THE BOOK OF GREEK MYTHS POP-UP BOARD GAMES --Tango Books

Board Game/Book
2-4 Players -- 12+
designer: Brian Lee
publisher: Tango Books -- ©2000
list price: $24.99
play time: 30 minutes

Four simple board games with a Greek mythology theme.

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INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:

In many ways, this would seem inferior to a board game that comes in a box -- it is, after all, a book.  However, how many boxed board games have wonderful three-dimensional gaming appeal?  Very few.  Most games lie flat on the table and we either move small pegs or meeple around the board, or we play cards.  In either case, our games are generally flat.

One of the first things you might notice about this book/game is that when you open it, the board games inside make use of the pop-up technique to create unique boards.  Towers that must be climbed or rooms that must be navigated or even labyrinths that must be surveyed.  There really are some nice, albeit simple, designs here.

The artwork is fair.  It is not outstandingly stunning, but it is also not cutesy or cartoony -- something I would worry about in a book of this sort.

Upon opening the book, you will note that all the game components that you might need in order to begin playing are included.  A spinner is attached and movement counters are shaped tag-board figures unique for each of the four games.  There is also a storage pocket built in to the book so that you never have to worry about where all the pieces are.

A very nice additional feature is the inclusion of velcro tabs to hold each pop-up page in place.  Without these tabs, the pages would surely be closing while trying to play.

APPEARANCE:

As already mentioned, the artwork is fine.  It is well detailed and each board is busy with art and patterns.  This is certainly nicer than a plain white background.  It is not so busy, though, that we lose sight of the path. It is well-balanced in this way.

The pop-nature is very attractive.  This really is what makes this game/book worth playing.  It turns a simple movement game into an attractive movement game.

In addition to the pop-up structures in each game, there are a variety of flaps to lift throughout each board.  The only things missing that you might find in non-game pop-up books are wheels to turn or tabs to pull.  It actually would have been relatively easy to incorporate these into the game, which might have added to the game play itself.  Of course it probably would have been a horrific cost to manufacture the additional items.

One other aspect that must be taken in to account is the book's size.  While the book itself is larger than an ordinary hardcover book, the board feels small and cramped when trying to play.  Players must sit close together.  For a two player game, this was not a problem, but for a four players game, it would feel very crowded.

GAME PLAY:

The game play is where this book falls short.  Really, with all the grandeur and attractiveness, this is nothing more than a simple move-around-the-spaces game.  Spin and move the appropriate number of spaces.  Some spaces send you backward, some propel you ahead, but you have no control over any of the action.

One bit of variety is the Minotaur game.  In this game, one player is the minotaur, who moves about, trying to capture the other players.  Once captured, the other players are out of the game.  The minotaur wins if he captures all the other players, they players win by avoiding the minotaur and being first to arrive at their destination.  The minotaur has a definite advantage by being able to move in any direction, while the players must move along their pre-destined route.

My thirteen year old son and I played this and we completed all four games in about 40 minutes.

OTHER NOTEWORTHY ITEMS:

One factor that must be included with this game is the educational factor.  Being a book of Greek Myths was definitely a selling point for me.  I've always liked studying the various myths and I remember buying this (many years ago now) because I thought it would be a good way to introduce my children to some mythology.

Now, with the best-selling Percy Jackson books, I don't have to worry about my children learning mythology, in fact, as we played this, my 13 year old was tell me who each of the characters were.

THE RESULTS:

Personally, I'm not a fan of movement and luck oriented games, so this would rate,at best, 2-1/2 out of 5 stars.  However, it is clearly not a game geared to a 51 year old gamer.  It is geared toward a younger generation.  If you are looking for simple games to play with your children, this is a very nice alternative to the mass market board games found in big box stores.

**1/2

MONOPOLY -- Parker Brothers

Board Game
2-8 Players -- 8+
designer: Charles Darrow and George S. parker
artist: Charles Darrow
publisher: Parker Brothers, Hasbro
list price: $18.75
play time: 2-1/2 hours

The classic real estate game. Buy properties, build houses and hotels, collect rent from fellow players. Repeat as necessary until everyone else is bankrupt.

*****

If you haven't heard of Monopoly, then looking through this blog is probably not for you.  This is the original 'bad-ass' board game.  It takes forever to play and you win by completely dominating (or bankrupting) all the other players.  

There's not a lot of thought that goes in to this -- you march around the board based on your dice roll and if you have the money, you buy property when you land on it.  If someone else already owns it, you pay rent for the time you are there. The owners try to collect property of the same color.  When they own all of one color, they can begin to build houses, and ultimately hotels on their property, making the rent more expensive for the other players.

I've never been much of a fan of the game, even as a youngster ... it just takes too darn long to play!  Two and a half hours is not unusual.  And you are generally at the mercy of the dice rolls as to whether or not you land on property that you can buy.  Generally, those who own the pricier properties win the game, which makes sense, but certainly eliminates what little strategy there might have been.

