Elk Fest

Subject: Category: General

Ages: # of players: 6 and up

Time to play: Mechanics/Game Type: Dexterity

Ratings (1 to 5) Educational Value: 2

Gaming value: 3 (though a fun value of 5)

Aesthetic value: 5

Price value: 5

Ease of play: 5

Younger adaptability: 5

My comments:  This simply is a fun two-player game.  Each side has 3 round, flat "stones", an island, and a moose (even though they are moose, I think it is called Elk Fest because the original German name, Elchfest.)  You place your moose on your island and the three stones next to it.  Each turn you "flick" the stone (hit the side of it with your finger much like a cue hits a pool ball) into position in order to move your moose across the table from stone to stone.  Whoever gets their moose to the opponent's island first wins.

The game can be played by anyone that can flick a stone.  Put the pieces in a bag and carry it with you for the kids to take out in times of boredom (like a restaurant.)  It's a fun, quick game to play anytime.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/403/elk-fest

The aMAZEing Labyrinth

Subject: General
Category: Logic and patterns

Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 1 to 4

Time to play: 30 to 45 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Tile slide

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5

Gaming value: 5

Aesthetic value: 5

Price value: 4

Ease of play: 5

Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: This is a game that's been around for awhile that the whole family can enjoy while building spacial, pattern, and logic skills at the same time.  The mechanics of the game are the same as for Chateau Roquefort but the board is much easier to set up.  The tiles are pictures of various types of tunnel pieces; the board has some fixed pieces and the rest are placed randomly on the board.  They may or may not connect to form a continuous tunnel depending how they are positioned, and one tile is left over.  Next all of the 24 cards are dealt out as a stack; you can only look at your top card at any time.

Your goal is to reach the character pictured on the top card.  On your turn you try to make a connecting tunnel by inserting the extra tile on the board to shift the whole row of tiles. Next you move your piece along the tunnel; if you land on your goal you turn over your card and end your turn, trying to reach the character on the next card next turn.  If you don't land on it your turn still ends and you try again next round.  If you push a player off the board, including yourself, that player moves to the other side of the row to the tile just placed.

The game is simple to set up, simple to play, and intriguing enough to make it interesting for the whole family.  Be careful to punch out the tiles from front-to-back when you first get this game for a clean tile separation.  The board is a little small, though.  Otherwise, the aMAZEing Labyrinth is one of our family favorites.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1219/the-amazeing-labyrinth

Chateau Roquefort

Subject: General
Category: n/a
Ages: 6 and up
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Memory

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 3, especially younger players
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 3 (takes a bit to learn)
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: This is a really nice game to buy your 6 year old, and it should be for the price, though you will likely find yourself playing with friends after he goes to bed. The game comes with 4 sets of hefty, solid, good-sized mice, roof tiles, a waffle-like board, field tiles pictured with stones or cheese on them (3 of each type of cheese), 3 field tiles with holes in them, and smaller cheese markers to collect. It is interestingly packaged in that the bottom of the box is used not only to store pieces, but also to construct the board (so be careful when you first take apart the components in a new box.)

To play, you first talk everything off the plastic insert, which is a grid of deep holes, in the bottom of the box and dump out the mice and cheese markers from the holes. Next you place the field tiles in random order, including all 3 fields with holes in them; 1 stone tile is left over. Next you place the waffle-like board over all the filed tiles, and then you place the various roof tiles over everything. Don't forget to fold up and place the ramparts on each corner! Start with one of your mice in a corner.

The object of the game is to collect 4 different types of cheeses by moving 2 of your mice onto separate fields with matching cheese. Each round you get 4 actions, and your choice of actions are uncovering (removing a roof tile,) running (ie. moving through the fields, 1 action per field, or putting another mouse into a turret) or sliding (which is the big attraction.) So you remove roof tiles and move your mice to the cheese squares to collect the marks, no problem. But once a turn you can slide, in which you take that one left over field tile and insert it under the waffle-like board such that you slide all the field tiles in that row over one, causing a tile to fall out the other side--and maybe slide a field with a hole under a mouse so it drops into plastic insert and taking it out of the game.

