You can embed pictures of family members or photos of last summer's vacation, making the game into a unique expression of the people for whom it is designed. The people at home. Yourself. Your extended family and friends.

Lue believes that making a personalized game helps people create something meaningful for them, personally. The "deep" fun part of it all, comes from people making the game together, for each other, and from the experience of seeing each other play a game that really reflects their lives together - experiences, favorite things, silly memories.

Making a game together helps create a closer family, explains Lue. "The fun of it lies in the interaction, conversation, contact with everyone. At the same time, making a game that allows you to express "you," means that every time you play the game, you are the star. Having something unique, that expresses me, uniquely, is deeply fun."

As a designer and instructor, Lue sees himself as being able to give families something that is really up to them to interpret, to personalize. He focuses on giving families the basics, knowing that with this kind of clarity, families and friends will provide their own content and ensuring it reflects their own selves. And therein, in the playful and personal connection between parent and child, friend and family, explains Lue, lies the fun.

Say Anything

2008-07-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

North Star Games is one of those rare companies that places a high premium on quality over quantity. Although the company was founded in 2003, they have only published 3 games. Each of them has been Major FUN, and each production seems to be getting better than the previous one.

Say Anything, their latest creation, is a light-hearted party game that will get you and your friends talking and laughing in no time. Everything about the game reflects years of play testing, and finer and finer tuning. The rules are wonderfully easy to understand - clearly written and presented, every question answered. Everything fits in the box just so. The write-on, wipe-off boards (8 answer boards and a scoreboard) write on easily (golf-pencil-sized wipe-off-able markers included) and wipe off even more easily. The 400 Question Cards are pleasantly thick yet amply bendy. The little, graphic-and-color-coordinated Player Chips are non-bendy enough to be satisfyingly chip-like. And the state of the art SELECT-O-MATIC 5000...one can barely comment enough about the functionality, portability, and virtually cordless battery-freedom!

Of course, it's the fun that counts - even more than all the well-thought-out-edness of the packaging and game components. Let's start with a Say Anything card. There are 5 questions to choose from which means you’ll always be able to ask something that suits the people you’ve invited to your gathering. The question all have something to do with your right to, well, say, as it were, anything. Some of the questions solicit your pop culture opinions, some are about personal experiences, some are slightly serious, and a handful are seriously ridicules (designed just to make you laugh). If for example, we picked the question "What TV channel would be the hardest to live without?" Really, you could write anything on your Answer Board. I mean, you like what you like. Write anything. Say anything. What's to argue about?

So you write what you write (it can be non-sequitur if you want), and toss your Answer Board face-up on the table. She or He Who Holds the SELECT-O-MATIC 5000 (SoHWHtS-O-M5000) will read all the answers, and pick a favorite response. Any favorite response - for any reason. Because SoHWHtS-O-M5000 can, of course Select Anything.

Now everybody else tries to guess what answer was picked. It turns out that the SoHWHtS-O-M5000 gets a point for everyone who votes for His or Her chosen Answer Board (up to a maximum of 3 points). They guess by using their well-designed, chip-like, color-coordinated Player Chips. They each have two. Which means they can put both chips down on the same Answer Board, or select two Answer Boards to carry their personal Player Chip-ness. Ah, an opportunity to demonstrate something to everyone in attendance - two chips to manifest your personal certainty, or your clever covering of the bases, so to speak.

Finally SoHWHtS-O-M5000 reveals the chosen board, and players gain points accordingly, which the Holder of the Write-On Wipe-Off-able Score Board dutifully records. And in the mean time, much laughter tends to erupt. Much laughter. Because of the unexpected answers people come up with, the unpredictable perspicacity of their votes, the verifiable silliness of the task, and, for some, because of the score they get.

Say Anything is the very kind of game the Major Fun Award was designed for. It takes a few minutes to learn, a good half hour or so to play, and can be played with your basic 3-8 people. Maybe 16 if you play in teams. Probably 24, tops.

Jishaku

2008-07-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

Jishaku is at least as much a toy as it is a game. At least. It is fun to play. It is even more fun to play with.

It's those 18, lovely, polished, irregularly-shaped, powerfully magnetic hematite pieces - in a velveteen drawstring bag, no less. And then there's that appropriately cushy yet egg-carton-looking-and-feeling piece of foam to try to put them into. They invite curiosity. Just putting the pieces into their foamy homes, watching them almost evilly turn towards the piece you're hoping to place near them. Watching what happens when you turn your piece over. Getting shocked into laughter at the almost electric sound of the pieces suddenly coming together, just when, of course, you didn't expect them to move, or be so numerous in their sudden commingling.

The designers give you three different games to play. We played them. We laughed, and then a few minutes later we had kind of enough. We played. We figured out. We played again. And then we went to the next, and then to the one after that.

And when we ran out of games and laughter, we made up our own.

And therein, apparently, lies the Major FUN-nitude of Jishaku. It's a game that is such a fun thing to play with that you can't really judge it by any set of rules - something (a game, a toy to make up games for) you can play with your kids and your parents, and vice-versa. Hence the Family Games category.

You can play by yourself. You can play in teams. You can play a round in 5 minutes or less. You can play with the board and pieces for hours.

Woodchuck, etc.

2008-07-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

There's a Swedish game called Kubb , which is quite similar to the Karelian game of Kyykka and clearly connected to the Russo-Canadian game of Bunnock, which was originally played with the ankle bones of horses. There's also the Finnish game of Molkky, which is a relatively close relative, but different. Which brings us to Woodchuck - a faithful reproduction of the Swedish original, but played with 4 Woodchucks instead of 5, and 5 throwing batons instead of 6.

