Pictopia

Today's game is one we have owned for so many years I can't believe we haven't made it through all the cards yet. Or... we've made it through the cards and have just forgotten!! It's called Disney Pictopia.

Gameplay:

This game is really easy to play. Lay out the game board, pick a moving and make sure you grab a matching answer dial and five wager coins.

On your turn, roll the die. Advance that number of spaces. When you land on a space it will tell you which category to read from for your question. All other players wager a coin by placing it face down on the game board. Read the question out loud. For most of the questions, the players work together to decide the final answer. Once the final answer is decided (whether in a group or individual category), if the answer is correct, players flip over their wager coins and advance that number of spaces. Move on to the next player and continue the game.

How to Win:

Get to the castle space and answer the Final Challenge question correctly.

Verdict:
Thumbs up! We definitely know a lot about Disney, so this is a fun trivia game for us. There are some tougher ones about the Disney parks and some older movies, and there are some opinion questions thrown in for fun as well, so there's a lot of variety.

Outburst Jr.

Today's game is an OLDIE, but a GOODIE!! It's Outburst Junior!

Gameplay:

Divide the players into two teams. Do not worry if there are an odd number of players.

Select a colored Scoring Glide for each team and attach it to the scorecard.

Slide a card into the card viewer, if you are not the guessing team. Ensure that all of the sliding tabs are hiding the checkmarks.

Read the topic to the guessing team. Flip the timer to begin the guessing team’s turn.

Shout out answers if you are the guessing team, the louder the better. All players guess at the same time so make sure you are heard. If your guess is correct, the player holding the card viewer will say “yes” and slide the sliding tab over. Your team has one minute to guess as many answers as possible.

Read out the answers that the guessing team did not guess correctly. On the scoreboard, slide your team’s marker one space for each correct answer. 

Play now passes to the other team.

Win the game by being the first team to reach 50 points.

Verdict:
I absolutely love this game! I loved it when I was a kid, and I love playing it with my kids now! We do also have the adult version of this game, and there aren't many categories we have to skip over with the kids. So, I think this is a game for the whole family no matter which version you have! Also, a lot of times we like to help each other out with hints of the clue words we are missing, so that can be a lot of fun as well!

Great for Learning:
Reaction time, brainstorming, vocabulary words

Avocado Smash

Today's game is called Avocado Smash. This is a great game that my friend Kandace got for me because she knows I'm as obsessed with new games as she is!

Gameplay:

Shuffle the deck and deal all of the cards face down, giving an equal number of cards to each player.

Take the top card from your pile and place it face up in the center.The next player should then take the top card from their pile and place it on top of the center card, and so on.

If both cards have the same number of avocados on them, it is a smash! All players must smash their hands down in the center. The last player to react loses the round and takes all of the cards from the center, adding them to the bottom of their pile.

The losing player then begins the next round by placing their next card face up in the center.

While turning over your card, you must also count avocados aloud-so the first player always begins with "one avocado".The next player must follow in sequence, saying "two avocados", and so on. Players continue up to "15 avocados" and then return to "one avocado" as they reveal the cards.

If a card matches the number said aloud on that turn, it is a smash! As before, all players must smash their hands down in the center, and the losing player takes the cards from the center.

When you reveal a Smash! Card, it is an automatic smash!When you reveal a Guacamole Card, all players must shout, "Guacamole!" and the last player to react loses the round. However, if anybody erroneously smashes their hand down in the center on a Guacamole Card, then they are the loser for that round, regardless of who shouted last.

Verdict:
We love this game! I will suggest clipping your fingernails before playing, haha!

Great for Learning:
Multi-level thinking (you are playing one number, saying another number out loud, and trying to remember if it matches the number card you are playing on top of!), reaction time, reflexes

Ticket to Ride

Today's game is a favorite strategy game of ours, and it has many varieties. It is called Ticket to Ride.

Gameplay:

While the map is placed in the center of the table, each player takes his set of 45 colored train cars and its matching scoring marker. The marker will be placed on the start.

Shuffle the train cards and deal 4 cards to each player. The remaining deck of train car cards are placed next to the board and the top five cards from the deck are placed face-up. The Longest Path Bonus card is also placed face up next to the board.

Now, someone shuffles the Destination Ticket cards and deals 3 cards to each player.

Each player decides which ones they wish to keep. A player must keep at least two Destination Ticket cards, but may keep all three if he wants.

