Family Games

Here's a nice family game that is simple to understand but you have to be quick to select the right item: Ghost Blitz

The back story is that a ghost took some pictures but they either came out wrong or actually right. When you draw a card, you look at the colors, the items and if something is right, then you pick that item, if nothing is right, then you pick what is missing from the picture. But you have to make sure you select the correct answer (whether right or wrong) and if you don't select the correct item, then you must give one of your cards (which you won by choosing correctly before) to the person who did choose correctly.

The game goes on like this until there are no more cards to draw and the winner is the person with the most cards. This game has 2 sets; Ghost Blitz and Ghost Blitz 2.

3.5 dice out of 5

CardLine and TimeLine are very similar family games; CardLine is more for kids and Timeline is more for players ages 13 and up. However, the premise of the game is all the same; start with one card on the table with either a size, age or weight (for CardLine) or a year (for Timeline) face up and each player is given a certain number of cards with this information face down and must guess if the card they hold goes before or after the one on the table (or between 2 cards on the table).

Here is an example for CardLine: On the table you have a Wolf and you decide that you are going to use the weight category for the game; the first player looks at their cards and chooses a giraffe, is that giraffe heavier or lighter than a wolf. If the person guesses right, then the card is placed on the table at the appropriate spot, if not, then the player discards that card and chooses a new card. The player with no cards left, wins the game. Now the second player will have 2 cards

on the table and must choose to place one of their cards either between the 2 cards, after the 2 cards or before the 2 cards... and this goes on until someone wins.

As for TimeLine: Same concept except that you need to know your history or be very lucky... these cards are usually inventions or things that were discovered, or books that were written, etc. and so you start with one card on the table with the year face up and then each player plays their cards in the same fashion as CardLine; before, after or between other cards. Again, first person to get rid of all their cards, wins.

Both of these games come in a nice tin canister and (you may not notice it in the pictures - also sorry for the quality - it was late when I took them) the cards are placed inside a nice felt holder. The cards in CardLine are bigger in size which helps when small kids are playing and the cards in TimeLine are quite small but you get more cards. There are many versions of both CardLine and Timeline and can all be mixed in to one major deck for more players. I believe the suggested number of players is 2 to 6 but I think you could be more if you put all the sets together and have a one heck of a 'TIME'. The price is nice on these as well so not a budget breaker if you are looking to break into small card games.

These games get a nice 4.5 dice out of 5.

 

Here is one of the many dice game out there that allow you to play a quick game with your family and introduce younger players to turn-based games. Dino Hunt DICE comes with 10 beautifully coloured dice that depict either a leaf, a dino print or a dinosaur. The point of this game is to get to 20 points before the others do. How do you do this? Simple, place all the dice in the cup (which is nicely illustrated) and take out 3 random dice, roll them and if you get dinosaurs, you want to keep them; if you get leaves, you take those dice and take out more dice from the cup (to a total of 3 in your hand) and roll again; if you get a dino print, they remain on the table until you get three and you lose your turn and any dinosaur you tried to score is lost. So you might want to stop rolling when you have 2 prints. You just keep rolling until you score your dinosaurs or get 3 dino prints.

 

This is a great game for small kids because the game play is quick and could be over in 10 minutes and then you start over again. Similar games to this would be Zombie Dice and Chupacabra but the themes of these two dice games are more mature in nature and aim at the older crowds (but I play them with my little guys and just explain them the rules in a cute way). They retail for 11$ to 22$ because they come with more and more dice (10 in Dino Hunt, 13 in Zombie Dice and 24 dice in Chupacabra).

 

All of these dice games get the max; 5 out of 5 dice. 

 

Who doesn't know the story of The Three Little Pigs? Well this game puts a small twist on the original tale.

 

In the box you get a bunch of house piece tiles (some wood, some straw and some brick) separated into roofs, doors and windows. You also get 5 dice that you get to roll a total of 3 times and then from there you decide what you want to build.



Here is a turn example: First place all the doors, windows and roofs into piles sorted by their type (straw, wood or brick), then the first player rolls the 5 dice and keeps the dice they want to use to build a piece of their house; if they get 2 doors and 1 window and 1 roof and 1 wolf, the wolf is set aside and the die cannot be re-rolled (if you get 2 wolves you spin the wolf wheel - will get to that later), they can keep whatever materials they want or re-roll any of the 4 dice that are not wolves.

