Category: Two player

Rock Me Archimedes is, needless to say, a mathematical game. In it, you have marbles that you are trying to get to one side of the rocking board without letting either end touch the floor or table. You have to get four marbles to your goal zone before your opponent gets four into theirs.

I like the chance, strategy and math that go into getting the marbles across. You have to be careful to get across first, but not too far ahead so your side dips. You also can’t be too far behind, or you drop their side when you move and lose.

Make sure the place you are playing is level and still. Do not play in an airplane (for obvious reasons). It isn’t portable enough for airplanes anyway.

I also like the board itself. The rocking mechanics are clean and simple, since it’s just rounded wood on flat wood. I like the way the pieces go into each other to minimize the amount of box space the game takes up.

Spy is another Pack O’ Games game. Like the others, it is very small. Big difference though: this one doesn’t require a table. Everything is done in your hand. In it you are spying on other players and trying to go through all four of their safes before a) they go through yours or b) you set off their bombs. You set off a bomb by spying on it twice. The first time, the other player flips it upside down. The second time, it goes off leaving a nice crater.

I like the lack of table necessity. Very useful for car rides. It’s also very simple, there are only like three types of cards (bomb, safe, top secret safe). And the spies. Is it just me or does the red spy seem very Soviet?

You definitely have to know how to mirror things to play this. The hands mirror each other for parts of the game. This is how you “spy” on people. They tell you the card type that mirrors the place your spy in your hand is.

I will always go back to the brilliant portability of these games. It makes it really simple to take places and its another reason that this can be played in the car.

Pink Hijinks is yet another Looney Labs game. Kristin Looney had a deal: beat her at a game of Pink Hijinks, and you could keep it. Well, it took me three tries, but I won, and I got to keep the game.

My biggest highlight of this game is the portability. All nine pieces, the fabric board, the instruction manual, and the die fit in a small, pink, pyramid shaped zip-up bag with a clip for attaching it to stuff. I now have it attached to my school bag, so I can bring it wherever. One of my first days carrying it, I made a point of showing up in the library and playing it with the librarian. Clipped to the other side of my bag is my lunchbox, a white bag with the words “Human Organ for Transplant” printed in red. Ah, the good memories*.

Sometimes, the bottom edge of the pyramid shaped pieces snag on the fabric board, so one must be careful when moving pieces. As you play, it should eventually wear away the snags on the bottom of the pieces, taking this problem away.

Being portable, you can take this one into restaurants as well. You could play it with your friends during lunch, with your teacher during quiet time if you are done with your work, or with your cousin after school (all of these are applicable to me).

I enjoy Pink Hijinks and think that the portability makes it a big advantage, as you could also play it on an airplane during a long, boring flight (I have been on a lot of these). The other option is to fall asleep, since I doubt you are carrying enough books to last 9 hours (coming from a fast reader).

* The first time I brought this lunchbox to school, I had leftover chicken liver for lunch. I told all my friends that I had liver. They actually believed it! That says something about me, eh? When I opened my lunch, they asked me why it looked like that. I told them it was fried and breaded. When I ate it, they asked me how it tasted. Barely managing to keep a straight face, I responded, “Tastes like chicken!”

Or don’t. Monkey Business is a stacking game with gee, monkeys. There are multiple variations, but the main principle is stack monkeys, only a certain quantity are allowed to touch the table, and best out of three is the general implication for most of the games. You can do best out of one if you are in a rush or if it best suits the scenario in another means.

I like that this is a visual game. Instead of the theoretical stacking, you get to actually physically place the monkey there, which is good for people who have trouble visualizing without a diagram or some-such.

The downside to it being a visual game is that when you are placing the monkeys, you have to have a very steady hand so as to not knock anything down. The table or board must be very solidly placed, and not wobbly, and you should not play with a tablecloth (the wrinkles make it hard to place pieces flat).

Another reason I like Monkey Business is it builds creativity. There are multiple types of monkey (the position the monkey is standing in), so you can’t just stack them. Some things you can do include balancing them on their backs and hanging them by their tail off another monkey. It takes a lot of creativity, cleverness, and a still hand to make this work.

Anachronism is a non-random collectible card game. Anachronism is a way of learning about ancient peoples and how they fought. Anachronism is… fun!

As I said, Anachronism is a collectible card game. You collect the different sets of warriors, weapons, armor, inspirations, and specials (random other stuffs). Each card has its category (of the above named), its special bonuses to help you as you play, and a little sentence or two explaining the history of the given object. The base game is the board and William Wallace against Joan of Arc. But there are many others…

William Wallace is Scottish, though they call it Celtic [for simplicity]. Joan of Arc is French. These are not the only nations. Some collectibles include Japanese, Greek, Norse, and Roman!

You can mix and match cards to get the set you want. I find this convenient, as it makes game play much more interesting.

Just like with every game, however, there are some kinks in this armor. The font on the cards for the historical info is quite small, and the writing is too close to the border of the card. On some cards I also wish they put more historical info on, instead of just one sentence.

Then again, this game is unique because the collectibles are real warriors, real weapons, and real armor types. It gives you historic facts to explain the importance of each. And one day, instead of playing, you may find yourself idly sitting on a couch, reading the facts and making full sets of armor, instead of just one piece, as used in the game. One day, you may find yourself looking through and going over to an adult, and saying something like, “Did you know sometimes the Scottish used to fill the castle moat with thistles instead of water?” (True fact, on the Celtic starter inspiration card).

I find this game quite fun and educational. I hope you will play it and enjoy it as much as I did!