Since Woodchuck is moderately priced and readily available here in the US through Simply Fun, let's talk Woodchuck.

Woodchucks are made of wood, which, from the Kubb-perspective, is quite traditional. You can play on a lawn, or in the sand, or any nice flat area, 12-feet wide and 25-feet deep. Four Woodchucks are placed at one end of the playing field, spaced evenly apart, in a line. The other 4 are placed at the other end. The King Woodchuck is placed exactly in the middle of the field.

There are two teams, which, for the sake of clarity (which, even though the game is quite simple, will soon prove most valuable), let's call one team the Beavers and the other the Otters.

Teams don't have to have the same number of players. You could have 6 Beavers and only 4 Otters. Or even just 1 Otter if things turn out that way.

Let's say the Beavers go first. They throw their Throwing Batons, one at a time, underhanded, end-over-end, at the Otters' Woodchucks. It's like throwing horseshoes, the idea being to knock over all of the Otter's Woodchucks while being extremely careful not to knock over the King Woodchuck. And let's further say that the Beavers managed to hit 3 of the Otter's 4 Woodchucks.

Now it's the Otters' turn. Remember, they only have one standing Woodchuck. Oddly enough, before they can throw any of their Throwing Batons at the Beavers' Woodchucks, they first have to throw each of their fallen Woodchucks into the Beaver's half of the playing field. Then they stand each of those Field Woodchucks on their ends. Then they use their Throwing Batons to try to knock over their Field Woodchucks. And then, and only then, can they aim for the Beavers' Woodchucks. Know what I mean?

What makes this all so difficult to understand is that the game breaks a central convention of most sports. The Woodchucks are more obstacles than targets, and the obstacles get moved around as the game progresses. There is only one actual target - the King Woodchuck.

Anyhow, once a team has managed to knock over all the Woodchucks on the other team's side, then they can go for the King.

Clearly, from a Junkyard Sports perspective, this game can be played with almost anything that you can stand up and knock over. And you can use tennis balls or tuna cans as easily as you can use Throwing Batons. In fact, the article on Kyykka points out that students frequently make their own sets using:

80 empty 500ml beer cans (330ml soft drink cans work as well)
Sand
Duct tape
Plastic/aluminium piping

And one more thing that makes it especially worthy of our collective consideration, found in the Wikipedia article, is the observation that "sportsmanship and a sense of fair play...is a trademark of this unique game."

Rules Rule

2008-07-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Blue Orange makes many beautiful games, beautifully made, beautiful to play. Specifically, recently, a game called Fundomino and another, Double Shutter. Both are available in last-forever plastic housed in life-long tins, as well as in an impressive selection of all-woody embodiments. And both are fun - uniquely, ingeniously, play-again-worthy fun.

Both are based on games of time-tested appeal. Fundomino is based on on Blue Orange's very successful Bendomio, which, in turn, is based on the even more successful and much older game of Dominoes. Double Shutter is based on a game known variously as Shut the Box, Tric Trac, Canoga, Batten Down the Hatches, or Card Sharks. But it's just different enough, because it adds, well, a whole new level, as it were, of things to flip.

If you don't quite understand what I mean by "things to flip" you'll understand why I decided, clearly, most reluctantly, not to give these games their rightful Major FUN due. It's the rules, see, of both games. See, if you don't know the games they are based on, the rules turn out to be just a little too subtle, which, in turn, turns out to be a little too frustrating. Like, for example, figuring out that you keep on rolling the dice, on your turn, over and over, until you can't roll them any more. And then it's the next player's turn. Simple, something everyone should know. O, it's in the rules, if you look hard enough, and you are ready for a radical change in assumptions. The same when you're playing Fundomino. Fun. Really. Until you try to figure out what connects to a Yellow Plus, for example.

But the games, in every way, are Major FUN. Really. And if you can't quite figure out the rules, you can make up your own. It's easy enough. And there's enough play value in the bended-dominoes-with-UNO-like-wild-tiles, or in the beautifully-crafted dice-box with two rows to, uh, shut.

Major FUN-wise, though, seal-givingly, if only the rules were just a tiny bit more obvious, written, illustrated a bit more directly for the casual American family gamer, the seal would be on both games, complete with the all the endorsement thereby implied.

ZenBenders

2008-06-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

ZenBenders is a sliding-block puzzle, of the infamous 15 Puzzle ilk, with a twist, which is to say, a flip.

Each of the 4 puzzles in the ZenBenders series consists of 8 blocks that can be slid around inside of a 3x3 matrix. What makes the puzzles unique is that you can also flip the blocks over, so that a different face is revealed. After you play around with the puzzle for a while, you begin to discover that you can not only flip the blocks, but, by moving a block so that it is either vertically or horizontally adjacent to the empty square, you can actually reorient the blocks, almost as if you twisted them, hence the twist, as well as the flip.

The puzzles are designed to be played almost anywhere. They come in a compact-like case. The top of the case is a transparent lid. The bottom of the case twists off to reveal a collection of 36 different challenges, with three different levels of difficulty. There's even a slit in the case so it can hold and display your chosen challenge card, affording you something close to complete puzzle portability.

