BRAIN GAMES
By Timothy Dickey

NumbTers™: There’s nothing better than a game that takes a simple concept and explores the thousands of variations within it. Take the game Go, or Othello, where the basic principle is “your pieces are black, mine are white; play one piece each turn.”

NumbTers™, from Big Toe Games, clearly aspires to the simplicity premise. Players are dealt 7 cards from a deck of 72. Each card has a number and an alphabetic letter on it. First player out of cards wins; players lay down the cards by taking cues from number, letter and direction arrow (up or down) of the previous discard, hence NumbTers™.

Sound familiar? A little Uno®-esque you say?

You could say Othello and Go look alike from twenty feet away. What makes NumbTers™ unique is a custom cardholder that forms two stacks for discards, and also the fact that certain cards in your hand may become Wild Cards depending on the next card played. End Cards (1 and 26, A and Z), and “Bomb” cards add further strategic elements.

“I consider NumbTers™ to be in the same genre of card games as Uno(R), but it plays quite differently. NumbTers™ has a little more strategy to consider,” says Mark Nelson, creator of the game and head of Big Toe Games. “You never know from one play to the next which card will constitute as a Wild Card. It all depends on the color of the number and letter on the two currently played cards.”

NumbTers™ has taken a proven play concept and wrinkled it just enough to add a “next level” strategy component. Says Nelson, “I call NumbTers™ the ‘simply fun...simply addictive’ card game because it really does become more enjoyable each time you play it. You learn new strategies to try next time. However, depending how the cards are played, these strategies don’t always have the same outcomes.”

Numbskull™: A game that preps you for the college entrance SAT test? In the words of your basic teenager, “That could be either totally boring or totally fun.”

In the words of 23-year-old game inventor Michael Bergman, “The traditional test preparations are boring and Numbskull™ is fun! Family and friends can gather around, make fools out of themselves, and at the same time brush up on the skills necessary to succeed on the SAT.”

Bergman may be on to something. Currently being produced and marketed by Late for the Sky Production Company, Numbskull™ utilizes many of the top 500 vocabulary words used on the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), and has over 300 math and verbal questions. The NSAT (Numbskull Simulated Aptitude Test) in the final round of play will let students know just how well they may fare on the actual test.

But since the whole idea is to make studying a blast, Numbskull™ utilizes wacky stunts instead of the same old game stuff. For instance, instead of using a traditional timer, Numbskull™ makes the opposing team perform and complete physical and mental tasks to determine when the other players’ time is up.

Studying for the biggest exam of their lives no longer means dull hours alone with noses in books. “My biggest hope,” says Bergman, “is that Numbskull™ will make students feel comfortable and relaxed when they walk into that test room on a Saturday morning.”

Gigglepants™: Award-winning company Games for All Reasons recently introduced their first foray in the preschool games market with Gigglepants™. The game features rules that can be adapted to a child’s capabilities, and teaches social interaction, counting, colors, shapes and getting dressed. The game is intended for children aged three to five, and does not require reading skills on the part of players.

“Gigglepants™ is a ‘grow-with-me’ game that has something for everyone,” says Joan C. Moravick, Games for All Reasons president. “Parents will like the educational aspects of the game and the fact that it can be played by children with different abilities.”

The object is to collect six different colored shapes as children move pawns around the brightly colored board. The first child to fill a “shape card” with the heart, triangle, square, circle, star and diamond is the winner.

The game also comes with a pair of “playpants” which players can put on if they land on the Gigglepants™ character instead of a shape. If the child can put on the pants in 20 seconds, he or she gets to select a shape needed on the shape card. (This element of the game may be played at parent’s discretion, depending on the child’s age and ability to dress.)

Products from Games for All Reasons, LLC, have won numerous awards and accolades from consumer and industry groups, including Dr. Toy, Toy Tips, Parent’s Choice and Mensa.

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