The box and all the components are very well made--the box top even took a hit from my 6 year old when he jumped back and landed on it without tearing or bending. You have to first remove and then reassemble the entire board to put everything away, and then remove everything again the next time you play, though the game travels well. It is definitely a fun game to play with the kids!

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28089

L C R

Subject: General
Category: Preschool
Ages: 5 and up
# of players: 3 or more
Time to play: 20 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: dice rolling

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 2
Gaming value: 1

Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 4

My comments: Left Center Right is a game that requires each person to know the difference between their left and their right and that is precisely why I purchased it. While I don't think the game is intended for preschoolers, I categorized it that way because it is really great for anybody who needs practice figuring out their left from their right, like my 4yo who just received it in her Christmas stocking.

You can purchase this game in a tube or a tin although I have found the tube to be less expensive and even better, I'm sure you can figure out how to make a version of your very own for next to nothing. The components include 3 dice, each one with an L, an R, a C and 3 dots on the remaining three sides as well as about 20-25 small poker or bingo chips. There is absolutely no strategy involved in playing this game, it is merely rolling the dice and passing your chips either to the left, right or into the center pot. Again, good for the preschooler who needs directional practice and who just needs time playing something that requires him to follow instructions.

Because it is so compact and is quick to play, you can get it out while waiting at the doctor's office or the airport or while waiting for the next game to start.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:http://boardgamegeek.com/game/3522

Have You Herd?

Subject: General
Category:
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2-4
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: dice rolling and set collection

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 2
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 5
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 4

My comments: Unfortunately, you really have to stretch quite a bit to find the educational value in this game. I say "unfortunately" because other than educational value, Have You Herd is a great game in every other category.

There is a little strategy involved but mostly this game is based on the roll of the dice. The best time to use it is when your children are learning the concept of trading value and even dollar value although there is no money involved. One of the hardest things to get across to young children is that all coins are not created equal nor is all paper money and this game gives them a little practice in trading and learning that they have to trade more items to get a higher valued animal, ie. not everything in life has a one for one value.

Have You Herd is played with a pair of 12-sided dice and 52 animal tiles consisting of rabbits, sheep, pigs, cows, horses and two special animals: the guard dogs and the skunk. Throughout the game you roll to collect more tiles, each one representing a herd. On each turn you have opportunities to trade up for more expensive animals. With 5 rabbits you can trade up for one sheep and for 2 sheep you can trade up for one pig and so on. In the end you want to have one of each herd to win. The strategy comes in when you are trading, for example, it's a good idea to trade for a guard dog early on in the game if you can because he will protect your herds when the fox or the wolf are rolled.

This is an enjoyable game to play, requiring no set up time and is very easy to learn. In fact I'm not sure why the recommended age is 8 and up, I would gauge it at 6 and up without adapting any of the rules. The packaging is compact, everything fits into an adorable 3x6 inch silo. Finally a manufacturer that understands my distaste for wasteful, unnecessary packaging. :)

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:http://boardgamegeek.com/game/33907

Bucket Brigade

Subject: General
Category:
Ages: 7 and up
# of players: 3 to 5
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: card game with board

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 2
Gaming value: 5
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 4
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 1 (card holding)

My comments: This is a quick, fun, and interesting game to play. The game board pictures a burning building with a ladder against it, and 4 wooden firefighter meeples. Each rung of the ladder has a point value, starting at -1 for the first several rungs up to 3 points at the top. The cards picture firefighters in each of the 4 colors walking (move 1 rung) or running (move 2 rungs) as well as wild cards than can move any color either 1 or 2 rungs.

When a firefighter gets to the top of the ladder the game is scored based on all the cards left in your hand. The player that brings the firefighter to the top gets 6 points. Wild cards are worthless, and the other cards are scored based on where that color firefighter is on the ladder.

What is so fascinating about this game is the incredible advantage to using either one of opposing plays. You want the color that you have the most of to get to the top yet you don't want to use up those color cards to get that piece there. You want the versatility of the wild cards but you don't want to have any at the end of the game. The higher up your preferred color gets, the less likely other players will move that color. "Move 1" cards are worth little in scoring alone, but in pairs they are very valuable. You'll see what I mean when you play.

