Get your deduction hats on!

Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War is a great 2-player board game full of deduction. So if you’re looking for a head-to-head game that keeps your mind ticking, then we recommend you take a look at Confusion.

While at first glance Confusion may look like a game of Stratego, Confusion is a whole lot more. Take a closer look and you’ll see that it has a unique twist. Rather than trying to guess your opponent’s pieces, you’re left having to guess about your own pieces!

Players have to first figure out how their spy pieces can move before they’ll be able to use them to accomplish their objective.

Before you get too confused, check out dad’s video review of Confusion to see what it’s all about.

Can the whole family enjoy Confusion?

How can we stop him from getting through?

As the name suggests, Confusion may be a bit confusing for some players. But we’ve found that the only tricky part is getting familiar with what the symbols on the movement pieces mean and how to mark them on your tracking dossier. Once players have that settled, the rest is just using them to work in their favor.

While we wouldn’t recommend youngsters play Confusion, we do think it’s a great way for kids to develop their mental capacities. We found that by having Caleb and Brooke sit with us and mark our notes for us, they’ve picked on the game rather nicely.

And for the older kids and adults, Confusion is a great game for a fun, 2-player board game for working your brain.

The mix of strategy and luck

Fun to figure out how to get around.

Even though Confusion is a deduction board game, luck plays a role in the game as well. Perhaps the deduction game most families are familiar with is Clue. In Clue the luck of the die rolls will affect the outcome. If you can’t get a high enough roll to get to the room you want to be in, tough luck. You’ll have to deal with it and adjust your strategy.

Similar elements are alive in Confusion. While there aren’t any dice to roll, the game starts out with the random placement of movement tiles into the spy pieces. The whole point of the game is to first figure out how your pieces can move and then get them moving in coordination to carry the top secret case across the board. And if you get lucky with your first few guesses and pieces, then you’ll have the advantage.

Great board to keep track of what you know.

As mentioned in the video, we have come across a downside in a number of our games. Sometimes the games have lasted less than 5 minutes because of the lucky, random placement of the movement tiles and initial guesses on movement. So those games have been a let-down. But when those elements don’t fall into place that way, then it’s a great game of deduction and strategy.

When we think of strategy, we think of planning general movements in advance and then working to accomplish the goal step by step on each turn. And in Confusion, once you’ve figured out the movement of some of your pieces, then you can figure out a strategy and get it rolling. Of course, you can also plan some strategy from the beginning in which pieces you want to attempt to move first. Just be willing to adjust as you learn more about your spies.

Fabulous game components!

Fantastic components for great play.

We can’t end our review without talking about the game components in Confusion. Stronghold Games did a great job with this board game remake. The spy components are fantastic!

We love how easy the movement sections fit into the spy pieces and stay put during game play. The sturdy and durable pieces look great and feel great!

There are also a few other items not shown in our video review – markers that are used with some of the variants mentioned in the rule book. We like that the rules include some additional ways to add twists to the game depending on what you’re in the mood for.

How does Confusion score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
Confusion scores high on our “let’s play again” game meter mostly for repeated plays. Since it’s a deduction game, the first game seems to get our minds warmed up and then we want to have a number of rematches in a row once the juices are flowing. Games don’t seem to last too long, so it’s easy to set up and go again.

So if you’re looking for a good 2-player game with deduction at it’s core, then we suggest you consider Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War.

Thanks for another great remake Stronghold Games!

The Board Game Family Game Ratings
	Caleb
Has not played	Brooke
	Jaden
	Trevor
	Mom
	Dad
	Average

• Code 777
• Survive: Escape from Atlantis
• Hive
• Memoir ’44

This post is from The Board Game Family. Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Do all of your board games get jumbled together too?

When we saw this Baby Blues comic in yesterday’s newspaper, we just had to share it. Our day doesn’t seem quite complete if we don’t read Baby Blues. Even the kids love the funny family comic. So when it mentioned board games, we especially got a kick out of it.

It also reminded us of a number of comments we received from friends after they saw us on TV on Studio 5 and noticed the shot of our game closet. They mentioned how organized our game closet looked with games stacked nicely on the shelves. By comparison, while they only have a handful of board games, they’re laying disorganized on a closet shelf with all the pieces scattered amongst them.

They have to go somewhere.