Once the player has rolled three times, then the player can take a tile equal to the number of dice it shows; if you have 3 doors and 1 window, then the player can take a wood door and a straw window (you need at least 1 die to take any straw materials, 2 dice for wood and 3 dice for brick). Now that player places the two tiles so that the door is on the bottom and the window above that door - there are many ways of placing these materials - they do not have to be the same material at all but you must follow these rules: Your house must also start with either a door or a window on the bottom and a roof on the top. You can place more windows beneath other windows if there is no door under it, or you can place more windows above other windows. You cannot place 2 doors above or below each other and you cannot place any tiles on that house once you place a roof.

If you choose to build a house with all the same type (ie straw), there is an end-game bonus that goes to the player who has houses built with the same types for all levels of material. Also there are other rewards for the player with the highest built (completed) house - includes a door, at least one window and a roof - and so on.

Now I mentioned the wolf dice, well if you get 2 or more of these dice during your rolls (you must stop if you get to 2 but you could roll 3 on the first shot), you have select another player with tiles in front of them and select one of their houses to blow on. Then you spin the wolf spinner, and you remove any tiles from that house that match the type that is on the spinner (ie wood, straw or brick).

Very simple game and kids will love this. The price is a tad high for what you get but still lots of fun.

4 out of 5 dice

If you love poker and Yahtzee, well here is a game for you that combines both: Roll'n Bump.
The title says it all, you roll dice and you bump your opponent's dice.

What you get in the box: you get 26 dice (5 of 5 different colours - however some of the colors are really close and hard to tell apart - and 1 special die) and 49 coloured cards (including one special multicoloured card).

Setting up your first game is easy, you place the 15-point multicoloured card in the middle of the table and then, depending on the number of players - for this example, let's say 4, you place 6 piles of 8 cards around the middle card, flip the top card of each pile face up and give 5 dice of the same colour to each player and place the special white die in view of all players.

How to play: You get three rolls of your dice (which seems to be the case will most dice games) and when looking at the cards in play you may want to try and roll for a small straight of 3 dice, a medium straight of 4 dice or a long straight of 5 dice; or you might want 2 of a kind, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind or go big and try and grad the middle card for 5 of a kind; or you might roll nothing good this turn and try and take the single die cards (a 4 or a 2, etc.). The goal is to have the highest rolled dice on any of these cards - whether you are trying for a small 3 dice straight, you will want a 4,5,6 so no one can bump you, or if you are trying for the 3 of a kind, you will want three 6's so no one can bump you; or once again you might want to place more than 4 on the single 4 card because there are no cards with 2 of a kind or more at the moment on the table. (I may add a quick video showing a single turn just to explain this a bit more).

Once you have placed your dice, then the other players play their turns trying to outscore your dice and bumping you off the ones you took. Each card has a point value and there are also 4 colours of cards that if you have more of one colour that end of the game you get more points.

This game was a hit at family parties and I recommend it for all ages; 5 out of 5 dice

All of these games are available at Multizone 

Foolish enough to enter the Gauntlet?

If you are ready for a crazy game that tries to take the RPG style of gaming to a new level, then Gauntlet of Fools is the game for you.

In this card/dice game, 2-6 players can choose from many different characters that randomly dealt out along with many different ability cards that are dealth alongside the characters.






Each player will choose a character while other players will try and boast their way to take that character for the other player; but beware, boasting comes with a price; you can take that monk with the flaming sword but will you do it blindfolded while getting over a hangover? However, these boasts will make you lose dice or life points right from the beginning of the game so be careful what you boast about. The whole point of boasting is not only to get the character with the great ability, but to pretend like nothing can stop you in this gautlet of baddies you are about to face.

The gameplay is simple, once you all have your characters and abilities and so on, you enter the gauntlet searching for many foes. These foes come from a deck of creatures, events and so on; and once a card is played from this deck, all players must face the card as if they were alone in this game (this is not a cooperative game at all); so even if you defeat the card by out-matching it's defense, the other players must do the same. Now, when that creature attacks, it also attacks everyone and you have to be able to defend the attack, otherwise you get wounded and after just 4 wounds, you are DEAD.

