Jenga Boom!

Publisher: Hasbro (2012)

Players: 1+

Age recommendation: 6+

Jenga Boom Rules: http://www.hasbro.com/shop/details.cfm?R=263651E8-5056-9047-F5CF-B38B0A63870B:en_US
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Jenga Boom is a nice twist on the classic block tower building game. Where you were once taking your time making sure your piece was meticulously placed and balanced, you are now racing against time.

Jenga Boom incorporates a chess timer approach to turn taking. When it is your turn, you hit the timer and make your move. Only once your move is complete can you turn the timer off. The timer controls the "fuse" which shortens until... well... boom!

Your normal Jenga tower has been infused with the intensity of perfection.

The tower is built on top of a raised dynamite platform but when the time runs out, the flat platform becomes a dome and causes the tower to fall.

The kids loved the game. Why? The most exciting part of Jenga is when the tower collapses, and you don't go more than 5 minutes without a tower collapsing. The only thing my son would change to make the game better would be if the base actually exploded. But as the front of the box clearly states "Actual Product Does Not Explode."

I found Jenga Boom to be fun, but I think the kids enjoyed it more than I did.  I had a couple of problems with the design. The fuse made the game a bit too short for my liking. The timer mechanism is, naturally, located at the front of the "dynamite" which made sitting around the table while playing difficult.  Your choices seem to be rotating the balancing tower or to play the game with all the players standing up facing the front. As cool as the packaging graphics are with caution tape and an actual fuse sticking out of the top, I feel the size of the box is much too big for the components.  None of these things, however, are going to keep me from playing when the kids ask.

  

One Zillion Games was provided with a review copy of Jenga Boom from Hasbro. The fact that a review copy was provided, in no way influences our opinions of the game.


Thanks to the good people at Hasbro, you can win a brand new copy of Jenga Boom for your game collection.


Congrats to Michelle C. from Marlton

Toy Fair 2013

I just got back from the 110th American International Toy Fair (One Zillion Games' second) and am looking forward to sharing all the great things I saw and played.

Here are a few pictures to start you off!

1 night, 3 markers, 1 pile of paper, and 1 sad 5 year old

I have a few disclaimers to make before I get started:

• I am taking a brief diversion from games for this post.
• If you are one of the few people that haven't seen the seventh Harry Potter movie or read the book - there will be SPOILERS.
• Before anyone clucks at me; yes, I made a conscious decision to watch the seventh PG-13 Harry Potter movie with my then 5 year old son.

We are moving out of our apartment this week and with packing up everything you own comes a certain amount of reflection. One of the most reflective moments came while taking down the pictures from my 7 year old son's bedroom walls.

The walls were covered in Dobbys - 27 Dobbys to be exact. 

My son loves Dobby. Dobby is his ABSOLUTE favorite character in all of the Harry Potter universe. He has the above Dobby figure. He has a Dobby picture book. He has a Dobby banner from Blockbuster (it was actually a banner with around 10 characters, but he cut the Dobby one out alone). He dressed like Dobby for Halloween - as a family that makes most of our own Halloween costumes, this was much appreciated - thrift store pillow case + scissors + coffee grounds for staining. He even has this song on his MP3 player:

I read all of the books before hand. I should have been better prepared for the Deathly Hallows part One. I tried - I really did.  Before I watched the movie with my son and my 10 year old daughter, we did our own little "previously on Harry Potter" recollection and when we came to the death of Albus Dumbledore, I used that as a warning: 

"Now, we know this story has gotten pretty dark right? I am telling you right now that I know there will be more characters dying. It could be anyone! This is a battle for the future of magic and muggle kind so everyone could die for all we know. Harry Potter even. I just want you to be ready."

Then the movie started.

• Hedwig - There was a collective whimper.

• Mad-Eye Moody - No obvious reaction.

• Dobby - Tears and more tears.

We grieved for Dobby as a family. We ate a little ice cream. We talked about how awesome it was that Dobby saved his friend, Harry Potter. We called their Momma on the phone to grieve some more.

Listen, I know he is just a fictional character and believe me, I used that line to try to calm my son down. Let's just consider it a compliment to J.K. Rowling that she was able to create a story that drew us into its reality enough to feel loss. I understand my son's fiction-induced funk. I remember the post script "Dr. Sam Beckett Never Returned Home." I remember Jenny Calendar, Doyle, Winifred, and Wash.

And then it was time for bed.

I have a rule: as long as you are in bed quietly, you can do whatever you want to wind yourself down for an hour before lights out. There are bookshelves by every bed in the house. The kids' bookshelves are loaded with books, dolls, Matchbox cars, and art supplies.

