I have a Brain in a Box!

Or I have a BrainBox game. I’m really excited about this one, as I have had a BrainBox game for quite a while. I actually got my first one at Brookfield Zoo a while back. We kept it in the car and I would read the cards on long drives. Eventually I found out how to play and started playing with my grandmother before school.Nature BrainBox

In BrainBox, you reach into the box, choosing a card at random. Simultaneously, the other person turns the timer and you start reading the card. You have ten seconds to memorize as much as you can. When the other person says “Time” (or something similar) marking the end of the ten seconds, you hand over the card. You roll the die (eight-sided) and the other person reads you the question on the back of the card that corresponds with that number. If you answer correctly, you keep the card in your score pile. If you don’t, you put it back in the box.

I love the facts. I have a big thing for random facts, as anyone who knows me can confirm. The fun facts and little tidbits of information scattered everywhere in this game are right up my ally.

The questions can be quite random. I first found this out when I was playing the US States one a while back. I had pulled the Florida card. I read it, flipped it, rolled, and was completely confident in my ability to answer. I read the question confidently, ready to burst out the answer. “How many oranges are pictured?” Wait… what? I have since realized that a lot of the question are based on the pictures. For instance, on the Flightless Birds card of the Nature box, I once had a question that read, “Which bird has its legs crossed?”

This game is fast and can be concluded whenever it is necessary. At the peak of our playing time, Grandma and I could go through the whole box of over fifty cards in less than an hour!

Also, as I have just recently found out there is an online version, at the website linked to above.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Time for Gym class!

Gym class… yuck. Not anymore! Introducing Gym, the card game. In Gym you pick teams based off of how good each kid is at each game. Most kids will have two games that they are moderately good at. The “brats” only have one skill each, probably because they are busy being brats. Then there is the play phase where you designate kids to games, move them around and mess with the other person’s cards in an attempt to win the tournament.Gym

I love that somebody made Gym class a card game. Now, can I pass it off as doing Gym? I doubt it. Ah, well. It’s still amusing.

I wish they tied into the actual games in gym more. They have the special powers as basketball and dodgeball and such, but I really don’t see how dictating which kid they use next constitutes as football.

It’s one of the Pack O’Games, so it is by definition small. It’s a fun game and a quick play. Some questions about the relativity to gym class withholding, it is a great game with a lot of potential.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Devil Cat

Or, you know, Simon’s Cat. Simon’s Cat (the game) is based off of Simon’s Cat (the hilarious videos). These critters seem to have it out for poor Simon. The game is actually a lot like Crazy Eights. You are matching numbers or colors, but instead of drawing when you can’t play a card, you take the “mess”, which is the pile of cards in the center. At the end of each round, when all the cards run out, whoever has the most messes gets a Simon card. Whoever has three Simon cards first loses.Simon's Cat

I love the Simon’s cat pictures and general mechanics. The whole idea is that Simon gets blamed for the messes made by all of the critters.

You don’t have to know the Simon’s Cat storyline to play this either. It can be played just as well without the context, though dialogue is quite amusing with the full context. (“Kitten!” “Yes, it’s a kitten.” “No, as in, its name is Kitten.” “Oh.”)

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Wait… What? Are You Phrazy?

Are You Phrazy is a fast-paced conversation game. In it, you are racing to get rid of all of your cards by interrupting people. You can interrupt if you have the same card as the last one played or if you are the person clockwise of the previous player.Are You Phrazy?

It is hilarious because everyone reads their card off as they play it, and the conversation is so random it makes no sense. “Hello, how are you?” “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” “Hubba, hubba!” “I know you are, but what am I?” “Can the chatter!”

If you do not like fast-paced games, do not play this. It is very fast moving, as well as strategic. Finding the cards in your hand can be a challenge, choosing when to play a “stop” card is strategy that has to be carefully done, and you have to do it all before someone else.

On the other hand, fast-paced makes it good for points when you may need to leave anytime, like when you are waiting for a ride to pick you up.

