Game Night
reported by Vicci Cook
Know It or Blow It
• Patch Products
608-362-6896
www.patchproducts.com
• ages 10 to adult; 4 or more players
• SRP $25.00
It’s hard to invent a trivia game that’s unique. Know It or Blow It is unique. You play with two teams; only this game is best with a larger group.
A team captain for each round is chosen, and he chooses who will begin answering the trivia questions. Each person on the team, in turn, tries to name another item on the list. Orange cards are first up (three or four answers), then blue (five or six answers), then purple (seven or more answers). Although categories aren’t listed, there are such topics as geography, presidents, entertainment, science, music, popular culture, movies and lots more.
Here’s the scenario: Red team’s captain chooses the card and reads the question. First up, orange. Red team captain reads “Three ingredients in s’mores.” (Did I mention that we played this at a weekend camping event?)
First blue team member yells “Chocolate bars!” Second team member says “Graham crackers!” and the third team member (or back to the first if you only have two players on your team) shouts, “Marshmallows!”
Congratulations, blue team! Move three spaces ahead (for three correct answers) plus two for getting all three answers, you Know-It-All! If you don’t guess all the answers you have a choice, but then YOU BLEW IT if it’s wrong, and you get zero points. Or you can say, “Don’t know it,” and take the four points for the answers you knew.
The other scenario goes like this. Say red team has landed in the purple section and blue draws this question for them: “Eight nations beginning with the letter E.” Mary says, “Ecuador.” Julie says “Egypt.” Matt says “El Salvador,” and Rachel says “Ethiopia.” It comes back to Mary (who’s geographically challenged), and she can guess and lose for her team (trust me, Mary doesn’t know), or she can say, “Don’t know.” The team takes their four points. In either case, the opposing team (except the reader) can steal points by guessing the rest of the nations beginning with the letter E.
Once a team lands on The Final Question space (it’s a purple card), now you have to answer all the questions correctly to win. Lots harder than you think, but what fun would it be if you knew it all immediately?
Pros: Lots of trivia categories insure that someone will know all the answers to something! Enough cards to carry you through many games without repeating. A great game for a large group.
Cons: Pricey. Some trivia will be impossible for 10 year olds.
“Very fun! The questions made you think hard. More fun with a lot of people.”
Emily, age 16
The T-Shirt Game
• Buffalo Games
800-832-2331/716-827-8393
www.buffalogames.com
• ages 10 and up; 3 to 6 players
• SRP $20.00
he T-shirt Game is one of those games that you want to play over and over.
One person is appointed judge, who flips over the first t-shirt card. The “Hot or Not” cards are placed in the center. Each player gets three slogan cards, which you keep secret. Shhh.
Each player, except the judge, finds a slogan she feels best fits the picture and places it face down near the t-shirt card. The judge mixes them up, then flips them over and reads them out loud. (Has to be out loud, that’s the fun part of the game!)
For example, the t-shirt card is a cowboy riding a mechanical bull. The slogan in my hand that best fits this shirt is, “Proof of intelligent life on Earth,” which the judge chooses. Then I draw a “Hot or Not” card (which provides the second laugh of the round). “Your t-shirt provides 20 essential vitamins and minerals, but still somehow tastes like cotton. T-shirt value: 250 pts.” If you draw a “BOO-YAH” card, you can keep it for 400 points (yawn) or trade it for someone else’s “Hot” card for more points. BOO-YAH! The first person to reach 3,000 points, wins.
For a faster game, especially if you don’t have paper to add up the points, the winner of each round keeps the t-shirt card. Set a limit, and the first person who reaches that limit wins the game.
Pros: Price is right for the hours of enjoyment your family or party will receive. It’s simple to play and lots of fun. We brought it to a three-day outdoor event, and every time we looked, someone was playing it! Rated 9/10.
Cons: Although there seem to be limitless combinations, I think booster packs will be needed eventually.
“This game brings out each person’s personality. It should be for ages 12 and up because of rude humor”
Zach, age 14
Tiki Topple
• Gamewright
617-962-8080
www.gamewright.com
• ages 10 and up; 2 to 4 players
• SRP $15.99
Mensa Select and Oppenheim Platinum Award winner (among others) looks simple, but the strategy can be very complicated. It helps to have the mind of a chess player. It does take a couple rounds to get the hang of it, but it’s worth the time investment.
The idea is to move your tiki totems (Polynesian names like Huhu, Lokahi and Wikiwiki) into the top three positions on the board without anyone knowing which are yours! Our “analytical” player could guess which tikis were yours almost immediately. Nine different-colored tikis with symbols on the back are placed on the board in same-symbol sets: starfish, shell, fish bones. Each player chooses a color pawn and is given a matching set of cards: two 1-up, one 2-up, one 3-up, one Tiki Topple, and two Tiki Toast. For each round, players choose one secret tiki card, which shows you which tikis you have to get in the top three positions to score.
On your turn, play any of the cards you have (Tiki Toast cannot be played as
your first card). You can move any tiki up one, two or three spaces, shifting the others down as you do so. It doesn’t have to be your tiki. In fact, you can often move another tiki to help move your tiki up, thus fooling some of the people some of the time!
Use Tiki Topple to move any tiki to the bottom, shifting the others up. Tiki Toast is used to remove the bottom tiki from play. If any of your tiki totems are in the top three positions, you score the number of points on your card. First position always has to be first position, but a tiki that needs to be in, say, third position will score if it’s in first or second position, too.
Add up your score and move your pawn on the board that number of spaces. At the end of a designated number of rounds (4 for a two or four-player game, three for a three-player game), the person with the most points wins.
Pros: The $15.99 SRP is an incredible price for such a high-quality game – heavy, sturdy tikis, game board and pawns. No two games are alike. Players rated this 8/10.
Cons: Those of us who are not much good at strategy may have a tough time, but even we get lucky once in a while!
“Tiki Topple was an exercise for the brain! It took a couple of tries to understand the directions fully, but it wasn’t long until the game became exciting.”
Rachel, age 14 |