As you play these puzzles, you begin to appreciate the uniqueness of the concept (the intricacies of the slide as well as the flip with the conceptual twist) as well as the added perceptual challenges posed by each of the 4 different designs. This is reason enough to buy at least 2 of the series. If not all 4. Another reason for getting more than one is the extra game play potential of racing each other to the solution.

These puzzles are as fun as they can be frustrating (that's why there are different levels of challenge). It takes only a few minutes to learn how to work the puzzle. Most of the puzzles can be solved fairly quickly (the people at Out-of-the-Box claim that they can be solved in 2 minutes. This, however, was not our experience. But this also was where much of the fun came in. The puzzles can get really, really challenging. For adults as well as kids. Hence, the Major FUN Family Award.

Designed by Ariel Laden, ZenBenders is recommended for kids who are 8 and older. It is well-conceived, well-executed, and, well, to coin a phrase, Major FUN.

Rock!

2008-06-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

We are always looking for games that can be learned very quickly, that take maybe a few minutes per round, and that are fun enough to play several many times with several many people. Rock! is exactly that kind of game. A card game. For two players. Based on Rock/Scissors/Paper.

It's not really Rock/Scissors/Paper. Actually, almost not at all. Players divide the deck between them, and then, in a War-like fashion, they simultaneously reveal the card that is on top of their pile. The winner is not necessarily the person who has the winning symbol. It's the first person to name the winning symbol. So what you get is this unexpectedly challenging game, where you have to think very fast in deed. First, you have to decide which symbol is the winning one. Then you have to remember that it doesn't matter whose card "actually" won - what matters is that you are the first to name it. Then, just to add to the mental agony of it all, there are 4 different cards for each symbol. Paper, for example, can either be the card showing an inbox filled with an enormous stack of paper, or a paper airplane, or paper swan or a string of paper dolls.

Designed by Anita James, Rock! is a great kids' game - perfect for starting or ending a rainy afternoon, easy enough to learn to get both players almost immediately involved, short enough to play almost any time - before or after dinner, right after homework, just before snack, maybe even instead of watching TV! Yes, of course, parents can play too. And I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that you've figured out a way to play with three people, or that you've come up with some variation that makes the game as interesting for adults as it is engaging for kids. Because it's that kind of game - elegantly simple, significantly fun.

Par Out Golf

2008-06-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

We used to play a game called something like Paper Golf. I was a kid then, so that makes it a folk game, at least. It was a great little game - you draw something that looks like a golf hole. You take your pencil and try to get from tee to hole in the fewest number of strokes. If you hit something (a tree, a rock) or go into a sand or water trap, you lose strokes or have to start your next shot from that point. And that's pretty much it. Except you have to do it with your eyes closed!

It was such a good game that, ever since I first played it, I wondered why someone hadn't come out with a commercial version, one that takes the game as seriously as it deserves. I am happy to inform you that someone has. And it's called "Par Out Golf." And it's, as I might have imagined, most definitely Major FUN.

Par Out Golf is played on a set of spiral bound, laminated pages. Special "wet-erase" markers are used so the line is easy to draw, won't smudge, and very easy to erase. The rules are very, very close to the game of golf, complete with sand and water traps, obstacles and slopes. So close is it to "real" golf, you can play each of five classic variations of golf: stroke play, match play, tombstone play, and pro play.

Of the several skills you practice while playing Par Out Golf, a fascinating, and, to any golf player, significant challenge is learning how to visualize your shot. The more observant you are, the more capable you are at remembering the lay of the land, the more effectively you can imagine the exact amount of drive to put on the ball, the better you'll do. This, of course, is the essence of Par Out Golf. Like "real" golf, Par Out Golf challenges both mind and body. If you want to know more about the physical and cognitive aspects of the game, take a look at the thoughtfully included essay: Par Out Science 101.

If you want, you can practice on the Driving Range (on another page) or use the 19th hole (on yet another page) to design your own. You can add your own obstacles, changing the difficulty of each hole, essentially making the game something you can play for-just-about-ever.

Par Out Golf is recommended for 1 to 4 players (it comes with four different wet-erase markers). If you must try before you buy, you can download the first three holes here.

Triagonal

2008-05-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

Triagonal will remind you a paper-and-pencil game you played when you were a kid. Maybe you called it "Dots and Boxes." You'll probably be at least somewhat enlighten-upped to discover that there are several fascinating variations like, for example, a game that combines Dots and Boxes with chess. All of which demonstrates that the strategic delight of our childhood memories has the capacity to delight us even whilst we revel in the throes of our grown-uphood.

But enough about Dots and Boxes. Because today we are talking about Triagonal, a new Dots and Boxes like game, only it's about triangles, and it's played on a molded plastic board with 120 plastic triangles (4 sets of 30, each of a different color), 84 Section Formers (little plastic rectangles that serve as the lines you would use to connect the dots, if there were dots to connect), and, oddly enough, two dice.

Players take turns (unless you're playing the solitaire version), placing Section Formers and hoping to complete a triangle, and claim territory. You can, of course, play the game with no dice at all, much in the manner of how you'd play Dots and Boxes if you had a lovely board upon which to play. There are a couple Triagonal-specific rules which add to the complexity and challenge of the game: you get extra points if you complete a hexagon, and if you complete a large triangle (made of nine of your markers) you win the game right then and there.

But that, you see, is only the beginning. There are 4 more optional ways to play, plus two meta-options (e.g.: play several games, using any of the 5 options, the player with the highest overall score being the winner). And that's just the options on the box. You can download an additional passel of options, for, of course, free (with registration).