Organized by Default
Of course, we can’t claim that our game closet has always been organized either. In fact, we didn’t start out with a board game closet even on the list. Our current board game closet was actually built to be a storage closet. And we planned for a cabinet in the family room where we’d place our games so we could easily pull them out to play. But then the family board game bug struck and before you know it, we got carried away.

With a current board game, card game, and party game count coming in over 250 we need to be organized. It’s that simple.

Thus our storage closet became our walk-in game closet. And when we’re looking for a game, we simply head to that section. Kind of like a library. We’ve put all the party games in one area and card games in another. The large box games are stacked near the back and the kid games are on the lower shelves. And so it goes.

Stormtroopers on the beach in '44.

If we didn’t organize it some way, we’d be overwhelmed.

Creative Kids
But the thing that I love about the Baby Blues comic is how the kids make creative use of the games. Who says you have to be limited by the rules of a game? And in a like manner, who says you have to keep the games separate at all?

Why not just have fun with your games in any way you choose?

We know there's treasure here.

In fact, that’s probably just how some board games get designed. The designers take parts of games they enjoy and then find creative ways to combine them with a new theme.

And if your game pieces do get mixed around, that might bring fresh life to some of your family board games. Why not have Star Wars characters storm the beaches in Memoir ’44 or Gold Miners look for treasure on Forbidden Islands?

So this week we challenge you to add some creativity to your family board game time. Mix it up a little and see what your family can come up with during your game time.

This post is from The Board Game Family. How organized are your board games? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

We’re often asked what our favorite new board games and card games are. And when the year rolls around to a new year, the question gets asked more frequently. Many people are anxious to hear what the best board games of the past year were.

While we’d love to give the definitive list of best board games to the world, it brings up a few issues.

1. With about 1,000 new board games releasing every year, there’s no way for one person to judge them all. How can one person or one family get through all those games to compare them?
2. With so many different types of games, how should we compare one against another (party game vs. a deeply themed strategy game) ?
3. When’s the best time to judge the games? Can we judge it like a movie with a singular experience or should it first stand the test of time?

So with those issues in mind, we’re happy to point you in a solid direction.

This month The Dice Tower podcast released 2 episodes focused on the Best Board Games of 2011. The great thing about this source for a “best of” listing is that contributors from around the world weigh in on what they believe the best games of 2011 were. They also break them down into various categories so it’s easier to compare one against another.

In regards to how soon a game can be declared “the best”, the final Dice Tower list will come out in the summer of 2012 – after many plays and rounds of nominations and voting from game reviewers across the globe. That’s when we’ll have a better feel for how the test of time will treat these new games.

With that in mind, here are the games that made The Dice Tower preliminary list of Best Board Games of 2011. (Of course, at the end we’ll also tell you which board games our family liked best from 2011.)

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Dice Tower

• Super Dungeon Explore
• Star Trek Fleet Captains
• Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
• Mage Knight Board Game
• Eminent Domain
• Yomi
• Kingdom Builder
• BattleCON: War of Indines
• Quarriors
• King of Tokyo
• Castles of Burgundy
• Eclipse
• Paperclip Railways
• Risk Legacy
• Battleship Galaxies
• Core Worlds
• Node
• Sentinels of the Multiverse
• Airlines Europe

And their Runners Up are:

• Letters from Whitechapel
• Dungeon Run
• Fealty
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game
• The Ares Project
• Conquest of Planet Earth
• Few Acres of Snow
• Panic Station

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Board Game Family
Here are the 2011 games that our family liked the most:

• Knock Your Blocks Off
• City Square Off
• Say Anything Family Edition
• Dixit Odyssey
• Reverse Charades Junior Edition
• Martian Dice
• Dominion: Cornucopia
• Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan
• Castle Panic: The Wizard’s Tower

(As you can tell, we’ve got a few of these game reviews still coming.)

It’s an understatement to say that there’s a ton of 2011 board games that we haven’t had a chance to play yet. Here are the 2011 board and card games that we’re most anxious to try:

• Kingdom Builder
• King of Tokyo
• Dominion: Hinterlands
• 7 Wonders Leaders
• Power Grid: The Robots
• Ticket to Ride: Alvin and Dexter
• Small World: Underground
• A Fistful of Penguins
• Secret of Monte Cristo
• Lost Temple
• Pastiche
• Rumble in the House
• The Road to Canterbury
• Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game

It’s a long list and who knows if we’ll have a chance to try these board games or not, but it should be fun trying. After all, we’re thinking there may be another cool game or two come out in 2012 that we’ll want to play along the way.