However, when you "kill" a creature, you get the gold or sometimes a bonus that is described on the card itself and the player with the most gold at the end of the game wins, so you could die first but be the richest of the bunch.

First off, you see what you are going to encounter (could be a monster, a modifier card - which will possibly affect the next card if it is a monster - or an event card that also affects all players - could be in the form of all getting a wound or all getting gold -).

Then, you attack the creature; you do this rolling dice (equal to what your character's ability card shows) and if you roll greater than or equal to the defense of the creature, you kill it and gain it's treasure, but then you still have to defend against the creature's attack (which to me if you killed it, it should not attack you - I think this is a small flaw in the rules; I would personally change this rule to make it more fun that if you kill the monster it does not attack you, thus making the game last a little longer) and if you fail, you get a wound and if you get 4 wounds you are dead, but you don't lose your gold (on a side note, you do not die right off the bat once you get that 4th wound; if you can heal once the fight is complete, you may remove that 4th wound and continue, if not, then you are dead.)

So this goes on and on until all players are dead and then you count up the gold per player and determine a winner.

My two cents on this game is that I love it but I would rather not use the boasting and just play the simple game and like I mentioned before, change that rule of defense once the creature is dead, it's dead and cannot attack YOU; it can go ahead and attack others unless they also killed the monster.

Because of the simplicity of this game and because it has great replay value it will get a 4 dice out of 5.

Game available at Multizone

A zombie game I actually like. It's ZOMBICIDE

 

I have never been a fan of Zombie movies, shows, games, etc. until I played this game (oh and the Zombie Fluxx, but that is a no-brainer game that just made it's way into my collection). I saw a demo of this game being played at my local comic book shop and thought it was a bit complicated. However, when I saw the popularity of the game and saw that my store finally got a season 1 box in stock, I told myself, I am going to try this and probably like it... also considering I got it on sale helped the budget a bit.

 

Before I get into the actual game play and review, I just want to mention the amount of expansions and so on you can get in this series: The original box comes with a load of stuff; zombies, survivors, equipment cards, zombie cards, noise markers, door tiles, objective tiles, police and pimp cars, game tiles and more. It also includes a rule book that has 10 different scenarios for you and your friends to try and complete and they are not easy scenarios that is for sure. But of course, if you are a real gamer, this box just won't cut it for you; you will need the Toxic City Mall expansion that has toxic zombies and new game times and zombie cards and new survivors to have even more people playing and even cooler, Zombivors (zombie survivors - yes you can keep playing with your character as a zombie with new abilities and such). Then of course you need more zombies because there just isn't enough already so you get the walking dead 1 and 2 expansions and then the angry zombies and then the toxic crowd expansion and why not the dog zombies and dog companions and finally the Second Season of Zombicide; Prison Outbreak... oh but of course you will need more game tiles so you will want the 3 expansion tile packs that add on to any base set (Season 1 or 2). You better make room in your game cabinet because this is going to take up a lot of room, or simply put all of this in just the base set box and you should have enough room.

 

My fun was playing with my younger boys (yes it says 13+ but they like moving figurines around and destroying zombies too) and taking whichever tiles I wanted and created my own scenario which we almost defeated. This is the main reason this game is so great, because it has amazing replay value (unlike Zombies where you need to buy every expansion and the only thing you do is walk around until you find the helipad and more zombies spawn and you have find health and ammo... almost like the Escape game but less fun) you can constantly change the scenario and with the random zombie cards that spawn new zombies every turn, you never know what is going to happen.

 

This game is really cooperative though, but even if you play alone, you need to use all 6 suvivors (or 10 I guess with the toxic city mall expansion... i should read those rules before assuming anything here) to get through the scenario(s).

 

Here is how it works: to setup the game, you either choose an already designed scenario from one of the many rule books, go online and download some free ones found here (missions) or create your own. Then you simply lay out the tiles and so on as described and start the game.

 

Each player chooses a survivor (1 survivor per player unless you are less players, then you divide the survivors equally - but read the scenario because some start with only 4 survivors) and receives one random equipment card (1 of 6 possible cards - 3 frying pans, a pistol, a fire axe and a crowbar).