All the cards are dealt out to play, making this game difficult for little hands. Also, your child has to understand that players don't pick just one color and race that one to the top like a typical game might be played.

The board and meeples are well-made, and it is all packaged in a handy 6.5" x 9" inch box with a compartmentalized plastic insert that holds the parts in place. At well under $20 this is a nice game to have.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/359 (the older Honeybears version)

Ingenious

Subject: Math
Category: Geometry, pattern recognition
Ages: 10 and up
# of players: 1 to 4
Time to play: 45 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: abstract strategy; tile placement, pattern building

Ratings (1 to 5)

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

My comments: This elegant game consists of a game board (shaded three colors to accommodate different numbers of players,) a bag of double-sided hexagon tiles with one of six colored shapes at each end,a tile-keeping tray, and four scoring cards with a small wooden blocks for each color. The scoring cards have one row for each color and 18 columns; each time you score a color you advance the small wooden block of that color on the score card.

Each player starts with six tiles; you play a tile and then draw a tile, trying to get as many color matches as possible with each tile placed. Yet unlike most games, the object here is not to score the highest, but rather not to have the lowest-scoring color.

Both my six and nine year old sons can play this game. The tiles could be a bit thicker, and if they actually fit into a grooved board, like in Blokus, that would this easier to play with active kids. I picked this game up at Barnes & Noble so it was 20% off with my educator's discount. It is well worth it for a game that you'll never outgrow.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://boardgamegeek.com/game/9674

Dutch Blitz

Subject: General
Category:
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2-4
Time to play: 10 min per round, 30+ min full game
Mechanics/Game Type: cards

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 5
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 3

My comments: "A Vonderful Goot Game!" That's what the box says and I agree wholeheartedly. This is a FUN game that is fairly easy to learn/teach for adults and children alike. And although it does require speed, I think if you are willing to slow your pace down a bit, you can play it with younger children who recognize their colors, numbers by sight and understand order.

Dutch Blitz will strengthen pattern recognition as well as manual dexterity. You are always holding cards and manuevering them as you play while watching several key areas for your next move, requiring hand/eye coordination and attentiveness. Interestingly enough, it seems that the fastest player will always win however that has not proven to be the case any of the times I've played it. The winner varies quite a bit.

I gave this game a 3 for aesthetic value because the packaging leaves something to be desired. It comes in a typical card box and although I am very careful when opening and closing the top flap, it is already starting to tear. The cards themselves are lovely though with little Pennsylvania Dutch boys and girls printed on them.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/943

Knights

Subject: General
Category: Set creation
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 6
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: dice roll, card collection

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 3
Gaming value: 3
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 3 (box could be better)
Ease of play: 3 (easy once you figure it out)
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: This game is often compared to Yahtzee. Players roll the 6 dice 3 times, like in Yahtzee, and try to collect as many of the same number on each die, but the similarity to Yahtzee ends there. First, 6's get removed when rolled, and second, there's a deck of 56 cards.

The object of the game is to collect a winning combination of cards, or to defeat the king by rolling the dice (there's a card displaying the 3 ways to win on it.) You collect cards, or capture them from you opponent, by rolling the dice. There are 3 types of cards: castles, tournaments, and specials (cards that enhance your options and dice rolls.) You collect or capture castles and specials cards by beating the dice combination shown on each card; opponents can "defend" castles to prevent you from taking them. A tournament card involves all players trying to get the best overall dice combination.

The game is fun, though not always quick depending how the dice are rolling and the cards come up, especially with more people. It is easy enough for younger kids to play with a little urging regarding which cards to try for since the dice rolling is really where the action is.

The specials cards are a bit bland--it's hard to tell front from back by color scheme, and you have to have the instruction booklet by you to look up what the symbol on them mean. Castle and tournament cards are quite colorful. The deck includes some blank cards for you to design your own special; if you have Coloretto (an up-coming review) you may have gotten one or more expansion cards in that deck.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://boardgamegeek.com/game/1263

Hey, That's My Fish!