Have a great 2012 with your family!

Do you have a Best Board Games of 2011? Tell us about it in the comments below.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Great 2-Player Strategy Game

Many abstract strategy board games have the objective of getting 5 in a row. And in that regard, Pentago is like many other games. However, there’s a twist to the game that makes Pentago unique – quite literally a twist.

The Pentago board is pretty cool. It’s made up of 4 quadrants that are twisted as you play the game – giving the game an added measure of strategy.

The rules are very simple to grasp – play a marble, twist a tile. But when you can get 5 in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally and the board keeps changing, it will take some wits to maneuver your win.

Check out how cool it is in Caleb’s video review.

Can the whole family enjoy Pentago?
Yes – the whole family can enjoy Pentago.

The twisting board is awesome!

The recommended age is 8+, but we think younger kids can enjoy it too. Even young kids will enjoy placing their marbles and twisting the board. Sure, they may not plan out a lot of deep strategies, but they’ll enjoy playing.

Older kids and adults will really enjoy it as well. Trying to plan out winning moves while also keeping an eye on your opponent’s moves can be pretty tricky – but a lot of fun. And inevitably you’ll find yourself overlooking something that will come back to get you.  The trick is to learn as you go, so those times are less frequent.

With how easy the game board itself stores the marbles, it’s also easy to take with you on the road. Just grab it and go. Since the marbles may squirm away, it’s not a game that we plan on taking with us on a scout camp like Hive, but its’ definitely a game that boys that age will love to challenge each other with.

How long does a game of Pentago take to play?
As you can see in our quick demo game in the video review, games don’t take long to play at all. Of course, most games last longer than the one in the video, but not by much. But we’ll also never stop with just one game. In fact, the rules also suggest playing Match play – playing multiple games in a row and the winner is the best out of 5.

How does Pentago score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
Pentago scores high on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter. Because it’s so simple to play, it’s easy to play over and over. And the “best out of 5” can easily turn into the best of 7 or best of 9 or…

It really is a great 2-player strategy board game that will help develop your mind.

The Board Game Family Game Ratings
	Caleb
	Brooke
	Jaden
Has not played	Trevor
Has not played	Mom
	Dad
	Average

This post is from The Board Game Family. Pentago – Strategy with a Twist The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

What defines a board game or card game?

In our view, the whole definition of a board game or card game revolves around it being something physical that you can touch, feel, and move around. Playing board games is all about the social interaction of sitting around, face-to-face and moving stuff around on the table or from hand to hand.

So what’s the deal with board games going digital? And do they still qualify as “board” games, “card” games, or “dice” games if they don’t have physical boards, cards, or dice?

So many board games have gone digital

Take your games with you.

With the rise of the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android, and other mobile devices, digital gaming has gotten another big boost. It’s amazing what they can cram into mobile devices. And one of the most popular uses of these “phones” is actually games. It seems everywhere we turn, we’ll see people playing games on their devices.

Board games have also shot up in popularity over the last decade as more and more great board games and card games are developed and sold. So it’s really no surprise that the two forces should meet. And over the last year, we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of board games and card games that are being ported over to a digital medium.

Digital games have also gone physical

Bring on the birds!

As we’ve watched the rise of these fun board games being given their digital incarnation, we’ve seen the blurring definition of “board game”. Is it dependent on what medium a game starts out with? If it first comes to life as a physical board game and then goes digital, is it still considered a board game. But if it first comes on the scene as a video game and then goes physical, is it still a video game?

Because that has happened too. Angry Birds is an amazing example of that. Angry Birds may be the most popular game on digital devices. But did you also know, that not too long ago it came to life as a physical game where you build structures, place pigs, then fling birds to knock them down? So what is Angry Birds – a video game or a board game? Or can it be both?

Great Board Games gone digital

Great digital cooperative games.

Whatever we call them, one thing is for certain – great games will find a way to live. And in today’s world, that means they’ll go for whatever medium will support them and will gain a huge following. (And makes financial sense for the designers, developers, and publishers.)

So maybe instead we should be surprised if fantastic board games and card games don’t go digital.

Just to give you a glimpse, here are great board games that are now available for playing on mobile devices:

• Smallworld
• Forbidden Island
• Ticket to Ride
• Carcassonne
• Hey That’s My Fish
• Roll Through the Ages
• Zooloretto
• Tikal

That’s just a sample – there are a ton more available. Just check the iTunes store for board games and you’ll find plenty. And if you look beyond mobile gaming, you’ll see even more available as online computer games.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

So what’s a board game lover to do?

