"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play it better than anyone else." ~Albert Einstein
So in cleaning out and organizing the game closet with Brittany over Christmas to make room for the new games we got (Ticket to Ride Europe, Cuponk, and Creationary), we found the following games patiently waiting their turn and tested them, and they were very satisfactory and fun (short reviews follow):
Crack the Case:
This is a Solve the Mystery game. The reader clips the mystery card onto the clipboard and gives the basic information and what you have to find out (i.e. so and so was killed and there was a teacup on the floor, who killed them, what was the motive and why). Then they flip the card over and read the whole story silently, and set a timer. Everyone else then become detectives, who can ask yes and no questions about the case until they discover the answers. You are told how good a detective you are by how many minutes it takes. There are clues you can ask for if you get absolutely stumped.
Cash a Catch (Fangfrisch):
This is a buying and selling game with different kinds of fish, that has instructions in 5 or 6 different languages. I was amused by the German name "Fangfrisch", which to me sounds like a vampire fish that belongs in a fishy version of Dracula or Twilight. It also made me laugh that crabs are Krebs. It brings new meaning to Mr. Krebs on Spongebob Squarepants, a show I love to hate. Cash a Catch has a bell like Pit does, and you bid on lots of fish cards that are auctioned off, trying to get large lots (you put them in your crates and ice chest) to sell before they "spoil", someone steals them, or the "end of market" card appears. It seems like a simple game, and it's easy to learn, but logic, probability, planning ahead, and a quick bell-ringing hand all come into play.
Doodle Dice
This game is super easy and suitable for almost any age. There are 6 dice with shapes on them. O, /, _, :), ), ~. There are 6 different colors of cards that put the shapes together into doodles, which get put in the middle of the table as they are drawn. Each color of card has a different number of shapes required to make the doodle: orange is 1, red is 2, yellow is 3, etc. The purpose of the game is to collect one of each color card by rolling the dice on your turn kind of like Yahtzee. You have three rolls to make your doodle, keeping or rerolling the dice as you please. If you make the doodle, you keep that card. If you fail, you wait till next turn to try again. You can also take other people's cards.
Dweebies
This game is simple and requires no reading, just matching and planning ahead. You lay out your "Dweebie" character cards on the table in rows and columns. If you can match the Dweebies at the two ends of a row or column you can take the whole line of cards. That's it. You play until all the cards are put down and then count the cards collected to see who wins. Plus the Dweebies are pretty cute.
Wise and Otherwise
This is a complete the quote game, along the lines of Balderdash, but instead of words to define, there are quotes. The players take turns being the reader and give the first half of a quote from a card. For instance, "When many spit on a stone..." Everyone then writes down their own possible ending. ...it gets wet (Brittany's answer), or ...it will float (Danny's answer). The reader puts down the actual quote ending. Then all are read randomly, and each person guesses the correct quote (or in some cases, the funniest). You get points for voting for the correct quote, for people guessing your answer, or for writing down the same answer as the original. I actually like it better than Balderdash, and there's less chance of actually knowing the answer already. You would think it would be easy to choose the right one, but people can be pretty creative.
Quelf
Brittany and Christian got the game Quelf for Christmas. This has got to be the most random game EVER. The game pieces are bizarre, ranging from "The Dude" and "The Biscuit Farmer" to characters based on pickles and bats. You are at the mercy of the instructions on whatever card you may draw. Stunts, weird rules, categories, and strange trivia questions are all the order of the day. One card had us all jumping up when the phone or doorbell rang yelling, "Pizza Party!". Danny and Jim and some of Sarah's friends, who weren't playing the game with us, figured it out and started ringing the doorbell and calling the house with their cell phones so they could laugh at us. One card started a sudden game of hide and seek. Stephen had to clap and say "Abracadabra" whenever anyone drew a card. I had until my next turn to make a homemade scuba mask with household items and wear it for the rest of the game. Rebecca had to hula dance without telling anyone what she was doing. It was a fun game. You will be wildly amused. I can't say you won't be happy when it's over, though.
