Recent Gaming With the Kids
Been playing alot of games with the kids lately.
Shear Panic
-------------------
This is the game that blew everyone away last year at Essen. What can
I say -- it's a decent, mostly tactical little game, with incredible
bits. Certainly not worthy of the drum-banging folks were doing last
year. I think sometimes people are just in the mood to get excited
about something, and last year they picked Shear Panic.
Ex & Hopp
---------------
Played this two player with Alec. Pretty simple, and really made me
think of Balloon Cup. I hadn't played it in years, but it must have
subconsciously inspired me. Basically, if you made the cubes/cards in
Balloon Cup all one color, and the object of the game was to collect
the most cubes (vs. winning trophies), you'd have Ex & Hopp. Alec
kicked my butt.
Monopoly (Star Wars)
---------------------------------
Yes, really. I don't think my kids had ever played Monopoly -- at
least they hadn't played it with me. I mostly chose it for nostalgia
value, having not played it in over a decade. But I remember really
loving it when I was a kid, so I figured my kids would love it too.
And you know what? They did. The interesting thing about Monopoly is
that it's REALLY easy to teach. For a game with so many rules, you can
really teach as you play. I suppose that's because your decisions are
frequently limited and/or obvious. Another thing was -- we played with
the rules in the box. No house rules -- and the game only lasted about
90 minutes. I was shocked. I remember this game taking hours and hours
when I was a boy. But that was when we filled up Free Parking with
every bonus known to man and made hundreds of side deals that
prolonged the game. When you play by the rules, the game really
doesn't take that long. After we finished I told them that there was a
Sponge Bob version available, at which point my daughter Valori BEGGED
for a copy. So...
Monopoly (Sponge Bob)
----------------------------------
Okay, so maybe I spoil my kids a little. But now, as a "single" Dad,
it's hard to say no. Especially when it involves a game of any kind. I
picked up a copy of this the next day and it was a smash success. Both
of my kids are now Monopoly lovers. Please don't call child services
on me.
Survive
----------
Okay, so I was in the mood for old school Parker Bros. games. A few
years ago I found an incomplete copy of this at a thrift store. About
a year later I found ANOTHER incomplete copy, this time in French, no
less. I combined the two to make one good copy, with some French
tiles. This is a recent favorite of the kids. I couldn't play it with
Valori when she was younger because she would get upset when the
sharks and monsters would eat her swimmers. These days she understands
it's eat or be eaten. Why don't they republish games like this? Seems
like kids would go nuts for them.
Parcheesi
---------------
Can you tell I was in an old school mood? I'm a big fan of games like
Sorry! and Parcheesi, because they're really just multi-player
backgammon. Actually, Parcheesi is a much better game than Sorry!, but
Sorry! will do in a pinch. It's just fun and there's always an
exciting finish. Valori won this time, beating me by one space. She
was delighted!
Risk
-------
I figured I'd give this a try with Alec, since he likes fighting
games. Valori opted out when she saw the map. I guess it looked too
complicated for her. I must say I've really raised a great little
Euro-gamer, because after awhile Alec started complaining about the
luck. So I asked him why he liked a game like Verflixxt that also had
alot of luck. He replied, "well that's a short game so it's okay." I
was so proud. He ended up forfeiting the game after I had him
surrounded in Europe. Heh. There are still some things a Dad can teach
his son -- even in a game with so much "luck"
Fluxx
--------
Boy, you can see I was really pulling out some doozies. Basically I
was cleaning out some space in the old garage and I found all my third
tier games. What the heck, right? Some games are so stupid they're
fun. I found that to be the case with Fluxx. Boy, this game is stupid.
But Alec really liked it and I think the fact that it was absurd is
how we extracted so much entertainment from it. It didn't hurt that he
won FOUR GAMES IN A ROW. For a game with almost no thinking required,
I was having a really unlucky run. Pretty silly stuff -- but if you're
going to play a silly game, I guess Fluxx will do.