Games are played very quickly.

Leaning towards the purist side of the equation, we held off for a long time on playing digital incarnations of these fun board games. However, with kids interested in games, “life will find a way” (to quote Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park). And sure enough, before you know it, we’re playing digital versions of our loved games.

Our best example is the recently released version of Ticket to Ride on the iOS. Since we love Ticket to Ride, we had to take the plunge on this one. So last month we loaded the Ticket to Ride app on our iPods and iPhone to check it out. And it was a hit. It takes all the fun of the board game and boils it down into a fantastic mobile game loaded with goals and achievements to get you hooked into playing over and over.

And what did the kids think of it?

Nice Christmas present, eh?

Just take a look at the “present” Caleb, our 8 yr old, gave us for Christmas. It’s a card he made in his class at school and it’s simply a thank you card – thanking us for putting Ticket to Ride on our iPhone and iPod. What a simple thing to put a smile on our faces.

But don’t think that’s the only version of the game he’ll play now. Just the other day when I came home from work, I found Caleb playing and teaching the Ticket to Ride board game to one of his friends. And it didn’t stop with one play. His buddy wanted to play again and again.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s what the publishers are after – reach a huge, modern audience with digital versions and then hope for an upsell to the physical board games. After all, we don’t doubt that digital games are currently hitting a broader base than physical board games. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Now we can’t wait for some digital board games

With the fun we’ve had with Ticket to Ride, we actually find ourselves hoping to see certain games come out for mobile devices. And at the top of our wish list are Dominion and Thunderstone. We’ve seen announcements that Thunderstone is being developed, but we haven’t heard about Dominion yet.

Playing Dominion with friends when we can’t get together to play for one reason or another would be awesome!

Why would these make great digital card games?

Tile laying without the tiles.

First, because they’re addicting. With the random selection of different decks to play with every time, the game changes every time you play. But the other reason they’d made for great digital versions is because there’s a ton of shuffling. The deck building games are full of shuffling your deck over and over as you play. With a digital version, you don’t have to take time shuffling. You’ll just see your cards and play them.

So taking out the shuffling is a great benefit of digital gaming. You also don’t have to worry about the set up time of the game. Setting out all the decks of cards and putting them all away at the end does take time.

The same is true for a lot of board games. Setting up before play and cleaning up after play take up time. And digital gaming can save time on both of those fronts. So playing digital games will go much faster. Which also means that you’ll be able to play a lot more games in the same amount of time. Which is pretty cool.

But on the flip side, the setting up and cleaning up is also a great part of the physical board game play. Taking time to set up a game provides a great opportunity to talk with your fellow players and engage in the socialization that makes board game playing so fun. It’s not all about the game, but rather about the people you’re playing with.

Will digital games kill their board game version?

NO!

Moving bits is where it's at!

We don’t think that digital incarnations of great board games will kill the physical board game version at all.

Like we just mentioned, the big draw for physical board games and card games is the socialization. Getting together with friends and family is what it’s about.

Now, if you want to enjoy the game by yourself when you’re not with friends, then a mobile version is awesome. Or if your friends or family live far away, staying in touch by playing a digital game at a distance can be great fun as well.

But if you want a reason to get together and enjoy face-to-face time, then grab the game off the shelf and sit down at the table and have a great time together pushing bits, shuffling cards, and rolling dice.

What do you think about board games going digital?
We’d love to hear.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Digital Board Games – an Oxymoron? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

So many games, so little time.

Our family had a great time playing lots of new board games and card games in 2011!

We also had a great time playing games that we’ve had for years.

In fact, it’s very relaxing to play a board game that we’re familiar with rather than always learning rules to new games. Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing all the new games that come out every year and learning how to play these fun games. But at times, it can feel like more work rather than relaxation. And to kids, familiarity is very comforting. So we make sure to intersperse both new and old games throughout the year.

So what are the board games that we played most in 2011?
Knowing what board games and card games we played most might be difficult if we didn’t have such a cool tool from BoardGameGeek.com (BGG) that let’s us track our game plays. Of course, most families that enjoy playing games, just play and don’t worry about recording what they play. But I guess that’s why the site has “Geek” in the name. For some reason, I find it cool to track things. And when there’s a tool for tracking game plays, and I can have access to it on my mobile device, why not record it?

