July 2010 New Specialty Toys — General Games

Ingenious is the new abstract placement game from internationally-renowned game designer Reiner Knizia. Ingenious offers players a new way to train their brains by combining the simplicity of dominoes with the strategy Knizia is known for. Players place colored tiles on the hexagonal board, scoring points, blocking opponents’ tile placement, and trying to protect themselves from being blocked by their opponents. Ingenious is suitable for up to four players, as well as for solo play. Rick Nauertz, Sales Associate for Fantasy Flight Games, told TDmonthly, "Marvelously elegant and compulsively replayable, Ingenious is an excellent introduction to German-style abstract board games. It’s ingeniously simple, and simply ingenious!"

In Through the Desert, two to five players each control a tribe of nomads vying for control of the desert. By establishing caravans and taking over oases, the players gain points as their tribes increase in power. Game play is designed to be under an hour. Fantasy Flight Games Sales Associate Rick Nauertz told TDmonthly, "From the award-winning game designer Reiner Knizia comes a game of strategy, patience and cool plastic camels!"

Players use swiveling ramps to launch chips onto the play board. With careful aim, the chips will fall into the desired hole. As players take turns, the stack of chips in each hole gets higher. The goal is to try and get three matching color chips in a row, either vertically, horizontally or diagonally. This game is for two to four players.

In this game, players shuffle the five discs and place them on the table, then everyone at once tries to find the common object that’s on all five discs. Whoever finds it first gets to mark that object with his or her colored coin and flip over any one of the discs. There will always be only one common object that appears on all five discs, no matter which disc is turned over during the game. This game is for two to four players ages 5 and up.

The ZBall is a special marble very easy to control and that can stop in inclines. Players have to flick their way through the obstacles as fast as possible to win the race, and they can jump over their opponent’s car to pass them. No batteries are required, and hundreds of tracks can be designed for over 13' of fun. Kids can also use the track and cars separately to play by themselves. "This is the only race track on the market that can be played on with the whole family and doesn't need electricity!" Cedric Arnould, vice president of CEPIA Games, told TDmonthly.

It's All Fun and Games contains more than 230 activities from crafts to magic tricks to outdoor activities. The activities are color coded by type, so kids can easily find exactly what they are looking for. Each activity lists the materials needed, the object of the game and the number of players required, along with easy-to-understand instructions and fun visuals.

This set of nine dice is printed with a full deck of 52 playing cards and two jokers. The set is specially designed to allow hands to be rolled for poker and most other card games. Instructions for both family and betting games are included.

This game for two or more players comes with a cup and 13 dice. Each player is a zombie, rolling a die for one of three outcomes: the brain icon that represents points, the footsteps icon that stands for a victim on the run and an opportunity to re-roll, or the shotgun blast icon that is detrimental to a player's undead health. Players score one point for each piece of gray matter and a strike for each shotgun blast. The first zombie to hit 13 points wins.

In this delightful and deceptively simple logic puzzle game, players attempt to figure out the necessary moves that will permit to assemble back Simon, the scattered magician. An escalating level of difficulty allows children to start playing and progress at their own pace. Rather quickly, however, the game attains a level presenting a fun filled challenge to any puzzle loving adult.
Awards: Game of the Year 6/6 Consumer Guide of Canada

It's a great day to be a dog in the park. The sun is shining, there are no cats to be seen... and the tantalizing whiff of a big, crunchy bone can be smelled from somewhere nearby. But shuffling around the patches of turf to dig it up is going to require creativity and cleverness.
Awards: Triple Star Canadian Toy Testing Council 6/6 Consumer Guide of Canada

Anyone who can play Tic Tac Toe can learn this seemingly simple game. Trixo is played by up to 4 players. Memory, tactic and a drop of luck are the ingredients needed to prevail.
Awards: Triple Star Canadian Toy Testing Council

Elegant design, natural materials and simple game rules are combined to offer players an exquisite and original game. Each player tries to be the first to place six of their pieces on their opponent’s camp while ensuring that their remaining game pieces are not left too far behind. An environmentally friendly and beautiful game.