Subject: General
Category: n/a
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 20 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Abstract strategy

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 3
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 4
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: My kids and I really like this quick strategy game. The game consists of 60 tiles with either 1, 2, or 3 fishes on them that set out to create the board. Each player then has 2 to 4 penguins (depending on the number of players) to place on the board. Each turn consists of moving one penguin in a straight line to another tile of you choice and picking up the tile the penguin started on. The winner is the person with the most number of fishes on his or her collected tiles.

This is a great introduction to abstract strategy games, and abstract strategy leads to better Eurogaming in general. It's quick to set up and play, younger kids can play (my 4 year old loves this), and the tiles/pieces are fun and appealing.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://boardgamegeek.com/game/8203

Ark of the Covenant, The

Subject: General
Category: n/a
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 5
Time to play: 30 to 45 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Tile placement

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 5
Aesthetic value: 5
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 3
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: This is a variation of the award-winning game Carcassonne. Playing the game is simple: pick a tile and place a tile, then maybe place a meeple (mini people). Each tile has part of a castle, road, or landscape on it and the players are creating a city of sorts with the tiles. What makes this game a little challenging is keeping track of the points as you play, for which there is a wonderful scoring board. You "claim" roads, castles, fields, and temples by placing a meeple on it after you place a tile; when that structure is completed you get the points. Only one meeple can be on a structure, but you or someone else can have a meeple on two separate structures that get connected later on and then you get double or split points.

The game then has some added scoring to make things more interesting. Roads get extra points if there are attached oases. Fields are scored by how many sheep are grazing minus the number of wolves in that field. You can place a prophet once during the game on a structure and score double when it is completed. Temples are scored according to whomever has the most followers around it. And The Ark gets placed once a castle has been completed, and then players can move it over themselves (and others) to score additional points for themselves (and others) each turn.

The game ends when all the tiles have been placed. The fields are scored then, and the player with the highest score wins.

There's plenty of opportunity for mental addition here, as well as the wonderful spacial perception when laying tiles. Each tile has 4 sides, and you have to match sides up such that the resulting picture makes sense (you can't put a field in the middle of a castle, for example.)

Play is easy, though scoring is quite challenging. Youngers can play if you score for them, or eliminate some of the bonus score to simplify things. The tiles are thick and colorful, as are the meeples. It comes in a small, thick box making it easily transportable. Overall, this is a wonderful game.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/6779

Apples to Apples Junior

Subject: General
Category: N/A
Ages: 9 and up
# of players: 4 - 10
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: cards

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 2
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: 3

My comments:
Here's how it goes: The dealer of each round lays down a card with a word on it and the other players all put down a card from their own hand, that they think has the most in common with it. The object is for you to get the dealer to choose your card over all the others. Given the right crowd, this game can be hilariously funny. Adults will not mind playing this kids version of Apples to Apples because it is played just like the original however there are no adult topics, names or innuendo.

The drawbacks to this game is that you will not always have the "right" crowd and many times no crowd at all. The game requires at least 4 players! I don't see a big educational value with this game except that maybe your kids will pick up some vocabulary and it does get them thinking about how two things can relate to each other when no obvious similarities stand out.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/10681

Mystery Garden

Subject: General
Category: Art/Reasoning
Ages: 4 and up
# of players: 2 - 6
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Q&A

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: 3

My comments:
Now here is a game that you will enjoy playing with your younger children. Not your run-of-the-mill match your color, count the spaces type of game. Basically this is a game of 20 questions (or 15 as the game suggests) using a darling board with lots of details. One player takes a tile with an item from the board pictured on it. The other players take turns asking yes or no questions, moving the pawn ahead one space for each question, until someone guesses what is on the tile. The player who guesses correctly gets the tile and after a set number of rounds the person with the most tiles wins.

Searching out details on the high quality board is the best part. Interestingly when I did a search for this item I found there are two different boards available, one with a castle scene and another, the one I have with a country house scene. Kris even suggested making a board out of a print of a famous painting that you are studying with your children for art class. Two color copies of the print, one for the "board" and one for the tiles to be cut out. What a brilliant and inexensive game to add to your art study!

Although four is already a good young age for game-playing, you could still make this adaptable to younger children by having them find items that you call out to them or use the board for a game of I Spy.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/1216

Through the Desert

Subject: General
Category: Math
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 5
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Tile placement, area enclosure, abstract strategy

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 3
Gaming value: 5
Aesthetic value: 5
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: 2 (small parts!)