Shear Panic
-------------------
This is the game that blew everyone away last year at Essen. What can
I say -- it's a decent, mostly tactical little game, with incredible
bits. Certainly not worthy of the drum-banging folks were doing last
year. I think sometimes people are just in the mood to get excited
about something, and last year they picked Shear Panic.
Ex & Hopp
---------------
Played this two player with Alec. Pretty simple, and really made me
think of Balloon Cup. I hadn't played it in years, but it must have
subconsciously inspired me. Basically, if you made the cubes/cards in
Balloon Cup all one color, and the object of the game was to collect
the most cubes (vs. winning trophies), you'd have Ex & Hopp. Alec
kicked my butt.
Monopoly (Star Wars)
------------------------------
Yes, really. I don't think my kids had ever played Monopoly -- at
least they hadn't played it with me. I mostly chose it for nostalgia
value, having not played it in over a decade. But I remember really
loving it when I was a kid, so I figured my kids would love it too.
And you know what? They did. The interesting thing about Monopoly is
that it's REALLY easy to teach. For a game with so many rules, you can
really teach as you play. I suppose that's because your decisions are
frequently limited and/or obvious. Another thing was -- we played with
the rules in the box. No house rules -- and the game only lasted about
90 minutes. I was shocked. I remember this game taking hours and hours
when I was a boy. But that was when we filled up Free Parking with
every bonus known to man and made hundreds of side deals that
prolonged the game. When you play by the rules, the game really
doesn't take that long. After we finished I told them that there was a
Sponge Bob version available, at which point my daughter Valori BEGGED
for a copy. So...
Monopoly (Sponge Bob)
------------------------------
Okay, so maybe I spoil my kids a little. But now, as a "single" Dad,
it's hard to say no. Especially when it involves a game of any kind. I
picked up a copy of this the next day and it was a smash success. Both
of my kids are now Monopoly lovers. Please don't call child services
on me.
Survive
----------
Okay, so I was in the mood for old school Parker Bros. games. A few
years ago I found an incomplete copy of this at a thrift store. About
a year later I found ANOTHER incomplete copy, this time in French, no
less. I combined the two to make one good copy, with some French
tiles. This is a recent favorite of the kids. I couldn't play it with
Valori when she was younger because she would get upset when the
sharks and monsters would eat her swimmers. These days she understands
it's eat or be eaten. Why don't they republish games like this? Seems
like kids would go nuts for them.
Parcheesi
---------------
Can you tell I was in an old school mood? I'm a big fan of games like
Sorry! and Parcheesi, because they're really just multi-player
backgammon. Actually, Parcheesi is a much better game than Sorry!, but
Sorry! will do in a pinch. It's just fun and there's always an
exciting finish. Valori won this time, beating me by one space. She
was delighted!
Risk
-------
I figured I'd give this a try with Alec, since he likes fighting
games. Valori opted out when she saw the map. I guess it looked too
complicated for her. I must say I've really raised a great little
Euro-gamer, because after awhile Alec started complaining about the
luck. So I asked him why he liked a game like Verflixxt that also had
alot of luck. He replied, "well that's a short game so it's okay." I
was so proud. He ended up forfeiting the game after I had him
surrounded in Europe. Heh. There are still some things a Dad can teach
his son -- even in a game with so much "luck"
Fluxx
--------
Boy, you can see I was really pulling out some doozies. Basically I
was cleaning out some space in the old garage and I found all my third
tier games. What the heck, right? Some games are so stupid they're
fun. I found that to be the case with Fluxx. Boy, this game is stupid.
But Alec really liked it and I think the fact that it was absurd is
how we extracted so much entertainment from it. It didn't hurt that he
won FOUR GAMES IN A ROW. For a game with almost no thinking required,
I was having a really unlucky run. Pretty silly stuff -- but if you're
going to play a silly game, I guess Fluxx will do.
posted by Stephen @ 11:34 AM
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