December 2010 Notable Toys — Family Games

Classic real-world games, like billiards and foosball, use sticks and pegs to propel balls. Birkball uses steerable chutes to accelerate and aim balls. Two, three, or four people can play simultaneously. Play consists of rolling steel balls down steerable chutes across a field into a target ball to move the target to the other team's back wall.

Families are rolling in fun with Ligretto Dice from Playroom Entertainment. Players roll and reroll their dice early and often to play their dice in numerical order. The player who gets rid of all their dice first wins!
— As an enthusiastic gamer, Dice Tower’s Tom Vasel enjoyed Ligretto Dice but found the game too simple. His daughter, however, “loves it,” leading Tom to conclude that “It’s a very good family game and it’s one we’re all equal at.”
— “It's so pure in concept and execution, I can only give it the highest recommendation,” proclaimed Mark Schildberg of Examiner.com.  Mark added, “Ligretto Dice is habit-forming fun for two to four players, and most rounds finish in two minutes or less, so the game progresses quickly.”

The PirateTalk Conversation Card deck features topics on pirate lore and legend, as well as facts about real-life pirates and how they lived life on the high seas. PirateTalk cards aim to fire up the imagination with topics like sunken treasure, swashbucklers in popular movies and books, and "Talk Like a Pirate Day." Each of the 52 colorfully illustrated cards presents facts with intriguing questions designed to get everyone talking about their own ideas and experiences.

Feeling Sweet Bingo is a unique twist on the game of Bingo. Sweet-themed characters express a broad range of vividly illustrated feelings and emotions. The game includes 50 tiles, eight Bingo cards, and 100 Bingo chips.

The Feeling Sweet Matching Game brings to life a whole sweet shop of feelings. Each yummy treat shows an expressive feeling to be matched. 50 matching pairs of sweet tiles are included.

The Feelings in Bloom Matching Game brings a whole garden of feelings to life. Each expressive flower wears a different feeling on its face to be matched.

This game features a whole garden full of vividly illustrated flower characters that express a wide range of feelings and emotions, and is designed to be a unique twist on the game of Bingo.

Feelings in the Wild Bingo is a colorful Bright Spots game for the animal lover. The animated characters express a wide variety of emotions that can add new dimensions to playing the game.
Awards: Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products - 2010

The Feelings in the Wild Matching Game brings to life a vividly illustrated cast of animal characters, each with a different feeling to match. The game is designed to let kids have fun with feelings while they bring together matching animal pairs from all over the world. It includes 50 matching pairs of tiles.

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.