My comments: Through the Desert s another wonderful Reiner Knizia game in which players take turn placing pastel-colored camels (cameeples) to create caravans that snake throughout the desert to reach point tiles and oases. You earn points by picking up point tiles, by reaching oases, by having the largest caravan of a particular color, and by sectioning off areas of the board to gain point for entrapped hexagons. As the game gets going, it is reminiscent of Blokus such that one color caravan expands and winds around caravans of other colors.

Like many Euro games, a lot of math skills are involved here even though it is not a "math" game. Skills like addition, spacial relations, and sorting are well-used for this game.

Kids younger than 8 can certainly play this game, but there are a lot of small camels, some with tiny riders placed on them...They are pastel colored, almost like mints in appearance. The game also has palm trees to place on oases, and a hexagon-covered desert board. It comes in a colorful, small, thick box making it very portable. It is definitely a family game to be enjoyed for years.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/503

Doodle Dice

Subject: General
Category: n/a
Ages: 6 and up
# of players: 2 to 6
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: dice rolling, set collection

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 3
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 5
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: This inexpensive game is simple to play and lots of fun. It comes with 6 identical dice, and each side of a die has a different "doodle" on it. These doodles are used to construct the doodles on 60 cards in 6 colors. Orange requires 1 die, red 2 dice, yellow 3dice, green 4dice, blue 5 dice, and purple 6 dice to complete the pattern. You flip cards over from the pile to create a gallery, and then you get 3 rolls of the dice, selecting which dice you want to roll again, to match one of the cards. If you match, you keep it. You win when you collect 1 card of each color. The deck also contains 3 Free Roll cards and 2 Block A Turn cards, plus you have the option of trying to take a card from another player (though this really isn't a necessary option too often.) The game also comes with a bright red cup for rollings and storing the dice.

This game is enjoyed by everyone in my family, from my 4 year old on up. The cards are colorful, the dice are a nice size, and the cup makes it easy for even small hands to roll the dice. This type of doodle matching is great to improve math and art skills as well as imaginative and abstract thinking in general.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/23334

Madeline's House

Subject: General
Category: Exploration
Ages: 4 to 8
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Roll and Move

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 2
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 4
Price value: 3
Ease of play: 4
Younger adaptability: N/A

My comments:
Madeline's House reminds me of a cross between Candy Land and Highlights Magazine's Hidden Pictures. You don't know if you are going to move forward or back until you find the hidden object! That's what makes this game exciting for the kiddos and they do enjoy it while they are young enough to play it.

The box, board and components are made of heavy duty cardboard that will last through multiple children.

I tend to be a little tough when evaluating educational value. Does this game teach anything to a four year old that any other game won't? Not really. Color recognition is key but most 4yo's already have their basic colors down. It is a really fun game though and does teach the basics of fair game play, taking turns and following instructions which is so important during the early years of game playing. If you are just looking for something fun to get your kids used to playing games, this is a great choice because it is a bit different than your typical roll and move board games.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/11739

Granny's House

Subject: General
Category: N/A
Ages: 4 to 7
# of players: 1 to 6
Time to play: 30 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: Co-operative Play

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 4
Gaming value: 4
Aesthetic value: 3
Price value: 5
Ease of play: 5

My comments:

Should you use the rope to climb over that fence in your way or have the dog dig a hole under it? What about that sleeping bear, maybe we should leave him some candy in case he wakes up?These are things you will discuss and have to agree on with the other players in this wonderful co-operative game. There is only one pawn and everyone has to work together to get to Granny's House.

I estimate an average of 30 minutes for game play however because of the many obstacles, this varies greatly. I have found that when many obstacles send us back to start (making the game last more than 30 minutes) the children lose interest but this only happens rarely.

The 1986 version that we own is still around and kicking although the box is definitely falling apart. I've included a couple of photos because the link to BGG below is for the 1985 version and it looks quite different.

One more thing of note. All picture cards have both English and French words printed on them making this game suitable for readers, non-readers and fun review for those learning one of these as a second language.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game:

http://boardgamegeek.com/game/7917