Then a first player is chosen and given the first player marker and activates their survivor; each survivor has 3 possible actions (which you can choose from a list of actions - I am not going into this detail) and after that is done, the next player activates their survivor(s) and so on until all survivors have finished their actions.

 

Then, it's the zombie's turn... they attack any survivors in the same zone as them, they move and they spawn at certain locations.

 

And this continues until the objective(s) of the scenario is(are) completed.



The illustrations and details of the game pieces is amazing... the only downer I saw was with one of the survivor minis that is like a darker grey, almost the same as the Zombie minis... they could have used a better color in my opinion. The rules are quite easy to understand once you play a couple of times and having more players just makes the game so much more interesting (you really have to work together because at the start of the game, 2 survivors can open doors and only 2 have guns - stay close to these guys).

The entire game is fun and I simply can't say more than this so 5 out of 5 dice (or zombies) for this game and go buy it as a late Christmas gift if you can still find copies out there.

Provided by Multizone

A card game that Fluxxuates...

Fluxx the card game can be played within a very short time frame, even lasting only about 10 minutes if played right... The game is simple... at first... but within a few turns the game can change dramatically.

This simple-to-learn game can take any non-gamer out there and turn them into a card game winner within minutes; you start each game of Fluxx (and yes there are many different variations of this game - just like Munchkin) with two simple rules: Draw a card and play a card. However, that changes with players playing new rules and goals throughout the game which could lead a player to have to draw 4 cards and have a hand limit of 2 but must play 2 cards while speaking Pirate.

The goal of the game is quite simple, place a goal on the table and reach that goal; it could be that you need to have a cookie and a pear to win the game, or you need a treasure chest and a ship or you need the technician and the captain etc.

Each set of Fluxx cards (there is even a board game) plays as a separate game... I mean you could possibly mix them all together and make one crazy game that would probably last a weekend, but playing the sets individually adds great replay value; even though the rules are the same, the cards are not.

Every box has, I believe, 6 different types of cards: Keepers, Creepers, Actions, Goals, Rules and Surprises. Keepers are cards that you will want to keep in front of you until the perfect goal comes into play allowing you to possibly win the game. Keep in mind that keepers can be stolen, lost or discard due to new rules or other cards played by other players.

 

Creeper cards are just no good to have on the table and the minute you draw one, you must play it and as long as you have a creeper card, you cannot win the game even if you have the keepers needed for the current goal (however, you can get rid of creepers and sometimes, creepers and can actually help you win the game - like in Zombie Fluxx).

 

Action cards, well, they let the player do actions; like steal keepers or cancel another player's card etc. Surprise cards are similar to these but can be played at any time, whereas action cards are on your turn only.

New rule cards and goal cards are pretty much self explanatory; new rules change the current rules in effect and goal cards make it that someone will try and have the necessary cards on the table in order to win.

 

There isn't much more I can say about these games because they are so simple to play, anyone can just pick it up and get into it quickly. I currently own Pirate, Star and Zombie versions of Fluxx and really enjoy all three. There are many other versions to play with and can be purchased at Multizone and if you need more info regarding Fluxx... take a look at their home page: Fluxx.

 

I will give these games 4 out of 5 dice (creepers).

 

Enjoy.

Cheer up! It's time to play GLOOM.

In the Gloom card game, you control the fate of an eccentric family of misfits.

The goal of the game is sad, but simple: you want your characters to suffer the greatest tragedies possible before passing on to the next life. You'll play horrible mishaps on your own characters to lower their Self-Worth scores, while trying to cheer your opponents' characters with marriages and other happy occasions that pile on positive points. Once all of your family members are R.I.P., the player with the lowest total Family Value (the most depressive family) wins.

Printed on transparent plastic cards, Gloom features an innovative design. Multiple modifier cards can be played on top of the same character card; since the cards are transparent, elements from previously played modifier cards either show through or are obscured by those played above them. You'll immediately and easily know the worth of every character, no matter how many modifiers they have. You have to have some sick sense of humour to play this game.

