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Pictureka!: This card game has a bit more flexible audience, since this one is for a younger age (6 and up) and allows for more players (2-?). There are four mini-games you can play using this deck of cards, all of them rather corny. There are two piles - mission cards and picture cards. Mission cards have descriptions on them (i.e. a wild animal), and picture cards have [very strange] pictures on them. The games you can play vary from finding objects on your picture cards beggining with the letters A-Z, a memory game where you must match the picture cards to a mission card, a version of poker where three picture cards in your hand must match one mission, and a racing game to be the first to find cards you have that correspond with a mission card. Whenever any of these things happen you must yell "pictureka!" (rhymes with eureka).
Pros: Allows younger children and more players to play; Variety of mini-games to play; I have found this game as cheap as $1.79.
Cons: Corny to the extreme; Have to have the "right" audience.
I have read bad reviews for this game, and I have to say with my one experience playing the game, I agree with them. It might have just been the fact that the one girl I play with was quiet and nice like me, so we never challenged each other, making the game rather boring. I haven't seen a larger group play, and it may help if the players are more immature...to make a library-related recommendation or non-recommendation, I would probably have to give it to my T.A.B. to play and see how they do with it. I would be willing to try this game again with a bigger or different crowed, but so far I wouldn't spend my money on this game.
You can find this game at Amazon here.
My Rating:
Monopoly Deal: Another card game for 2-4 players ages 8 and up - the box says games take 15 minutes, but I would suggest longer for the first time you play, and less time as you become more experienced with the game. The object of the game is to collect 3 full sets of [3] properties using money, new "action cards" (anything from "Pass GO - draw 2 more cards" to "Deal Breaker - Steal a full set of properties from any player"), and of course a little chance. I'm not going to begin to try to explain the rules, you'll just have to go over them yourself - and I do recommend reading them several times.
Pros: Much shorter than the original Monopoly; Less clean-up required; Easy to travel with.
Cons: Very complicated directions.
If your teens are tired of playing "old-fashioned" Monopoly at game nights, or if they just don't want to spend hours on one game, this may be a good alternative. I enjoyed playing this game (then again, I won); however, my co-workers did not seem to enjoy it as much until we played a while to understand all the rules. I would not suggest using this game with a group you know has impatient tendencies, and a practice round wouldn't be a bad idea.
You can find this game at Amazon here.
My Rating:
Today, three packs of card games showed up on our desk. We were told Hasbro sent them to us? So my co-workers and I decided to do a little "research" on these games.
Scrabble Slam!: This game puts an innovative new twist on the classic board game, Scrabble. The game is for 2-4 players (recommended ages 8 and up), and should only take around 15 minutes to play. The game begins with four cards (spelling a word) laid on the table. The remaining cards are dealt to the players. The object of the game is to SLAM down your cards (cards have a different letter on each side) to change the word on the table one letter at a time (i.e. FROM to FROG, FROG to FLOG, etc.). Words may be changed back to the words they were just changed from (i.e. FROM to FROG, FROG to FLOG, FLOG to FROG), but a letter cannot be played on its twin (i.e. after FROM is changed to FROG, another person cannot play another G on top of the G already played). There are some blank cards in the deck, just like the blank tiles in the original Scrabble. The first player to use all of his/her cards wins!
Pros: Much shorter and easier than the original Scrabble; Less clean-up required; Easy to travel with; Everyone plays at the same time, so there is less chance of players getting bored.
Cons: I can see it being easy (if vocabulary levels vary), for the same person (the one with the biggest vocabulary) to always win the game.
If you use this game at a library program, you may want to bring in a dictionary to check some of the words. Overall, I can see this being fun for tweens, teens, or adults at a library game day, or maybe just for your personal collection; I know I will certainly be asking Santa for Scrabble Slam! this year.
You can find this game at Amazon here.
My Rating:
Copyright http://www.ysprincess.blogspot.com/ 2009-2012. Disclaimer: The views expressed in the blog are the sole views of the writer (me), and do not reflect the views and/or policies of PBCLS or any other organization.