Now these are not variations, but actually different ways to play, depending on your mood and on the people you're playing with. Some people need a certain element of luck in order to have fun - so you play the options that use one or both of the dice. So you have an already interesting game, with the added interest of a collection of options that allow you to add or reduce the elements of luck and complexity. (For more about the social and psychological implications of being able to change elements of complexity, see this).

There are many game designers who include alternate rules and modifications, but these are usually presented as afterthoughts to the "real" game. Triagonal takes a different approach, giving each different way of playing its place as yet another aspect of the "real game." This makes for a unique playing experience - one, given the alternate rules, that can be shared with anyone older than 4, and that can only be called "Major FUN."

Key Largo

2008-05-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

Searching for gold in the oceans is something many of us dream of doing, while few of us actually follow up on it. Key Largo is a game that allows players to simulate this in a silly, entertaining way. Players take turns simultaneously selecting what their divers are going to do during the ten day timeline of the game. Divers can purchase equipment, earn cash by taking tourists out to see the dolphins, dive for treasure, sell treasures, or hang out at the local tavern. Each of these actions is affected by the number of players who partake in them; for example, if two players both go to the store to buy equipment, the prices are higher. This adds an element of guessing and interaction to the game that keeps players intrigued with their opponent's choices.

Diving for treasure requires equipment, but divers must also beware of random monsters that may appear. Preparing to fight the monsters takes time and money, but a player attempting to skirt the costs may find themselves looking for a new diver! Players only have a few choices to make each turn, but everything fits into a nice, thematic framework that makes complete sense. The illustrations are outrageously ridiculous, the components are of high quality, and the development of the game keeps things moving at a quick clip.

The game offers a nice variety of strategic choices, but it really shines as a family game. Children will delight in searching through the stacks of cards for treasure, and watching their parents get gobbled by a monster (a large octopus). Outguessing opponents, trying to maximize one's money, and simply laughing at the funny pictures make Key Largo a tremendous family activity. Younger players will learn how to count money and how to make a profit when selling, although they may need some help with the mathematics. At the same time, they can remain competitive with their parents due to the vagaries of treasure finding. This treasure hunting is a great draw to the game and is one that will appeal to many new gamers.

A game that looks more complicated than it is, with a ton of Major FUN packed in the box, Key Largo is a great choice for casual gaming, with stunning components and simple, laughing game play. I'll be diving for treasure in Key Largo for quite some time - it might very well be one of the best games of 2008.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
The Dice Tower

Go Nuts!

2008-05-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen anyone go crazy when playing a game? Go Nuts!, a new entry in Gamewright's 12-Minute Games series, certainly seems to encourage this in the title alone! The frenzied activities of the game add a level of wackiness and fun not often found in dice games, and the "push-your-luck" aspect will keep players on the edge of their seat for the few minutes this game takes to complete.

On a player's turn, they simply roll five dice that have squirrels, acorns, and cars on their faces. Each acorn a player rolls scores the player one point, while cars are placed out of play. Players are allowed to re-roll all dice with squirrels and/or nuts on them; but they can stop at any time, taking the sum of points they have accumulated. Continuing to roll presents a level of danger. Because if the player ever rolls all cars at one time, their turn ends immediately; and any points gained that turn are lost. If the player rolls all squirrels, pandemonium breaks out. The player shouts, "Go Nuts!", and starts rolling the dice as fast as they can, attempting to score as many points as they gather. All the other players roll one special die that has a dog picture on a single face. When another player rolls a dog, they scream out "Woof, woof, woof!" and the player whose turn it is tallies up their points and passes the dice to the next player.

To add an even spicier element to the game, a player who has only a single die remaining gets all five dice back if they roll an acorn. Since the chance of causing a "nutty" round or losing all the dice because of cars is high, players have to assess the risks of doing this, although it may allow a player to come back into the competition.

Whenever "Go Nuts!" is shouted, it's hilarious to watch everyone rolling dice as fast as they can, trying to stop the player from gaining any more points. Rapid-fire dice rolling is amazingly fun; and when added to the simple probability choices, it gives the game a most definitely Major FUN feeling. I've seen groups of people literally shrieking in fun as they tossed the dice at the table, trying desperately to get a dog before Uncle Bob scores any more points; and no one is ever out of competition until the game ends. Add the fact that the game takes less than 12 minutes to play to the mix, and you have a wonderful choice for families and parties.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
The Dice Tower

Boochie

2008-05-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Boochie, by Gamewright Games, is an obvious play and variation on the popular game Bocce. But while Bocce can become an intense affair, especially for adults, Boochie is more of a silly, fun game for the family. Really - can you even say "Boochie" without smiling? Additionally, the Boochie ball itself is not a sphere, but a foam dodecahedron that bounces in odd directions and feels like one of those items that every household should have.

To play the game, each player takes a large plastic ring and beanbag ball of their color, placing a matching scoring device on their wrist. One player tosses the Boochie ball a distance away, and then players take turns throwing their beanbag balls and/or rings towards it. The player who has the closest object scores two points, and the player with the second closest object receives one point. Players also score points for "ringing" another player's bean bag or the Boochie ball itself. Finally, the Boochie ball lists another requirement ("+2 for the players with hoops closest together", "+1 for the object farthest away", etc.) that gives out bonus points. Players mark their points on the dial, which is on their wrist, and begin another round.