You may have noticed in our right-hand sidebar a list of “Recently Played Games”. This little widget is pulled from the tool on BGG showing the last 5 games we’ve played. Pretty cool!

We can also run reports from the tool to find out what games we play most in a given period of time. Of course, since I’m not around all the time, I don’t keep track of what the kids play with each other or with their friends. So this list is what I (dad) have played the most in 2011. And while I’ve played a number of games with friends, you can bet that the majority of my game playing is with the family.

98 Different Games played in 2011
Ok – this is crazy to see, but I played as many different games in 2011 as I did in 2010 – 98!

That’s a lot of different games to play in 1 year – close to 2 different games per week. I knew we’d played a lot of different games, but to hit the exact same number as we did in 2010, is strange to believe.

So out of those 98 different games, which did we play the most?

5 and Dimes
One of the standard reports in the BGG tracking tool is the “5 and Dimes” report. This is a report that categorizes the games played 5-9 times (5s) and those played 10 or more times (dimes). So you can see at a quick glance which games fall into those most played groups.

Here’s my list of 5 and Dimes for 2010:

Dimes:

1. Hive – 30
2. Memoir ’44 – 25
3. Dominion – 24
4. Dominion: Seaside – 24
5. Dominion: Intrigue – 18
6. Dominion: Prosperity – 14
7. Ticket to Ride – 10

Yep – Dominion is on there a lot. I could have lumped all the Dominion games into one category, but it’s also great to see which expansions I pull from the most.

Fives:

1. Spot It
2. Martian Dice
3. Pentago
4. Shake ‘N Take
5. City Square Off
6. Quarto
7. Say Anything Family Edition
8. Rack-O
9. Bug Out
10. Lemming Mafia
11. Ligretto Dice
12. Fastrack

You’ll notice that a lot of games on this list are shorter games, rather than long strategic board games. And that’s just fine because a lot of family game time needs to be caught in the moment. If the kids are ready for some fun, light games that don’t take too long, then by all means, that’s what we’ll play. Take the time with them and have fun when you can get it!

And here’s looking forward to another fun year playing games with the family!
Who knows – maybe this year we’ll surpass more than 100 different games played in 2012!

P.S. If you’re interested in keeping track of games you’ve played, I’d suggest you check out the tool on BoardGameGeek.com.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Board Games Played Most in 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Wonderful, colorful dice racing.

Are you ready to test your dice rolling skills?

And how fast can you roll, spot, and match your dice?

Pretty quick?

Then you may be ready for Ligretto Dice.

It has plenty of colorful dice and lot’s of rolling. And it’s as simple to understand as matching the dice to the board.

Of course, don’t be fooled by the simplicity of it. Because when you’re in need of rolling a 4, before you know it, you’ll be pulling your hair out while you quickly roll your last die over and over and over…

And just when you do finally roll that 4, someone else will take the spot. Don’t believe me? It’s true. It’s true.

Check out Caleb’s video review of Ligretto Dice.

Can the whole family enjoy Ligretto Dice?

Plenty of dice to play with.

Ligretto Dice is another simple game that people of all ages can enjoy. Of course, like most games, that’s also to say that not everyone will like Ligretto Dice. For some, the frantic rush to roll and place your dice just isn’t their cup of tea. But for others – have at it!

We like that it’s just so simple to play it’s a great way to start a game night. Usually Ligretto Dice won’t be the only game we play during the night. But if we want to get the games rolling and the energy up, Ligretto Dice is a great starter.

How many can play Ligretto Dice?
One of the things that holds our ratings back a little for Ligretto Dice is that it only allows up to 4 players and we’re a family of 6. That said, though we really can play it with 6 players. Since there are 24 dice, we could evenly divide the dice so everyone gets 4 to place. But then the odds of getting rid of your dice quickly improves and the rounds end too quickly.

Part of the fun of Ligretto Dice is as the tension mounts when you’re trying to roll your last die and the board’s filling up. So having 3 or 4 players is ideal. That way each player has 8 or 6 dice which will take a little longer to place each round.

How does Ligretto Dice score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
Ligretto Dice scores in the middle of the range on our “Let’s play again” game meter. Like mentioned before, it’s more of a game that we play to start out a session of games rather than one we play back to back. However, since you play many rounds each game, it’s like every round is a new challenge anyway. But it is a game that has a front spot on our game shelf so it can get pulled out easily any time the dice-rolling-racing bug strikes.