My son spent that hour with 3 markers and 1 pile of paper. His bedroom full of Dobbys was born. He showed them to me the next day and I hung them all up in his room. I still tear up at how he was able to work through his sadness by scribbling out 27 Dobbys (each one based on the above Dobby figure he has).

Here are some of the pictures that I have taken down from the walls and bound together for him.

There are normal Dobbys

There are fat Dobbys

There are Wolverine Dobbys

There are Yoda Dobbys

There are Hulk Dobbys

There are Shrek Dobbys

And my favorite are all on one sheet of paper. I imagine some sort of dancing Dobby animation going on here.

27 Dobbys

We have watched the movie a couple of times since and he now has a sense of pride in the hero that is Dobby. Thank you JK Rowling. Thank you for the Harry Potter universe, and thank you for Dobby.

Jukem Football

Publisher: Flying Pig Games (2009)

Game Design: Jeff Spelman

Players: 2-4

Age recommendation: 8+

Jukem Football Rules: http://jukemfootball.com/rules/
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"I love this game!"
-My 7 year old son upon scoring a touchdown.

As a parent, I endorse any game that garners that much excitement after MATH was involved.

Jukem is a football (American football - sorry rest of the world) card game with a singular shared goal with it's inspiration: score more points than your opponent through touchdowns and field goals.

100 yards. That is your goal. If you can create a drive using your cards that equals exactly 100 yards, you get a touchdown (with assumed success at your extra point) for 7 points.If you your drive is 70 yards or longer and the half is coming (draw pile is low) you can always play a field goal card if you have one for 3 points.

Wait. But how do you get 100 yards? On your turn, you can make a play by laying down the cards that correspond to a run, or a pass. Each run card has a yardage amount on them to get you closer to 100.  Passes have an extra step - you have to catch them (of course). Pass cards do not have a single yardage, but a range. The Catch card that you play is like the Run card; it has a yardage amount. The Catch yardage need to fit in the range of the Pass card.

this drive has a 20 yard run, a 10 yard catch, and a 30 yard run for 60 yards

If you want to make that 10 yard catch pictured above, you need to make a 5-20 yard pass.

Math!

Unlike real football, your opponent is creating their own drive at the same time you are. The 2 are unrelated. Their is a small defensive side to game play in the way of Blitz, Pick, Fumble, and Penalty card which can negate your opponents last play - or even wipe out their entire drive.

This is actually the only are where I would suggest a change in the game. In the spirit of math (yay!) I would suggest that the penalty cards actually created a negative yardage to add that tiny extra level to the arithmetic - much like the single Jukem card in the deck that is a x2 multiplier to and Pass or Run play.

We haven't had the chance to play 4 player team play, but rules are included with the game.

Like I stated at the beginning, my son loves this game. It could be because he has a 90-ish% win rate, but I don't mind because math!

  

One Zillion Games was provided with a review copy of Jukem Football from Flying Pig Games. The fact that a review copy was provided, in no way influences our opinions of the game.

Kerflip!

Publisher: Creative Foundry Games (2010)

Game Design: Damon Tabb

Players: 2-4

Age recommendation: 8+

Kerflip! Rules: http://kerflip.com/howtoplay/

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The first one to spot a word yells it out and flips their 20-ish second timer. In that 20-ish seconds, the other players have to come up with another word. Ideally, they would choose a word that doesn't use many of the same letters, and here is why:

Player 1 yells out "washer" and player 2 yells out "fresh". Player 1 gets 10 points for every ivory colored tile (60 points) and then flips them over to the orange side.

Orange tiles are only worth 5 points now.

I made a mistake on this picture - I didn't see the unused R

Player 2 would get 35 points: 10 points each for the ivory F and R and 5 points each for the E, S and H.

That is almost the end of the round. If you take a close look, you can also see numbers on a few of the harder to use tiles (F and W). These numbers indicate the number of bonus cards you get for being the first to use that letter. The bonus cards are kept and added up at the end of the game.

Sweep off the used tiles into the drop zones and recycle the unused letters and begin the next round.  Play ends when you are out of tiles.

I like this game a lot because I am really fond of word games. I also like the easy cleanup tray and bin that lies underneath the board (outstanding design).

My partner had a slow start to the game.  She had to ditch her Boggle mindset where she was spending too much time thinking about HOW MANY words she could make out of the mix and not thinking about the BEST POSSIBLE word.  After 3 rounds, she was back on track (enough so, that she ended up winning).

I would definitely recommend Kerflip to word game enthusiast families!

Here is a quick video explanation from the makers of Kerflip!

One Zillion Games was provided with a review copy of Kerflip from Creative Foundry Games. The fact that a review copy was provided, in no way influences our opinions of the game.