But that's where things become deliciously interesting. As players gain points, they suddenly have to toss the ball in strange and unusual ways. One player may be forced to make loud noises as they throw, while another must toss objects backwards, between their legs. This accomplishes two things - it increases the silliness (and therefore, fun) factor of the game, while it allows players who are behind to catch up. The more points a player has; the more difficult their throw is.

And therein lies the joy of the game, as families with a wide range of players can effectively play a fairly competitive game and remain close in competition. Little Johnny may throw his ring in a completely different direction and yet gain a point for being the farthest away. Young Tisha might laugh at Dad, as he has to jump while throwing, which results in hilarious contortions. Boochie is simply a fun, entertaining game that can be played outdoors or in large, open rooms. The fact that any group of four players can play this game designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative means that it is Major FUN. Boochie Boochie Boochie Boochie. See, I told you it was fun to say!

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
The Dice Tower

Attribute

2008-04-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Attribute, another minor wonder of strategic silliness from Z-Man Games, is a word game inviting more than a bit of psycho-strategico contemplation.

There are two decks of cards: one deck of 60 sheep cards and another of 164 attribute cards. There are only two kinds of sheep in your cutely-illustrated sheep card deck - the green sheep card of topic matching and the red, out-of-topic sheep card. There are 164 kinds of attribute cards, indicated by words like: "spooky," "bleak," "wild," and "furry."

Each person gets 4 attribute cards and one sheep card. Let's say you have a red sheep card. You put that card face down, in front of you. One player, anyone, actually, makes up a topic. Really, literally, any topic. For example: crime. You are more or less in luck. At least one of your 4 cards clearly and obviously is unrelated to "crime." For example, "Furry." But perhaps less in luck than you might first have thought. Because if you put down your Furry card it will be fairly obvious to everyone that you are a red sheep. It might have been better to use your "spooky" card, or even the card called "wild." At least you might make someone hesitate.

Because, you see, when all is said and done, and everyone has put their sheep face down and an attribute face up, players then select (e.g. grab) any face down pair, the object being to have grabbed a green sheep, and not a red, don't you see. So when all the pairs are on the table, you have to think very, very quickly - is the attribute that's revealed enough like the category to be covering a green sheep? Or is it perhaps a ruse, or a rouge, by any other name?

Since Attribute can be played by as many as 8 people, it is definitely a party game. It might also succeed as a family game, depending on age of the youngest players. We'd recommend 10 and above for a mixed age group, and 8-10 for a kids' game.

Designed by Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle, Attribute is a unique and engaging word game. Major FUN.

On the Dot

2008-04-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

It's a puzzle. It's a game. It's visual. It's logical. It's On the Dot, and it's Major FUN.

You get 4 transparent squares, each of which shows a different pattern of colored dots. You also get 64, square puzzle cards, each of which also shows a different pattern of colored dots. The challenge: arrange all 4 transparent squares to match the pattern on the puzzle card.

The thing is, each transparent square has 8 possible positions. If they weren't transparent, there'd only be 4. But, see, you can not only turn them clockwise, or counterclockwise, or upside-down or downside-up, you can also turn them over.

And then, since you always have to use all 4 transparent squares, there's learning how to hide the wrong-colored dots underneath the right-colored dots. This works, because though the game cards are transparent, the dots aren't.

And when you play it competitively (there are 4 sets of transparent squares, so up to 4 people can play), you're all turning and flipping those colored squares and sometimes surprising the heck out of each other and yourselves when the solution actually appears.

This is a grown-up kind of puzzle/game, perceptually challenging, logically subtle. You probably need to be at least a fifth-grader before the fun really kicks in.

And it's just about the perfect "filler" game for a games party - since people can pick it up and understand what the puzzle is about almost immediately, amaze onlookers with their brilliance, play with it for 5 minutes or an hour, and, when the time is right, invite others into a game of significant tension and even more significant fun.

Set Cubed

2008-04-16T06:40:00.000-07:00

You, of course, know the game Set, from, as a matter of fact, Set Enterprises - the card game where you race to find "sets" of three cards. The cards show 3 different kinds of shapes, in 3 different colors, in 3 different shadings, in 3 different numbers. A set, then, is 3 cards, in which the attributes are the same, or all different. You can read all the rules here. Set has become such a successful game that its puzzles are even carried in the New York Times.

Now, however, there's Set Cubed. Instead of cards, there are dice (hence "cubed"), a lot of dice, 42 of them. Instead of racing to be the first to identify a set, you take turns placing the dice on a board, using yours with those that are already on the board to complete a new Set, as defined by the above cited Set-making rules.

This turns out to be a very different experience than that of the card game, socially and intellectually. You take turns. On your turn, everyone else is quiet. Nobody's yelling out anything. You can think. You can contemplate, even. Which is good, because there's also more to contemplate. Like, for example, the growing cluster of connected Sets, each die played opening up the possibility for yet another Set to be built. And the bonus squares that add much-relished points if you can only use them. And the purported possibility of creating two Sets at the same time, even.

2-4 players, 8 and older. Major FUN, in deed.

Party Pooper

2008-04-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

In the latest Out-of-the-Box card-(432 cards)-reading, personality-predicting, finger-pointing fun.

There's a die (the Party Cube). You roll the die. That tells you whether you are looking for the most or least likely person in the group who, for example, would join a bow-hunting safari. It says "Party Pooper," so you're looking for the person you think would be least likely to want to join that old bow-hunting safari. At the count of three, everybody points. Since it's you're turn to be the prime pointer (the "host"), you point to the person you think is the Pooper, while at the same time everyone points to the person they think would be the person you would point at. Get it? Not necessarily the "real" person. Just the person they think you would point at. Then everyone who pointed at the same person you pointed to gets points (chip) and gets to give you points (also a chip) ("gets" as in "has to"). Everybody else, the nay-pointers, as it were, gets nothing. And that's the game. And someone else gets to be the host. And the die is rolled. And a card is picked. And people point. And then they laugh.