The returned cards are placed on the bottom of the Destination Ticket deck which is also next to the board.

All players must keep their Destination Tickets secret until the end of the game.

On his turn each player must choose to perform one of the following actions:

• draw Train Car Cards

• claim a route

• draw Destination Tickets

The player can perform only one of those actions.

The player can draw two Train Car cards. He may choose between the face-up cards or he draws the top card from the deck.

If he takes a face-up card, he must turn a replacement card face-up from the deck.

Then the player draws his second card, either from the face-up cards or from the top of the deck. But when he picks a locomotive card from the face-up cards, he can't pick up a second card from the deck.

It's allowed to have any number of cards in your hand at any time.

There are 8 types of regular Train Car cards, plus Locomotive cars and their colors match various routes between cities on the board.

Locomotives are multi-colored and act as a wild card that can be part of any set of cards.

If a replacement card is a locomotive, the player can't take it immediately. If at any time, 3 of the 5 face-up cards are Locomotives, all 5 cards are immediately discarded and 5 new ones are turned face-up to replace them.

When the deck is exhausted, the discards are reshuffled good and become a new draw pile deck.

When the deck gets empty and no discards are available, the player can't draw another Train car card anymore. Instead he may only claim a route or draw Destination Ticket cards.

A player must play a set of cards equal to the number of spaces in that route to be able to claim it. The set of cards must be of the same specific type.

When a route is claimed, the player can place one of his plastic trains on each of the spaces of the route and all cards used to claim the route are discarded.

A player can claim any open route on the board and they don't need to connect to any of his previously played routes.

Player can claim maximum one route on his turn. When cities are connected by double-routes, then the player can't claim both routes to the same cities.

A player can draw more Destination Ticket cards if he wants by drawing 3 new cards from the top of the Destination Ticket Deck.

He keeps at least one of the cards, but may also keep 2 or all 3. The returned cards are placed on the bottom of the Destination Ticket Deck.

Each Destination Ticket includes the name of two cities on the map and a point value and when the player can complete a connection between these two cities, he will score those points at the end of the game.

If the player fails to connect the cities, then the indicated amount of points will be deducted.

Destination Tickets are kept secret and a player may have as many cards as he wants.

When a player's stock of colored plastic trains gets down to 2 or fewer trains at the end of his turn, the final turn will start.

After that turn, the game will end and players must calculate their final scores.

The points earned of completed routes are already accounted for during the game.

Then players reveal all their Destination Tickets and add or subtract the indicated values.

The player with the longest continuous path of routes receives this special bonus card and can add 10 points to his score (in case of a tie, both players receive the points).

The continuous path may include loops and pass through the same city several times, but a given plastic train may never be used twice.

Verdict:
There are a lot of rules to this game, but once you have them down pat it really doesn't seem like that many anymore. You can tweak them a little, as long as you keep in mind that not everyone you play with will condone the rule-tweaking!

Great for Learning:
Geography, strategy, patterns, matching

Curious George: Discovery Beach

Today's game is one we have had forever - Curious George: Discovery Beach.

Seriously, we got this game when my kids were little, and we still play it!

Gameplay:

Set out the box and spinner. Shuffle the cards and put them in a pile next to the box. Shake the box side-to-side to make sure everything inside gets mixed up.

Flip over one card and put it face-up next to the box. Any player can look for any of the face-up cards on their turn!

Spin the spinner. If it points to "Wave!", shake the box side-to-side so everything gets mixed up, and spin again!

If it points to any other space, look under one puzzle-piece door that matches a location the spinner is pointing to. Everyone can look, to see what's under the pieces!

How to Win:

Collect any 6 cards!

Verdict:
Fun, simple, and a fast game!

Great for Learning:
Memory, matching, patterns, colors, words

Googly Eyes

Today's game is a really silly one: Googly Eyes. Do not play this game if you take yourself too seriously.

Gameplay:

Place the game board in the middle of the table. Shuffle all the cards and place them face down next to the board. Place everything within the reach of all players. Place your pawns on the Start space.

Roll the die and move on the game board. If your pawn lands on a green space, put the green lenses in the glasses and get ready to look AMAZING!!

Take the top card from the pile (BEFORE you put on the glasses!) and announce the category. Read the challenge to yourself and announce the time limit.

Put your wacky glasses on, let the other team or player set the timer, and begin! You are drawing the picture with the wacky glasses on in this time limit. No speaking or miming. No letters or numbers.

If you get it right, you may roll the dice and move forward that amount of spaces.

