About Game Diary: this series of posts will occur occasionally when we have a family day of gaming. We will go over some of the games we played and discuss how they were received by new and experienced players of various ages.
Game Diary: Easter Long Weekend
The mention of a long weekend occasionally brings a sense of panic in our house. If the kids are stuck at home for a whole day it’s not uncommon to hear complaints for boredom, especially during long cold winters or rainy days. A day filled with games is a great way to pass the time. We go through a variety of board games for us all to play, and surprisingly they will then continue to choose and cycle through a bunch of the games on their own, while we prepare meals during the day.
This Easter the cousins were coming over for dinner and we thought it would be a good opportunity to bring out some games the kids have never played before. They were very excited about games they haven’t played yet; our oldest (E) definitely subscribes to the cult of the new as she is always asking if we have new games.
Monza – ages 5+
We started with playing Monza while we waited for the cousins to arrive. We talked about Monza in a previous post about children games for ages 5-6. However, our youngest (Z) who is about to turn 4 handled the game with ease and won both plays of it. Also, in both plays I (the blue car) only got half way around the track by the time both girls finished. What I realized was there is a bottleneck in the game track. Two “tire” spots that are inaccessible make it necessary to roll a purple and a red to pass. However, I am terrible at rolling dice and couldn’t get the required colours. Luckily it didn’t happen to the girls otherwise they would be upset with the bad luck. In future games I may turn those spots into “wild colour” spots.
Dr Eureka – ages 6+
Dr Eureka was the most popular game of the day, mainly because the adults really enjoyed it. It’s more of a logic puzzle than a game. Each player has a similar set of balls in 3 test tube. A card is flipped and everyone needs to match the colour and order of balls in each test tube. When doing this they can’t use their hands; they can only pour balls from test tube to test tube. The game is a race involving some dexterity and critical thinking (“I must move this ball to one beaker so I can move the ball underneath it, then place the first ball back on top of it”). My daughters played it on their own before everyone arrived. They are just slightly too young to manage the dexterity aspect of transferring the balls so I allowed them to use their fingers to mediate the ball transfer, thus the game becomes more focused on the critical thinking part. However, the adults and the oldest cousin (A) enjoyed the competition aspect and they didn’t hold back. The next day Julie also played it with the kids and immediately messaged me saying “this is a good one”.
When the kids played with me (Julie) it also gave them the opportunity to be the teacher, explain the rules and show me how to play the game. I find this is a great way to guide them in presenting and logical communication.
Rhino Hero – ages 5+
Rhino Hero was another game that the adults really enjoyed. It’s a simple dexterity game of stacking cards to build a tower. You’re trying to get rid of your hand of cards before it falls. The younger kids helped place the first few cards, then the adults did the higher ones. Its main draw is its super quick game play of no more than 10 mins. The tension of seeing a large tower and expecting it to fall at any moment is very exciting for kids and adults alike.
Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters
I thought a cooperative game would be good for everyone to play together with the mix of ages. We also talked about this game in the post about games for ages 7-9. The younger ones enjoyed the visuals and cute components. They also really liked the lack of competition. However, the game was a little long for them (around 30mins), so I could see their attention diverting. The oldest cousing (A) was at the perfect age for the game and did a great job helping all the younger ones play. I think he would have enjoyed it more with kids closer to his age, especially since I made the rules a little easier considering the ages of the kids involved.
Bugs in the Kitchen – ages 5+
Bugs in the Kitchen is a light hearted frantic game with not much strategy but a cool/gross concept. In the game board is a hexabug (it’s a vibrating toy bug that moves around in random directions). Its direction is blocked by a maze of rotating utensils. Each play rolls a die that indicates what type of utensil they can rotate, opening passages for the hexabug to move. The goal is to avoid having the bug fall into your corner of the kitchen. The kids really didn’t care for the die roll aspect of it. The game quickly turned into a toy to play with and watching the hexabug move around and directing it. Eventually the hexabug became their pet and they held it on their shoulder and would pet it. I’ll have to try this again in the future but for now they can enjoy the toy aspect of it.
Klask
Any time we have guests over, Klask makes an appearance. It’s very similar to air hockey where you are trying to knock a ball into the opponents goal (the small circle). The individual pieces are magnets so you move your pawn from the bottom of the board. Any child can play the game but clearly the older kids are more skilled at it. The adults play it often and are more competitive. Overall its simple, fast, and fun.
Go Cuckoo! – ages 4+
This was the last game we played for the afternoon. Go Cuckoo! is another dexterity game from HABA. When we want the adults to get involved we often bring out dexterity games. These games even the playing field between adults and children. Sometimes the kids have steadier hands and more nimble fingers to grab small components. In this game you are picking up sticks one by one and laying them across to build a nest. Your goal is to get rid of all your eggs by placing up to one of them per turn. The player to place their last egg gets to place the bird and wins the game. My oldest, E, has played it all 4 days of the long weekend. The reason is that she always wins at this game.
DIARY BONUS! Game Night!
Game day with the cousins finished but after the kids went to bed we had a couple of friends over for a game night where we squeezed in 3 games. Two games were quick family level games and one game was a more complex deeper game. It was our first time playing all three.
Azul – ages 8+
Azul has been a hot game in the past year so I was eager to finally try it out. It’s an abstract game of selecting and laying tiles. In this game you are tile-laying artists in Portugal hired by the king to decorate his palace after he was inspired by a trip to Spain. The mechanics are simple but provide a decent amount of strategy.
You start by drafting tiles from several markets and placing them on the left of your board. This is the first part of the strategy as the tiles you leave behind become available to your opponents. When you fill up a row on the left side you can then place one of them on the right side to decorate the palace. As you fill up the grid of 5×5 tiles you get points based on how many of the previously played tiles they are touching. There are a couple of bonus points for aspects like filling a whole column or completing all tiles of one pattern. Most points at the end wins.
I really liked it. It’s a nice filler game (about 30mins playtime) that works for many types of players because the rules are very accessible. You could play it without worrying about what your opponents are doing, or you can pay attention to their moves and choose accordingly. It’s visually stunning will beautiful colourful components. I highly recommend it and think players new to the hobby would love it.
Cat Lady – ages 8+
In this ridiculously themed game you play a collector of cats worth varying points. You are drafting cards that can be cats, food, toys and a few other types. At the end of the game you get points for the cats you collect and can feed. You get extra points for having a complete set of toys, or some catnip, or costumes for your cats. It’s hilarious.
Cat Lady is another simple quick playing game. Something you don’t have to think too hard about while playing and can play while conversing with other people about something completely different. It plays very similarly to a popular game called Sushi Go. For me, this makes Sushi Go obsolete as I would rather play this game every time. I would definitely recommend it for a new gamer to try out.
Castell – ages 12+
The spotlight game for the night was the newly released Castell. A Castell is a human tower traditionally built at festivals in Spain. In this game you are traveling across Catalonia recruiting people into your Castell team, training them to improve their abilities, and visiting festivals to build the highest most complex human towers.
The turn based mechanics of gameplay are very simple and fast. The strategic depth is in the puzzly nature of getting the correct combination of people and training them to the right level to achieve the required tower formations to gain points. I wouldn’t say this is a game for beginners because there is a lot to juggle in your strategies but if you have some experience with worker placement mechanics in board games you will have no problem grasping the game play. The theme is unique and appealing and the design implements aspects of the theme wonderfully. I loved it and definitely recommend it for an experienced board gamer.