An exhibition of rare diamonds is in town and several gangs of thieves are planning a heist. A sharp mind and lightning-quick reflexes may help you outwit these gangsters. So get going!
Awards: Triple Star Canadian Toy Testing Council

The brainchild of Yale professor Donald Green, Octi is easy to learn and fun for game-lovers of all ages. What makes Octi's patented game system distinctive? Octi pieces grow - they become more powerful and agile. Each turn, players decide whether to move their pieces or improve them. By giving players the freedom to design their pieces, Octi unleashes a new level of creative thinking.

Automobile™ carries you back to the birth of America’s car industry, when inventors, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs created a wild array of marvels and misfortunes. You step into this rough, romantic trade hoping to create a fortune by building and selling cars. Tapping the talents of men like Ford, Sloan, Kettering, Howard, Durant, and Chrysler, you balance quality versus quantity, mass production versus premium branding, and innovation versus distribution and aggressive sales. Lose your balance and you go bust. Strike the best balance, shift the right gears to best your rivals, and you’ll be rich. You might even win. So, pull up your sleeves and start making cars.

For 3-5 Players. Playing Time 90-120 minutes.

Players assign a value to a ticket and collect the face value for each ticket sold. Holiday ticket themes include Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and generic holiday/winter. The guest who has the winning ticket may be given a gift, while the money collected can go to a charity or to the host of the holiday party — or the guest who holds the winning ticket may be awarded the entire pot of money.

The Chat Pack contains 156 cards, each featuring a question meant to get people talking. This game is designed for dinner parties, family gatherings, car trips, and classroom activities.

This two-to-four-player addition and subtraction game takes kids on a journey through Sum Swamp. Players make their way over the crocodile shortcut and through the endless loop by adding and subtracting the numbers rolled.

Each turn, one team flips over a category card and team members quickly brainstorm words that fit the category. The team agrees on a word before the time runs out and then pulls each letter in that word one lane closer to their side of the street. The first team to pull eight letters off the street wins. Word on the Street Junior is designed to encourage vocabulary development, creative thinking and teamwork, and is "great for all ages and all group sizes," Out of the Box VP of Marketing Leah Sugar told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2010 Mensa Select; 2010 Major Fun; 2010 Oppenheim Gold; 2010 Dr. Toy Best Vacation Product; 2010 Parent's Choice Silver
— Verlina Adema of What You Reading Now played Word on the Street Junior with her three children and enjoyed that the game required teamwork and brainstorming. As a homeschool mom, she appreciated that “This game incorporates visual, auditory and tactile learning styles so there is something for every child!”
— The Board Game Family described Word on the Street Junior as the perfect party game because “every time we play it, we can’t stop with just one play…But that’s just great because the second game is always louder, more energetic, and lasts longer for a lot more fun.”

Old School FIKI Football is a tabletop football game with a genuine leather triangle "football." It includes a goalpost and 5" x 7" replica football field. "FIKI Football is patented and the only genuine leather tabletop football game on the market," Richard M. Crasnick, president of FIKI SPORTS, told TDmonthly.

Designed to allow practice and improvement for spelling skills, this 2- to 6-player game comes with a colorful game board, a tri-colored die, six bee playing pieces, 300 Buzzleword cards and 50 Buzzlebee cards. The spelling words are taken from actual school lists, and the adult version is ideal for family game night or play with friends. The game includes spelling words at three levels of difficulty.

Formerly called Patchwork, FlipOut is a fast-paced logic game for two to five players designed to build logic, memory and patterning skills in a fun setting. Players trade colorful, two-sided cards between plastic racks to create sets, or steal them from each other. Game play takes 20 to 30 minutes.

Stix & Stones is a prehistoric picture-making race designed to build fine motor, creative and social skills. Kids can create like a caveman using only sticks and stones; no drawing skills are required. Players make a picture with as few pieces as possible, then challenge each other to guess what it is. Along with 40 plastic sticks, 15 plastic stones, an arrow and a timer, Stix & Stones features 75 game cards providing 450 words of varying difficulty, ensuring a different game every time. Instructions and a storage bag are included.

Inspired by Eric Carle's ABC book, this game in a tin introduces children to the alphabet by teaching them the difference between big and little letters. Players spin the spinner and search for letter cards that match their space. The game includes one game board, four playing pieces, one spinner, 52 animal/letter cards and instructions.