 

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Garden Gnomis

Gnomi is a cute game about compost, gnomes and mushrooms. As we all know mushrooms have a high magical content when dealing with fairies and gnomes. Or, if you didn’t know, now you do (“What can I say except you’re welcome…”). Gnomi is kind of like Spy in the fact that the cards always remain in your hand.Gnomi

You have two types of cards: gnomes and mushrooms. You start with four mushrooms and three gnomes. Mushrooms can be used as follows: use one mushroom to ask for one mushroom of that color or use two mushrooms to get any mushroom regardless of color. “Using” a mushroom means you flip it upside down, which is called “composting”.

The gnomes have special abilities that allow them to steal mushrooms, grow mushrooms from the compost (flip the mushroom back to usable), and wake other gnomes. “Waking” a gnome happens because when you use the gnome, it gets flipped over to say that it is “asleep” and not usable.

The game ends when only one person has good mushrooms or awake gnomes left.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Time to go Gold Digging!

Gold Digger is an Out of the Box game in which you are prospectors (sort of). There are 6 mines, up to three of which you may own later in the game. You put gold (and fool’s gold) in the mines and place people there to mine it.Gold Digger

This game is pretty simple to get the hang of, making it ideal for time constraints. This also adds to making it so fun.

Unfortunately, the company is closed. This makes it a little harder to buy. I’m sure you can still find it around, if you look, though.

The puns are awful! I love this. For instance, one of the Explorers is “Sackapotatoes”. This is a play on Sacajawea. It’s quite amusing.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Rock Me, Archimedes!

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. Rock Me Archimedes

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.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Time to Spy

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.Spy

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.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Adepticon-Home of the Minifigs!

Alright, alright. That isn’t the name of the con. It’s just Adepticon – though I think the Home of the Minifigs part would be a great addition. I was surprised when my godmother (she comes up a lot on this site, doesn’t she…) asked me day of whether I wanted to come with her. Not knowing what it was, but having been told that it was mini-figures, I went Aw heck, why not? and came along with her. I was very impressed and excited with what I saw.Adepticon 2017

There were a lot of games going on, tournament games I couldn’t play since I didn’t have a badge. I didn’t mind, since that meant I just free-ranged the room and took photos of cool figurines.

There was a demo running at a table, which turned out to be Blood and Plunder. We went over because a) it had ships with cannons (ships are a less common sight in figurines; I have a thing for cannons) and b) the table was freaking awesome! You could see little islands kind of under the surface, and the table was filled in with resin. It wasn’t smooth resin either-it had current ripples pressed into the surface.

I played the demo (the simple version without wind factors) and enjoyed it immensely. I played the Spaniards, and when my opponent named the sailor his ship lost, I decided to name mine (Ferdinand, if you must know). My strategy was pretty much “Bold and Stupid wins the fight.” (Thanks a lot, Dirk and Guido!) There were Fortune Coins for each team, which when spent allowed a re-roll. I spent most of the game fingering a particularly shiny gold colored one, and when the game was over, when I reached to set it down they said I could keep it. I guess that Spanish ship had stopped at El Dorado on the way to the fight?

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

It’s Time to Sow!

Alright, I figured since it was the beginning of spring I would celebrate with a game about flowers! Sow is a Mancala-like game where you are trying to collect a certain color of flowers. Failing that, you are trying to collect flowers.Sow

I love the flowers. They are actually kind of comical, since some are red and blue, or yellow and blue, both of which look really odd. There was one with a red center and white petals that I called the “Japan flower”, since it looked like the Japanese flag.

It takes a while to understand, as the rules are very wordy. That, however, can be overlooked – I just had Mom read them. It also complicates Mancala a little with color-coded point values and the Windmill, Watering Can and Groundhog. I would know, since we have played Mancala occasionally in Social Studies.

It is a great strategy game since you are trying to figure out the “favorite color” of the other player. The “favorite color” is the color that determines the point value for each flower to that given player. If the color is in the center, three points, if it is the petals, two points, and if it isn’t present, the flower is still worth one point.

Happy Spring!!!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail