November 2010 Notable Toys — Board Games

In this creative and competitive game of Kewbz™, opposing players compete for ownership of 'tower units' by positioning the final cube on top. Each time a corner is made, a cube is stacked at the intersection. For 2 players.

The patented technology lets you use LEDs to play chess and checkers. Just stick the LED game piece into the rubber pad and watch them light up. Chess and Checkers included.

In this exciting vertical version of Mastermind designed for kids, players secretly stack their animals into a tower. Like the classic game, this new Animal Towers version is a game of logic, problem solving, and fun that challenges players to figure out their opponent's code in as few turns as possible. To play, children stack their animal tiles in a special tower. Players take alternate turns trying to guess the order of the animals in the other player’s tower by asking questions such as, “Is your giraffe below your pig?” Features three levels of game play, entertaining children as their matching and logical thinking skills progress.
Awards: Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products - 2010

How do you feel when you ride a rollercoaster, drop your ice cream cone, hear your parents argue, see a friend left out, get sprayed with water or say goodbye? Choose from 50 situations -- and have fun sharing your reaction and seeing how others react to the same situation. Players draw their feelings using markers on a dry erase mirror and/or magnetic facial components that show surprise, confusion, boredom, happiness, anger, frustration, and more. The 50 cards show vivid photographs of the different situations -- no reading skills are needed to play and all ages will find it of
value.  This fun and interactive game helps kids understand their feelings and reactions to different situations.
Awards: Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products - 2010

Call-it! is the new fast-paced and fun word-burst game. Gather your family and friends, and give your swift thinking a whirl with this new category card game. Flip a card, match a symbol with your opponent, and be the first to call out a word from their category to win their card.  Easy to learn and can be played anywhere. Contains 80 Symbol Cards, 20 Category Cards, 1 Mini Game Board, and a Set of Rules. Good for 2 or more players of all ages.
Awards: Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products - 2010

Catan® is a modern classic. An international favorite, it has redefined social board games. Now you can create Catan out of wood and enjoy settling and building using specially tooled wooden pieces. Embark on a quest to settle the fair isle of Catan! Guide your brave settlers to victory by using clever trading and development. Use resources (grain, wool, ore, brick, and lumber) to build roads, settlements, and cities, and buy development cards. Acquire your resources through trades or the role of the dice. But beware! You never know when someone might cut off your road or if the robber will appear and steal your precious gains. Are you the best trader, builder, or settler? Will you master Catan? The strong, compartmentalized box contains: 52 thick, beautifully illustrated map hexagons, 144 specially designed playing pieces, 6 hexagonal building costs summaries and 2 special victory point markers, 1 vile robber, 2 dice, and 28 random number chits-all made from sturdy wood. The 154 cards, like the hexes, bear fine artwork from Michael Menzel. This special limited 15th Anniversary Wood Edition of The Settlers of Catan® is designed for 3-6 players.

Build your domain to best your Rivals. The Rivals for Catan puts you in charge of one of the two factions developing newly-settled Catan. Use your under card mix to create your own principality. Explore and settle new lands, acquiring resources through card play and the luck of the dice. Use gold, response combinations, and trade to develop your domaine. Expand your settlements and cities, recruit heroes, and defend your lands through politics, invention, and intrigue. Your cunning and a dash of luck decides who will be Prince of Catan. The Rivals for Catan contains 180 Cards, Production Die, Event Die, Commerce Token, Knight Token, and Rules & Card Index. For 2 players.

As the television character Dexter, players travel through the streets of Miami trying to hunt down a suspect that has slipped through the cracks of the justice system and make them their next victim. Players try to keep their day job by completing blood spatter reports to avoid any suspicion and reap the rewards of a job well done. In the meantime, they try to avoid their opponents, who will expose them, the first chance that they get. Once they have found the suspect and have collected the tools needed, players must head over to the Marina to get rid of the evidence and win the game. The game is for two to four players and contains a board, playing pawns, a six-sided die, on the job cards, on the prowl cards, calling Dexter cards, suspect tokens, tool tokens and mini garbage bags.

Monster Jam-opoly is the official licensed property trading game with a huge twist for Monster Jam® collectors and fans. Players build their own Monster Jam® fleet of monster trucks. Each monster truck title has fun facts about popular drivers and their monster trucks. Players buy toolboxes to upgrade their trucks, trade them in to build their dream garage and maximize their fleet’s value. This game is "a must have for motor sport collectors," Late for the Sky's Carla Miller told TDmonthly.

With Funshine creating a sunny day is a group effort. In this earth-friendly matching card game/puzzle, players each flip over a card that shows one piece of art taken from pictures on the board. Each player has one minute to match their piece to the correct picture on the board as they each add a piece to the sun shape. The game is printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks.

In Wacky Wacky West, players are townfolk who place track tiles, street tiles, and river tiles hoping to destroy their rivals’ buildings. Every time someone tries to build over a precious outhouse, the town votes. Players try to enlist their supporters, represented by cards, to vote with them to stop or encourage the play of certain tiles in order to save some of their buildings or take out those of their opponents. This two to four player game can be completed in about 45 minutes. The game contains a game board, four work gang figures, six goal cards, 32 vote cards, 60 tiles and rules.

This question and answer game comes with two special features. First, the questions are practical, not trivial, for hours of conversation about topics such as child-rearing, gardening, everyday law, travel, health, cooking, car and home care and more. Second, Untrivia is cooperative. Players share ideas, discuss the possible answers, and decide on the best choice. A snakes and ladders type of board provides some pitfalls and surprises.

In this game, players are CEOs in control of their own power grids on the continent. Each is responsible for bringing and maintaining full electrical service to a Populated Center. There are bonus revenues and other perks for fully servicing one’s own area. However, each grid is interdependent with other grids, so CEOs must work together for the survival of the Continental Power System.

In this game, players need to bring in enough stories, photos, cartoons and advertising contracts to meet the printing costs and staff payroll of a newspaper. If they can’t meet these combined costs, then it is a case of "Stop the Presses." Each player takes on a different staff role to maintain the paper's publication. The game includes a 17" x 17" board, a reporter mover, a press time marker, one die, 55 cards consisting of 10 staff, two cartoons, one comic page, six photos, six issues, 12 ad contracts, 18 assorted stories and rules.

In this game, players act as research and development teams trying to redesign North America's social-economic system before it's too late. The focus is on energy and resources, but many fields are explored. Designed for thinking friends and for high school and college classes, the game aims to provoke discussion among mature, thinking people.

This game is a Kafkaesque metaphor about seekers trying to escape the political, religious, economic and other illusions that entrap them, preventing freedom of mind and spirit. Captain K sails to a dark but enticing land to look for crew to help cross the dangerous seas to Freedom Island. Constant patrols make it difficult for the crew to gather documents and gear needed to make a boarding at any dock. Players are the crew, seekers after freedom, helping each other round up credentials which entitle them to board the Good Ship Freedom and avoid those feverish patrols, who never tire of vying for their very being.

In this game players are private investigators, all working for Eagle Eye Agency, gathering clues in a big city to solve the mysteries. They shadow suspects, do legwork and gradually work up a case. Everyone plays a key part. It's not who wins, but rather whether players can all solve the mystery. Thirty-nine original cases are provided. When these cases are exhausted, the game can be extended with the Mystery Maker Kit included to create more cases.

In this game, the cruise ship is sinking fast, and players manage to launch a lifeboat. They form a rescue team, working together to save themselves and as many of the survivors as they can. There are many variations on how the game can end. S.O.S. includes a 17" x 22.5" board, special dice, a lifeboat, charts (captain's marine forecasts, food supply, fuel/speed) and diecut cards (drifting currents, food marker, fuel marker, sharks, rocks, food and fuel packets, an assortment of survivors, rules for regular and nasty versions).

This expansion pack for the wordsearch game Wordquest Goliath comes with 20 additional topics to choose from on 10 circle board cards with topics on the front and back side.

This strategy game is about operating Coast Guard Ice Breakers in the Arctic. Players' job is to open up frozen waterways for freighters, supply ships, tankers and military craft. They succeed if they get all 12 ships to their respective destinations before the ice becomes too thick and widespread.
Awards: 2003 Dr. Toy Best Game

Players are visitors from outer space whose scout craft has crashed on an island. Their mission is to search the island, the shore, the sea, nearby forests and even mountains for the elements to repair their craft, before the mothership comes to pick up the scout craft. On Earth, players meet UTOCs (Ugly Things Out of Control) and use powers to deal with them. However, the aliens' world is without violence and is filled with people so deeply peaceful that they cannot harm anyone. If a player uses a special power in a violent way, his or her Being disintegrates. The game includes a 13" x 18" board, movers, a traveler chart, travel cards and dice.

Players use the detective card game to put the jigsaw together, and then have a picture mystery case to solve. Each case has 40 Clues and measures 8” x 14.” The sealed envelope contains the solutions, and a secret coded message. Rules are included for a group co-op game for 12 to 36 players, using all four cases together.

In this game, players are a team of private detectives solving such cases as theft, smuggling and blackmail. They move around a city looking for clues, while trying to avoid locked doors, guard dogs, getting tied up, secret codes, even mobsters — and using disguises, fast moves, a special tool kit, and their quick wits to get out of tight corners. If players pool strategies, use some intuition and help each other out of tough spots, they can get their client out of trouble. Investigators is a quick-moving game with lots of opportunity for sharing, consultation and decision making. It includes a 13" x 18" board, cue cards, "big bucks," a solution envelope, dice and movers.
Awards: 1989 Canadian Toy Testing, Top Rating

In this game, players try to gather the ingredients to fill various shopping lists. They must do this before the ingredients spoil and go to the green bins and the recycle truck, and are carted off to the Recycle Compost Depot. The set includes a game board, 10 spoiled stuff signs, 20 ingredients, six shopping lists, a shopping cart, a recycle truck and rules.