The Board Game Family Game Ratings
	Caleb
	Brooke
	Jaden
Has not played	Trevor
	Mom
	Dad
	Average

This post is from The Board Game Family. Dice Racing Fun with Ligretto Dice The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Surprise, surprise – we got some new board games and card games for Christmas!

With so many great new family board games coming out every year, it’s hard not to put a few of them on our Christmas wishlist. The games we found under the Christmas tree this year were:

Great addition to a fantastic game.

Hive expansions – the Mosquito and the Ladybug
We first got a copy of Hive earlier this year and it quickly became one of our favorite two-player games. The chess-like strategy of Hive provides a great thinking game for people of all ages. But it’s much quicker than chess and can be played over and over in a sitting. So it wasn’t a surprise that the two expansions pieces for Hive, the Mosquito and Ladybug would tempt us to add them to our set. The Mosquito takes on the ability of the pieces it’s adjacent to and the Ladybug can move two spaces on top of the Hive and back down for a quick strike. Of course, if you pick up a copy of Hive Carbon, these pieces will already be included in it. We think Hive is a game you should definitely have on your family game shelf.

More cards for an addicting game.

Dominion: Cornucopia
The 5th Dominion expansion, Cornucopia, came out in the spring of 2011 and adds even more cards to the ever growing Dominion game universe. The central theme is variety; there are cards that reward you for having a variety of cards in your deck, in your hand, and in play, as well cards that help you get that variety. Some of the cool new cards we like are Farming Village, Fortune Teller, Menagerie, and Tournament that awards you with special prizes.

Dominion brought life to a whole new type of card game – the deck building game – and many game publishers have tried to replicate the formula. But Dominion still reigns. We’ve introduced it to many families in our area (as well as online) and they can’t help but get hooked. While the flow of play remains the same, the random selection of the cards to choose from each game adds so much variability to each game. Of course, it also makes it hard to stop with just one game. We heard of a number of families in our area getting Dominion expansions under their Christmas tree.

Indiana Jones style adventure game.

Fortune and Glory: the Cliffhanger Game
Fortune and Glory is game of high adventure, vile villains, edge-of-your-seat danger, and cliffhanger pulp movie action. Players take on the role of a treasure hunter, traveling the globe in search of ancient artifacts and fending off danger and villains at every turn in a quest for the ultimate reward of fortune and glory! This may be the perfect game to play on New Years Eve. Fortune and Glory allows for up to 8 players and can be played competitively or cooperatively. It’s also listed as a 90-180 minute game which could be great for keeping all of us up to ring in the new year. While we’ve opened it up and checked out all the pieces, we haven’t started an adventure yet. But we’re very much looking forward to the adventure that awaits when we do.

Hidden movement game fun.

Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan
Does every boy wish they were a Ninja? Because ours sure do. That’s one of the reasons why Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan looked so compelling. Ninja is a hidden movement game where the ninja player/s of the Scorpion clan sneak into the castle to find their mission objective and escape while the guard player/s of the Lion clan try to thwart the sinister Scorpion. We don’t have a lot of experience playing hidden movement games, but are excited to give this one a try. And we hear it’s a different experience depending on the side you’re playing, so we’ll see if we end up having favorite sides to play.

Build your carnival rides first.

Carnival
It’s also great to just get some light, fun games for Christmas. Carnival looks like it will be such a game. It’s a set collection card game where you’re trying to build carnival rides along your midway before the other players do. But it’s not just a card game because there are dice involved. Each turn you can roll 3 dice which will let you perform different actions depending on the roll – like stealing parts cards from other players. You also get 3 “tickets” which can be used to affect the dice rolls as well as block your opponents (so there is some strategy). Should be fun.

Party game hilarity.

Reverse Charades Junior Edition
Christmas wouldn’t be complete without getting a fun party game for all the family and friend gatherings. And Reverse Charades is a great party game. So why not get the new edition of Reverse Charades – the Junior Edition? Reverse Charades has turned out to be perhaps our most borrowed party game. It’s always a lot of fun to play and everyone ends up laughing their heads off. In our review of Reverse Charades, our only complaint was that it didn’t work well for kids. So now that there’s a Reverse Charades Junior Edition available, we’re all over that! This should be another great game to play on New Years Eve.

We hope your family has some great new family board games to play going into the New Year as well.
Happy gaming in 2012!

This post is from The Board Game Family. New games for Christmas The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together