And that's it, in brief. In sum, Party Pooper, the many-carded game with chips and pointing and laughing, is Major FUN. In a little more depth, I think you should know why this makers suggest that the game be played, yes, by as many as 8 players, in party-like fashion, as long as everyone's at least 12. Physically and emotionally. Because getting pointed at or not, as fun as it can be, is easy to take a little too personally. In fact, there might be people who have been categorized as adults, and yet might actually be prone to taking such playful pointings personally.

And there is an alternate set of rules, actually, that don't involve finger pointing, but rather thumbs-upping or -downing.

But you happen to be the kind of person who plays for fun. And regular-old Party Pooper happens to be just that kind of game, especially with all the pointing. A genuinely fun game. And the people you want to play with are also of that emotional age we consider to be at least 12. And it will be something definitely, deliciously fun, this game of Party Pooper. I promise, or my name is not Major Fun.

Uptown

2008-04-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

Uptown, you see, baby, it's like this, it'll fool you, this Uptown game. It's like that, with it's fancy 30s fonts and the sophisticated 30s night people on its cover. It's a game, all right, but it has nothing to do with guns, dames and booze, nah, not at all. See, that's the surprise. It's way more fun than that.

Speaking of fun again, you should know that the game is, surprisingly, from that fabulous online game store, Funagain. Makes sense. These are the kind of people who should know a good game when they see one. And it looks like they do, at least Uptown-wise.

Uptown is almost as easy to learn as punching out pieces from a chadless die cut board. Which you do. Four boards worth. Each punch a small pleasure. The game board is a grid, 30s-font-labeled A-I on the right and left, and 1-9 on the top and bottom. The grid creates 9 small grids, each 9x9 cells, in a sudoku-reminiscent manner. The cells in each of the 9 inner-grids all have the same graphic symbol in them.

Each player gets 28 square tokens (the ones you had previously so pleasurably detached from each other) - all of the same color. There are 4 different sets, so up to 4 people can play at the same time, or you can play in teams, if you are of such a mind.

You take 5 tiles from your facedown tile pile and place them on your tile holder. The tiles have either a number, a letter or a graphic. This determines where you the tile can be placed on the board. But you still have choice, since there are 9 different squares that every tile can occupy - just enough choice to make you have to think.

The idea is to put your pieces down so that they are all in one cluster, all touching. Me, I think my cluster number was 4. There are other considerations, o yes there are. For example, there's a wild tile that can go anywhere. And there's the thing about the game ending when everyone has only 4 tiles left on their tileholders, thus giving you 4 tiles you don't absolutely have to play, if you don't want to. And there's being able to substitute a tile for one someone else already placed if that tile is by itself or on the end of a cluster. Thus the possibility exists that you might be able to join together two of your clusters or somehow separate one of someone else's.

So you play a tile and then pick a tile from your tile pile and wait your turn to play another tile, and, basically, whoever has the fewest clusters at the end of the game, wins.

Uptown is fun. Gentle fun. Kind of sophisticated. Not flapperish nor even flipperish fun. But just that combination of luck and skill to make you think that you won because you were better. Thinking fun. Major FUN.

Bucket Brigade

2008-04-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

Bucket Brigade - another rather gently competitive game from the profitably playful mind of Renier Knizia - is a horse race game you play basically with cards, a scoreboard and wooden firepeople.

There are only 4 wooden firepeople - a red one, a green one, a blue one and a yellow one - even though 3 or up to 5 humanpeople can play. Each wooden fireperson is a different color. There are also 55 cards. There are cards with red firepeople and cards with blue firepeople, and there are cards with firepeople who are walking and worth one step, and there are cards with firepeople who are walking and worth one step and firepeople who are running and worth. So, if you play a walking red firperson, the red wooden fireperson goes one step higher (one space further) on the ladder-looking scoreboard. And the higher you make a fireperson of certain color go, the higher the worth of the firepeople of the same color depicted on your cards. Totally tally is not taken, however, until one fireperson makes it to the top of the conceptual ladder.

Thus, you see, you're not racing to get a wooden fireperson to the top as much as you're racing to make the firepeople on your cards worth more. Simple enough? Yeah. But kind of fascinating. You wanting the yellow wooden fireperson to get to the space that makes all the yellow card firepeople worth three times as much, her rooting for the blue wooden fireperson.

Kind a like those horse racing games. But different. Easier to play. More fun for the family. Gently competitive. Moderately strategic. Major FUN.

From Face2Face.

Rage

2008-04-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Rage. Being the mild-mannered Major you know me so well to be, it might strike you as uncharacteristic of me. But, you see, I'm talking about a game. A game called "Rage." A card game, for as few as 2, or as many as 8 players, all of whom know about trick-taking games. It will remind you, as a matter of fact, of that old trick-taking game, with the unfortunate, but evocative name "Oh Hell.

The Rage deck consists of 110 Cards of 6 suits of color cards each numbered 0-15. There are 14 "special" cards including: 2 Wild Rage cards, 4 Out Rage cards, 4 Change Rage cards, 2 Mad Rage Card. All those cards, and all those special cards might make you think of another card game. Not a trick-taking game at all, but the rather hilarious, and far less serious UNO game. Which makes sense, since the original publishers of UNO were in fact the same people who publish Rage. (In case you asked, Rage is now published by Fundex).