Once again, one member of the family really enjoys Monopoly.  The rest of us prefer a number of other games.

Rating: * * *

RACE FOR THE GALAXY -- Rio Grande Games

Card Game
2-4 players -- 12 and up
publisher: Rio Grande Games
list price: $34.95
author:  Thomas Lehmann
artist: Martin Hoffmann; Claus Stephan; Mirko Suzuki

In the card game Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by playing game cards in front of them that represent worlds or technical  and social developments.  Some worlds allow players to produce goods, which can be consumed later to gain either card draws or victory points when the appropriate technologies are available to them.  These are mainly provided by the developments and worlds that are not able to produce, but the fancier production worlds also give these bonuses.

*****

This strikes me as one of the harder games to learn, but if you can get your family and friends to sit down and actually learn and play the game, you  could have a lot of fun.

There are a lot of aspects to learn, even though nearly everything you need to know is actually printed on each card, it takes some time to decipher what all the codes and images mean.  But after playing it, even just once, it comes much more quickly and the game really should move along at a good pace.

There's a great deal of strategy involved in the choice of cards, the cards played, the order that you decide to play them and so forth.  I could see that I was two rounds away from a big score and maybe finishing the game when my youngest son surprisingly finished the game on us, AND won with the most points.

There is also some luck involved in the cards that come to you, though I've seen a good player win repeatedly no matter what the cards, by playing to his hand strength, rather than trying to draw cards he wants.

if you consider yourself a gamer and want a great game with lots of components involved, this is maybe one of the best.  If you are a new gamer, maybe sit in on a few rounds with a friend.  In either case, this is a game to look forward to!

Rating: * * * *

FIVE CROWNS -- Set Enterprises

Card Game
2-7 players -- 8+
publisher: Set Enterprises
list price: $12.99
designer: Marsha J. Falco

Five Crowns is rummy, with a twist. The set collection aspect of rummy is basically the same; with groups of 3 cards in either runs or denominations making a valid meld. The difference is that in each hand the number of cards increases, from 3 cards in the first hand to 13 in the last. The game, therefore, consists of 11 hands. In each of these hands, in addition to the 6 Jokers, there are other wild cards. These are determined by which hand it is. In the first hand 3s are wild in the second hand it's the 4s, and so on until in the last hand the Kings go wild. This is made easy to remember because the wild card is the same as the total number of cards you hold. (ie. in the first hand 3 cards, 3s are wild). A hand finishes when someone can meld all cards in their hand (after the discard) and, as the designers say, "the game isn't over 'til the Kings go wild!" [from BoardGameGeek.com]

*****

This is one of our favorite card games!  It's a good family game, the rules are basic and don't need much reviewing (even if you haven't played in awhile) and it moves along pretty quickly.  We like to play this as a family when we feel like doing something but are too tired to think too hard (so many of our favorite games require a great deal of concentration and strategy (which is normally a good thing).

The artwork on the cards themselves is nice, and color for the suits!  How great!  Blue diamonds, green clubs, red hearts, yellow stars!  Yes ... there is a fifth suit, which is what makes this a nice deck to have, and why it isn't all that easy to play this with an ordinary deck of cards.

It doesn't cost too much.  It's portable, which makes it a handy game for us to pack for away trips and camping.

Rating: * * * * 1/2

PERFECT SENSE -- Patch Products

Board Game
3-6 players -- 12 and up
publisher: Patch Products
list price: $29.99

Perfect Sense is packed with clever and witty riddles to tease your brain. The five riddles on each card describe the same object and each riddle relates to one of your five senses. Amaze other players and yourself by solving the riddle after the first clue. Stumped? No problem! Four more riddles will lead you to the correct answer. How quickly can you solve these Riddles That Make Sense? For 3 to 6 players.  [from Amazon.com Product Description]

*****

We received this game from the publisher and were asked to test the product.  

My family of five enjoy gaming, and, as one might expect, it's rare for us to agree on what game to be played as we all have our favorite games and our favorite types of games.  Perfect Sense is popular for one family member.

The game is played such that each card that gets drawn has an item on it, and for each item there is a short, well, poem, for each sense (sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing) that somehow describes, or at least, should lead you to be able to identify the item.  If you guess the item right away on your first poem, you get to move ahead six spaces.  If it takes you two poems, then you move ahead five spaces, etc.  The first player to reach the end of the path wins.

What I don't care for about this game is that the descriptions (poems) tend to be a bit of a stretch.  After all, how do you describe the taste of a a vacuum cleaner or the sound of grass or the smell of nothing?  In some cases, the descriptions are so incredibly easy and obvious that we groan at the luck of the player who gets the clue, and sometimes the descriptions are so generic or unclear there is no way on earth that you would guess the item.  This randomness to the game is frustrating.

It's a little simple for me, and the idea that some cards are nearly impossible to figure out out while others are so obvious makes this less than fun.  However, as long as my young teenage son wants to play it, we'll keep it in the game closet for those family togetherness nights.

Rating: * *