Pandemic

Subject: Geography, Science
Category: Major World Cities, Epidemiology
Ages: 10 and up
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 45 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Cooperative

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 5
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: If you are not a fan of cooperative games, this one will likely change your mind.

Four "viruses" (colored cubes) are spreading around the world and the players need to work together to stop them. There is one way to win: collect the cards needed to create cures and eradicate the 4 diseases. There's three ways to lose, however: too many outbreaks, too many virus cubes on the boards, or running out of cards. I have played this games four times now; I have seen all the ways to lose and have yet to win.

Each player is randomly dealt one of five roles. The Medic, for example, can remove all virus cubes on a city instead of one; the Scientist only needs four cards instead of five to create a cure. Players move around the board trying to remove virus cubes, collect cure cards, and build research stations. Meanwhile, more cities are infected at the end of each turn. If more than three virus cubes come up in a city then an outbreak occurs, spreading the virus to adjacent cities. Pick a dreaded epidemic card and not only do more virus cubes appear, but the cards with the cities that already have infections get shuffled and placed on the top of the pile to be drawn again!

There's no need to hide cards or create strategies alone--this game is challenging enough to win--so it is great for younger players or those who generally shy away from complicated board games. The board displays the world's major cities, though you have to look carefully to see the actual location of that city. The pawns, virus cubes, and research stations are made of wood. The cards are a nicely sized and drawn with geographic and population information on them.

This has become one of my favorites; I've been won over to this cooperative game.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/30549

Totally Gross, The Game of Science

Subject: Science
Category: General
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 60 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Trivia

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5
Gaming value: 2
Aesthetic value: 2
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 2

My comments: Science games are hard to come by, so given the scope of what is available, this game is pretty good. Based on the "gross" theme that has been in vogue for the past few years (as if our children won't be interested in science otherwise,) the game does have a good amount of trivia covering both physical and life sciences.

You roll and move around the board and either answer a trivia question or complete a "totally gross" challenge in order to stretch a piece of "slime" 10 spaces (more about the slime later.) The challenges are as simple as showing your "abs" to as gross as making the noise of peeing, burping, and farting (I got that one and my 3 boys were literally rolling on the floor with laughter. I suppose I could have passed on that one.) Once you do that, you get to the lab so you can perform an experiment in order to answer the winning question. If you don't happen to have the materials needed for the experiment (though you most likely will) then you can just pick another experiment.

Like most educational games, the components are flimsy for the price. The board is nice, but that's all. The "slime" doesn't really stick or stretch well enough so we use other markers instead. The playing pawns are small standard pieces; nothing with a fun science theme. The cards maybe have the thickness of an index card. Really, for the $20+ price tag these companies should be able to put better components in their games. The game does provide a good amount of trivia, challenges, and experiments to make this game playable for awhile.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14705

Planet Earth DVD Game

Subject: Science
Category: Nature
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 5
Time to play: 45 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Trivia

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5
Gaming value: 2
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 4 (or less for more expensive versions)
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 3

My comments: This game is like most DVD games on the market, except that this one is based on the visually spectacular Discovery series, Planet Earth. The object of the game is to complete a jigsaw puzzle by answering trivia questions. The board is like Trivial Pursuit in that it has 6 special spaces that require you to answer a question from a particular Planet Earth episode, and a correct answer earns you as many puzzle pieces as the narrator tells you. Unlike TP, you don't have to answer one question from each episode--you get a chance to earn pieces every time you land on any of these spaces. Otherwise the board is designed such that you get a question every turn.

It has the inherent limitations of a trivia game, and I cannot find any listing of how many total questions the game has. On the second playing I already had around 5 repeated questions. The game can be played cooperatively, everyone giving answers with an objective to complete the puzzle. The puzzle is actually double-sided with two pictures that are similar enough that it is difficult to tell which side needs to be up.

The beauty of this game is the DVD footage. If you have never seen Planet Earth, go to Discovery Streaming, sign up for a free 30 day trial, and watch. You will be awed.

As someone on BGG put it, Scene It meets Trivial Pursuit at the Discovery Channel...

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34395