Here are some of my favorite classic games, all with memories. It always amazes my children that technology and batteries are not required to have fun.
Carrom
We used to play this when we went to my grandfather's house. Grandpa and Grandma Jackson had a pink house. Salmon pink. Awesomeness inside and out. They always had Whoppers candy in the kitchen (which I loved), a laundry basket full of dolls and toys at the bottom of the attic stairway (which I also loved), a dugout cellar in the back full of spiders (which scared me) and cracked wheat cereal in the morning that we called "Grandpa's cereal" (which I detested). Grandma always had a crocheted afghan in process, and Grandpa sometimes played guitar or violin. He always played Carrom with us. It's a game with inch-wide red and green rings (wood then, plastic in the newer versions) and a big wooden board with nets in all four corners that you take turns hitting your color of rings into. Oh, and there's a black one. That's worth 5 points, so if you hit that in then you can win even if your opponent sinks all his. If you hit your taw ring off the board you take one out. If you get bored playing Carrom you can play Checkers with the rings on the checkerboard. There are like a gazillion games you can play with the rings and board (and the little bowling pins and pegs and other goodies) from the book that comes with it. We were way too lazy to learn them all.
Apples to Apples
The classic party game that you can play with almost as many people as you want at a time. You match green adjective cards "Sensitive, Horrifying, etc" with red noun cards "Marilyn Monroe, Helen Keller, my room, etc". There is no right answer. If your card is chosen you win that round, and it's all the opinion of the judge, and you can do anything to "sell" your card logically or play on the humor of the judge. One game we played, the red card was "Toaster" and the card that won was "Sensual". When asked, "What? How is a toaster sensual?", the boy said, a toaster is hot and you can turn it on.
PayDay
This is a game of paying the bills. The game board is a calendar. You draw cards that give you money or bills you have to pay or things to buy or sell to a buyer if you land on the right space. Payday was my absolute favorite game in the 5th grade. My best friend Christina and I played it all the time.
Stratego
My favorite two person game. Plot where to put your army pieces and how to attack across the board. Find the other person's flag and don't get blown up by the bombs. I played this as a kid and still love it.
Clue
What's not to love about Clue? I call Professor Plum. P.S. It was Miss Scarlet in the Dining Room with the candlestick.
Scrabble
There is no word game more classic than this. I play this with my mother when I visit her, and when she's not around, I have a version at home where I can play the computer. My mother was an high school English teacher and a secretary in the church office building in her previous lives before children. Pretty much the only way I can win against her is to use all the letters on my holder at once. I've done this maybe three times in my life.
Rook - the card game
(playing Red 1, the ONLY really great Rook game... well occasionally when we wanted to cry as kids we would play Golden 10)
Pit
Because it's fun to ring the bell first. I made up a version of this when I was teaching seminary called Scripture Pit. Spit for short.
Monopoly
I just have one thing to say. The new speed die rocks my socks. The game is shorter, you have a chance to skip Boardwalk, and there's not that annoying property that noone can manage to land on that just stays in the bank and sticks its tongue out at you. I play where you pay to the middle of the board and if you land on Free Parking you get it all. If you don't like it, too bad.
Careers
Another game from my childhood, in which you can be any professions you want in turns and see how they pay out in fame, love, and money. I firmly believe this game cemented the decision I had already made to go to college in real life.
Life
I don't love this one as much as the rest. I just mentioned it because the little pink and blue lollipop stick people are so cute in their little cars and I like cramming more "kids" in there than will fit in the holes.
Bermuda Triangle
Another classic childhood game. As far as I know, they don't make this game anymore. But it's pretty awesome. You have magnetic boats and they have to get across the board without getting sucked up by the equally magnetic ominous storm cloud that moves around the board with each turn.
Play games. Have fun. :D
1 comments:
If you ever run across another Cash-a-Catch at a yard sale, pick it up for us!!! Christian had a craving to play Cash-a-Catch today.
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