The base set GLOOM comes with four families and enough modifiers to get you going with your family and friends; however, like every other card game, there are expansions to this one as well:

1- Unhappy Homes:
In this first expansion, you get a new family to add another player to the game and also houses for each family. There are new modifier, event and death cards but there are also new mystery cards that can be played on your households in order to have lasting effects for your family; which can also give you a lower family value at the end of the game. There are an additional 55 cards in this expansion and worth it.

2- Unwelcome Guests:
The second expansion that adds, once again, a new family and a new residence for that family to be played along with the Unhappy Homes expansion (and if you don't have that expansion, then just the residence aside - along with any mystery cards in this expansion) and a total of 55 more transparent cards (modifiers, events, untimely deaths, etc.). However, this expansions includes 5 new character cards known as "Guests". These character cards will be placed on the table and throughout the game, they will "follow" a family once their card effect is triggered (ie. when you play a certain modifier, this guest will attach itself to the player's family that just played that card). The guest cards will do this the entire game, which could also make the player closest to winning the game, be the player who has to now kill off a guest in order to win the game. Great little expansion that lets you have 6 players when added with Unhappy Homes.

3- Unfortunate Expeditions:
This third expansion adds another family in order to allow for a 7th player to join in on the Gloomy fun and again with a total of 55 new cards, you will be able to add new modifiers, events, mysteries and untimely deaths. Also included are expedition cards; these are placed on the table out of play until a player plays a modifier or untimely death card that has the expeditions' symbol on it and then that card is put in the middle of the play area and the effects are triggered and effect each player until a new expedition comes into play (there can only be one expedition in play at a time and when a new one comes into play, it replaces the old one. These effects remain as long as the card is in play.

4- Unquiet Dead:
Finally, the last (sort of) expansion for the Gloom card game; this expansion does not add a new family but does add 7 new undead modifiers. These new modifiers can change your character to an undead character such as a vampire, mummy, ghost, ghoul, wereduck, invisible person, or haunted portrait; these undead characters are both living and dead and can have modifiers and events played on them just like on living characters. These cards also count for your family's self worth and can help you kill off your family faster while still bringing down their morale. There are a total of 55 cards in this expansion which can be added to the the rest of the cards; in these cards there are new Story cards which players will want to have on their side of the table because these cards will give you special abilities until another player steals the story. Finally, they have added some timing symbols on the modifiers to show whether a card has an Instant effect that occurs when the card is played from your hand; an Ongoing effect that lasts until it is covered by another card; or a Persistent effect that can last as long as the Character is still alive ... or Undead.

For Cthulhu fans, there is a second base set entitled "Cthulhu Gloom" and it has it's own expansion as well, but I was not interested in this whatsoever.

Now when you look at all these expansions, 110 base cards and 55 x 4 expansions makes one hell of a big deck of cards to play with, and you are right; myself, I decided to create 3 separate decks using all sets (base and expansions) and mixed up all the modifiers, untimely deaths and events and distributed them evenly among the three decks. I also made theme-style decks; one regarding the undead (so I put less untimely deaths in this deck) which I believe is my "starter" deck, a deck with the stories and mysteries and another with the expeditions and the guests... I think that is what I did, I can't remember. Anyways, I think this is a better way to use all of these cards, but trust me, just the base set is a great way to play this with a few friends now and then.

Quickly, this is how you play the game of Gloom:
First you choose your family (take the residence that goes with it, if you have the Unhappy Homes expansion) and draw 5 cards. Each player has 2 turns; the first turn you can play any type of card (modifier, event, mystery, untimely death, etc.), discard a card or simply pass. The second turn is the same but you CANNOT play an untimely death unless a previously played card allows for an out-of-turn card to be played. Then, you draw back up to your hand limit (which can be modified by certain cards). Simple right, well it is... keep playing cards until one familly has been killed off and count up (or down) your family value and see who wins the game. Just a quick hint, try and kill other player's family members before they get to play modifiers on them.

The real fun of this game is storytelling; yep you can tell a fun story while you are playing this game just to keep it fun and entertaining while trying to be as gloomy as possible. There is a good example of this on youtube posted by TableTop:

Overall, I give this game 4.5 dice out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who has a sense of humour.
I really enjoyed playing this and it made us all have a good laugh.

This game is available at Multizone.