There are special spaces as well. You may get to choose the color of your lenses, you might have to draw with your opposite hand, you may be allowed to draw without the wacky glasses, or you might have to skip a turn.

How to Win:

Reach the finish first!

Verdict:

A fun, easy game to play! Great for laughing at yourself and others!

Great for Learning:

Fine motor skills and art!

Scene-It

Today's game is Scene-It. If you are a huge movie buff,  you will do well at this game! There are multiple version of this game out but we have found we are the best at the original, and the Disney version.

Gameplay:

Lay out the game board and choose a game piece for each player, placing them on the Start space. Make sure the Buzz cards and trivia cards and dice are all laid out as well.

Start the DVD. Begin by one person rolling the dice. You move the number of spaces shown on the one die, and then play depending on the symbol you roll on the other die.

If you roll a "My Play", you select that option from the DVD. You're the only one who will answer this question. If you guess correctly, you keep rolling.

If you roll an "All Play", select that option from the DVD. Everyone will play at once. If the rolling player guesses correctly first, they keep rolling. If someone else guesses correctly first, they can either move their game piece forward one space or force someone else to draw a Buzz Card.

If you get a trivia card, there are three options:

Take Three Challenge - you must identify an actor, actress or movie from three clues on the card.
Songs and Slogans Challenge - Answer a question associated with a song, slogan or tagline.
Pop Culture Challenge - Answer a question related to movie pop culture.

A Buzz Card:

You may also roll "Player's Choice" and you can choose between My Play, a Trivia Card, or a Buzz Card.

How to Win:
You will land on "Stop: All Play to Win" and choose that from the DVD menu. Everyone plays. If the rolling player guesses correctly first, they WIN! If the rolling player loses the challenge, they move to the next part on the board and wait for their next turn and another chance to win. You must win the challenge to win the game.

Verdict:
We absolutely love this game, and I bet you can find a version out there that fits your fancy!

Uno Attack

If you haven't noticed, we like playing different versions of some of our favorite games. For example, we really like Uno Attack!

Gameplay:

If you know Uno, you basically know Uno Attack. Everyone gets 7 cards. One card is laid down to create the discard pile. Open the Launcher, insert the remaining cards facedown inside, close the Launcher, and turn it on.

Play just like regular Uno - playing by number, color or symbol. If you don't have any card that matches, hit the Launcher button. If nothing happens, play moves to the next player. If cards shoot out, add them to your hand and play passes to the next player.

Hit 4:

 Next player must hit the Launcher button four times! This card is also a wild card, so player who plays it also chooses the color that resumes play.

Discard All:

Discard all the cards in your hand that are this color. You must still match the color of the card on top of the discard pile.

Wild Card:

Change the color to any other color you want.

Wild Attack-Attack:

Change it to any color and then choose any other player to attack. YOU get to turn the Launcher to that player and press the button twice to attack them!

Skip:

Skip the next person.

 Hit 2:

Next player must hit the Launcher button twice on their turn!

 Reverse:

Reverse direction of play.

 The Launcher in action:

How to Win:
First person to run out of cards wins!

Verdict:
We love this game because it is HILARIOUS and also very tense when you're hitting that Launcher button multiple times! It's such a fun version of Uno.

Great for Learning:
Matching, patterns, strategy

Bunco

 Today's game is one that has been around for a long time - Bunco!

Gameplay:
Before you begin a round, go ahead and decide any trio of numbers. If anyone rolls that combination of numbers during the game, they get the fuzzy die!

At the beginning of the round, one player (the dice roller) tosses their three colored dice (red, white, or black). In round one, you are trying to roll ones, in round two you'll try to roll twos, in round three you'll try to roll threes, and so forth.

Every die that matches the number of the round being played scores one point. The dice roller keeps rolling all three dice until no points are scored. Play moves to the next person, who begins to roll and try to get as many points as possible.

Have a scorekeeper who will keep a running total of every player's score on scrap paper. Play continues with the dice being rolled and passed until someone scores 21 points.

Some special rules:

Bunco - If all three dice rolled match the number of the round being played, a Bunco is scored. A Bunco is worth 21 points. At this time, the player shouts, "Bunco!", the bell is rung, and the round is over.

3 of a kind - If all three dice rolled are the same number but NOT the number of the round being played, you score five points.

Fuzzy Die Roll - Anytime someone rolls that special 3-number combination from the beginning of the game, the fuzzy die is tossed to that player. At the end of the entire game, whoever is holding that die gets a bonus score.