Trick-taking games. You know about those. The reason I am stressing that point is that we had one person in our Tasting who didn't know about trick-taking games, and it made the game less fun for all of us. If you know about trick-taking games, you can learn Rage in a few minutes.

First, there's the deal. The first deal, each player gets 10 cards, the next 9, the next 8, all the way down to the last round, with one card each. So each round is a little shorter, and the tension a little higher.

Then there's the bidding - everyone declares how many tricks she's going to win that round. Not bidding, really, since you're not trying to out bid anyone. More like, well, declaring.

Then there's the play. A card is thrown. You follow suit. If you can't, you throw anything, or throw trump. You know, like a trick-taking game.

Then there are the wild cards. There's Bonus Rage, which gives 5 points to whomever takes the trick. Mad Rage, which takes 5 points away from the she who took the trick. Out Rage, of course, there is no trump for the rest of the round. Change Rage, which lets you change trump to any color. And Wild Rage - allowing you to change the color of the suit being played.

So, no matter how card-countingly astute you are, anyone at any time can change pretty much everything. Which adds just that extra spice of fate-fickleness to make you laugh instead of scream.

Very Major FUN.

Traverse

2008-04-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Traverse is what you might get if you combine chess and Chinese Checkers - what you might get, that is, if you're something of a relatively brilliant game designer.

Like chess, there are different kinds of pieces, each with its own way of moving. Like Chinese Checkers (which, actually, is itself a variation of a 4-sided game called "Halma"), it's a racing game, the object being to be the first player to get all 8 pieces to the opposite side of the playing board. No capturing, no killing, just moving and jumping and racing to be the first.

Again, like in Chinese Checkers, the flow of the game changes as it progresses. As more pieces are moved towards the center of the board, things get crowded, and the possibilities for making multiple jumps increase. And, as they say, how fun is that? So much fun that players often find themselves so excited by the possibility of a really, significantly multiple jump that they forget that they're supposed to be racing to get their pieces to the other side of the board.

And yet, it's not Chinese Checkers. It's Traverse. And the pieces don't all move the same way. Not at all. One kind of piece can only move orthogonally (the cube-shaped piece), another only diagonally (the diamond shape), another, the triangle-shaped piece, moves diagonally forward, but orthogonally back. And the fourth, the sphere, moves any direction. This means that there's an additional strategic implication to where each piece is placed - relative to the board, relative to other pieces. And if yet further strategic implications are needed, there's the additional wrinkle of how you set up your pieces at the beginning of the game. Since they can be placed in any order (as long as they are on your home row), how you arrange your pieces in the beginning of the game can affect your strategy for the rest. Thus, each time you play, the game takes on a slightly different wrinkle.

Traverse can be played by 2 to 4 players. With 3 players, one player gets less-encumbered access to the goal row, so the other 2 have to cooperate against that player while competing with each other. Each combination leads to a different enough game that you are most definitely going to want to try all 3 possibilities (2, 3 and 4 players).

Despite the strategic complexity of the game, it is easy enough for a 7-year-old to play. The design of the pieces (sphere, cube, diamond and triangle) are of great value in helping the players to remember how each moves.

Educational Insights has recently released its 20th year anniversary edition of Traverse. It's easy to understand why, insofar as it's Major FUN.

Cheeky Monkey

2008-04-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

Cheeky Monkey is what they call a "press your luck" game (similar in its pres-your-luckness to perhaps the archetype of all press your luckish games, the most significantly Major FUN Can't Stop, both of which, coincidentally, are published by Face 2 Face Games). It's easy to learn, and can be played with actually equal glee by both children (7 and up) and adults. Hence making it something like an ideal family game, but an equally good children's game and an even more equally recommended party game.

You get a collection of 52 poker-chip-like tokens, 8 "bonus tiles" (made of satisfyingly thick cardboard), and an even more satisfyingly thick cloth, drawstring bag. There are eight different animals depicted on the chips. Some animals are more numerous than others. For example, there are 10 monkeys but only 3 elephants. There is one tile for each animal, and the total number of of each kind of animal is indicated on the corresponding tile. The eight tiles are placed, face up on the table, and the chips placed in the bag.

On your turn, you pick and pick and pick chips from the bag, until you want to stop picking, or you pick an animal that you've already drawn. In the first case, you keep all the chips you drew. In the second, they go back into the bag - that's right, all of them. You are, of course, sorely tempted to keep on picking. Hence, the press-your-luckishness of the game.

When you have finished picking, you stack your chips, in any order you deem strategically beneficial. On your next turn, you add your winnings, again in any order, but you can't change the order of the chips you've already stacked. The relevance of stacking order becomes especially vivid during play, when you discover that if someone picks an animal that is currently on top of your stack, you must relinquish said animal to the aforementioned someone. This is a clearly less than desirable outcome for you, as the player with the most chips at the end of the game wins.

Then there are the monkeys, those cheeky critters, which, upon pickage, can also be swapped with any animal on top of anyone's stack.

As play progresses and stacks heighten, the strategic implications of stack order and animal distribution become ever more vivid. Seeing as there are only 3 elephants, for example, if you know that the other 2 elephants are already stacked, you can just about secure your stack if you place an elephant on top - that is, as long as no one picks a money and decides to employ it in a cheeky manner.