Ending a Round - When any player scores 21 points the round ends. Ring the bell!

How to Win:
After 6 rounds, the person holding the fuzzy die is awarded a bonus "W" (win). The scorekeeper adds up the amount of "W"s per player and the number of Buncos.

Fun for small amounts of friends and team play!

Verdict:
We really like this game - it's very easy and fun to play!

Sleeping Queens

Today's game is: Sleeping Queens. The funny thing is, the first time we played this game with friends, we were so confused we vowed not to play it again. About a year later, I bought it as a stocking stuffer for the kids, and we love it now!

Gameplay:
Separate the queens from all the other cards. These are a few of the queens:

Shuffle the 12 queens and place them face down in the center of the playing area in four rows of three. Let them sleep.

Shuffle the rest of the cards (red backed cards), deal five cards to each player, and place the remaining cards face down in a draw pile in the center of the queens.

On your turn you get to take one action and then draw a card.

You may play a KING to awaken a Sleeping Queen. Place your King on the discard pile and flip over any queen from the sleeping area. It's now "awake" and you get those points. If you pick the Rose Queen, you get to wake up an additional sleeping queen!

A few of the kings:

Play a KNIGHT to steal one of your opponent's awakened queens. Lay your knight on the discard pile, then select any of their queens and place it face up in front of you.

Beware - they can immediately stop your knight by playing a DRAGON card. Discard both cards if that happens, and your opponent keeps their queen. You each pick a new card from the draw pile so you have five cards in your hand.

Play a SLEEPING POTION card to put one of your opponents' awakened queens back to sleep. Place your card on the discard pile and then put one of their queens face down in any open spot among the other queens.

Beware - if they have a WAND they can immediately defend your sleeping potion. Discard both cards if that happens, and your opponent gets to keep her queen. You each pick a new card from the draw pile so you have five cards in your hand.

Play a JESTER card and take a chance! Place your card on the discard pile, then turn the top draw card over. If it's a power card (king, knight, dragon, potion, wand or jester), add it to your hand and take another turn. If it is a number card, starting with you and continuing to the left, count off the number of players equal to the number on the card. The last player counted gets to awaken and keep a queen from the sleeping queens!

 You can also choose to discard one or more cards to draw new cards. There are three ways to do this:

One - Discard a single card of any kind and draw a new card.

Two - Discard a pair of identical number cards and draw two cards:

Three - Discard three or more number cards that make an addition equation and draw three or more cards. For example, one plus two equals three:

Make sure you always end up with five cards in your hand!

How to Win:
The first player to collect 5 queens or 50 points worth of queens wins!

Verdict:
We love this game and like to be flexible in the math skills. It's quite easy to make players use subtraction, multiplication, or division skills to create their equations if addition is too simple or they need to work on other skills!

We even played this with my 4-year old brother-in-law a few months ago, and he caught on very quickly! Young kids can do the addition skills when you show them the visuals of the cards!

P.S. Fun fact - this game was created by a 6-year old! Even cooler!

Great for Learning:
Patterns, math facts, visual perception, matching

SET

Today's game is SET.

This is not a game you want to play if you're looking for something quick or NOT mentally challenging. Let me put it this way - MENSA considers it one of the top games to play.

Gameplay:
You're trying to identify a "set" of three cards from 12 cards laid out. Each card has a symbol which is a color, has 1/2/3 symbols on the card, and is a different type of shading. A set must be the same feature on each card, or different on each card. It's MUCH more difficult than it sounds!

Lay out your twelve cards like so:

As you see a set, remove it and prove it to the other players. The magic rule to keep in mind is "If two are, and one is not, it is not a set."

This is a not set:

Although all have different colors and different shadings, two of the cards have the same symbol.

This is a set:

All have different colors, all have different symbols, all have different numbers, and they all have the SAME shading.

This is a set:

All have the same color, all are ovals, all have two symbols, and all have different shadings.

As you remove sets, add three more cards at a time to the layout.

Verdict:
 We like this game, but it is very mentally tiring. It is not that easy to find sets. But when you find one, you feel so accomplished! We typically set a time limit and then count how many sets we have, or just play until we feel so tired mentally that we're done with the game. It's a very flexible game in that way!

Great for Learning:
How to be challenged intellectually, finding patterns, visual perception, spatial relationships, logical reasoning, right brain/left brain, critical thinking