Yet another game by the prolific designer Reiner Knizia, Cheeky Monkey is further evidence of what good game design is all about. Major FUN.

Incan Gold

2008-02-26T08:54:00.000-08:00

Incan Gold is another "press your luck" game, different enough from all other "press your luck"-like games to be just as fun, and just as worthy of your seriously playworthy consideration.

It doesn't take long to learn, it takes only about 20 minutes to play, and the joyful luck-pressing can be shared by 3, or as many as 8 players. You do have to spend some time arranging the cards, but, after the first time you play, all that card arranging adds to the anticipation of a significantly fun experience of engaging each other in an intense exploration of the various wages of caution and greed.

The game is played in 5 rounds. A round begins by drawing a "Quest card" from the pile, turning it over, and placing it face-up next to one of the "Temple cards." The card that is revealed can either be a Treasure card, an Artifact, or a Hazard. If it is a Treasure, the players divide it between them, placing small plastic pieces in front of their personal treasuries (in front, and not inside, because the Treasure can't be claimed until someone has taken it safely out of the Temple). If it is an Artifact, it will be added to the treasury of the first player to remove it from the Temple. If it is a Hazard, there's no score. If a second Hazard of the same type is drawn later on in the round, all the potential treasures and artifacts are lost. All those little plastic, colored crystal-in-the-rough-shaped pieces... They go back. And nobody gets to keep them. Nobody. Not even you.

Once a card is placed on the table, players all have the option to go forward and reveal the next card, or to leave the Temple and collect the goodies indicated by the graphically rendered significance appearing on the card.

On the other hand, before the next Quest card can be revealed, you all, simultaneously, flash one of two cards on to the conceptual table. One card shows that you want to go forward, as it were, into the Temple, and seek greater fortune. The other, that you want to "leave the temple" immediately.

If one and only one of you flashes the card that symbolizes the decision to "leave the temple" already, that player, you, for example, get to take all the exposed Artifact Cards as your very own. Heh. Heh. Hey. If you're not the only one leaving, you and your fellow leavers share the pretty plastic pieces potentially accumulated and put them into a little tent you made out of a folded card. And nobody gets the Artifacts. Heh, hey. But you don't play any more for the rest of the round. Also hey, hey, hey.

Incan Gold is produced by Sunriver Games and is also available from Funagain. An earlier form of Incan Gold, Diamant, was published in Germany by Schmidt Speile, and was also was also available from Funagain.

Hyper-Slide

2008-02-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Hyper-Slide, true to its name, involves sliding, and a level of activity which can accurately be described as "hyper."

There are 4 pucks. Each is a different color. There's a bridge which serves as a goal, as it were, and sometimes as a net, more-or-less. On top of the bridge are two buttons that light up. Go ahead, press one. Wait. First, put the batteries in. OK, now press one of the two light-up buttons.

The, shall we say, "Hypehost," filled with youthful, gameshowhost-like enthusiasm, says: "Hyperslide!" Then: "Choose the game you want, then press the button to get started."

One of the buttons is lit, so you press that one. "1)Fast Pass," says the Hyperhost, to gameshow-like musical accompaniment, "2) Add One," it continues, "3) Code Buster 4) Fast Pass Head to Head 5) Add One Head to Head." So you hit the blinking button.

"Fast Pass. The All Time Score is 52 Passes. Red begins." Says the Hyperhost.

And the light starts blinking and the music starts playing. So you throw a Yellow puck through the goal. And the voice says "Red Begins." So you throw the Blue through. And it says "Red Begins." So you throw the green one through. And the music is playing. And finally you throw the Red puck through. And the voice says "Red." So you throw the Blue through. And the music ends and the Hyperhost says: "You should have played Red: And it asks "play this game again or play another game?" And both buttons flash.

And then you realize that you really need two people to play. Unless maybe you install that "Cyber-rubber-band"ish thing across the goal.

The fun of each of the 4 games is greatly enhanced by the voice, musical timing, ability to know which of 4 pucks you slide through it, or don't, and very long memory of the Hyperhost.

You do what the Hyperhost tells you to do as fast as it tells you to do for as long as you can. And the Hyperhost creates the challenge, taunting you with its ability to rembember the score, forever, until you reset it.

Given only two flashing buttons and 4 different-colored pucks, a Hyperhost with a good sense of timing, like the one in Cyber-Slide, can put the proverbial partridge back into your conceptual pear tree.

This Hyperhost leads you in at least three games. Or five. Or ten. Depending on what you play and how you play them and how many people play - from one to probably four.

Fast Pass: slide the color puck the Hyperhost tells you to, and only that color puck, in maybe 90 seconds, as often as you can while the music gets faster and so does the Cyberhost.
Add One: like the game of Simon, you have to slide an ever increasing repeating series of pucks, puck-by-puck.
Code Buster - slide whatever works until you happen to slide the right ones across the goal. try to do it faster next time.
Fast Pass - Head to Head: Fast Pass for two. Hyperbandlessly.
Add One - Head to Head: Also Hyperbandlessly, Add One - for also 2. Or 4 especially even. Though playing by yourself is also fun, even.

Self-storing, with an almost intuitive game design, Hyper-Slide provides for many different levels of physical and cognitive challenge, featuring clear, but mild-mannered Hyperhost that acknowledges your success without rubbing your face in your failures. All-in-all, Hyper-Slide is Major FUN. For the whole actual family.

From: Hasbro.