A Game A Day In Review

A Game A Day

70 straight days of playing a different board game each night and writing a review. From Day 1 I wasn't really sure how many days that this project would last; I was hoping that I could make it past 40 days. Thanks to the support of friends and family letting me borrow some of their games, the support of Rio Grande Games, Minion Games, and MindWare for their game donations, and especially the amazing support from The Wife who put up with me blogging every night and playing a game when the day didn't even have time for it. A big SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU!

I am still amazed that I made it this long. And yet, there are many more games out there to be played. I will definitely continue to review the games that I own and have played for you all. You will be able to find a list of all of my game reviews which I will organize alphabetically. I love board games. Sometimes I will just find myself reading reviews and rules to board games just for fun. This has really been a really fun project and I have enjoyed it immensely and I hope that you have as well.

If you didn't notice, most of my reviews were 3 fingers up (equivalent to an 8 out of 10 or better. This is because most of the games I played are games that I actually own...and why would I buy a game that I don't love? So, there are a lot of 4 fingers up (or 9/10) which are all amazing games, but the top games that all received a thumbs up (10/10) are listed below (Chess and Scrabble are not included in this list just because they are so well known already, but they also received the full 10/10 thumbs up):

Top 10 (listed alphabetically)

Agricola

Carcassonne

Citadels

Dominion

Forbidden Island

Hive

Nile DeLuxor

Power Grid

Slide 5

Zooloretto

Now on to the Scoreboard results. The Wife and I were pretty much neck and neck throughout the project although The Wife had a winning streak of like 13 games in a row I believe. In the end, I came out on top (even with my losing record, I had the most victories):

                            W-L-T

Lou                      32-35-3

The Wife              28-39-3

Nicole                  3-2-0

Nathan                 2-4-0

T.B.I.L.                1-0-0

Sauron                 1-0-0

F. I.                      1-0-0

Jackie                   0-1-0

Spencer                0-1-0

Bryan                   0-2-0

I did not get to play all of the games that I would have liked to, but that is one of the great joys of board games. There are so many fun games out there that all offer something a little bit different. Some of the games that I did not get a chance to play or review include (consider it my watch/wish list in no particular order; I have played a lot of these games, but I do not own or have easy access to them):

Tsuro, The Resistance, Black Friday, Friday, Crows, Flash Point Fire Rescue, Ricochet Robots, Fearsome Floors, 7 Wonders, 221 B Baker Street, Nuns on the Run, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride Europe, Alhambra, Le Havre, Blokus, and the list goes on and on.

Thank you again for supporting this project by checking out my blog. I may be taking a break from the Game Reviews for a while, but don't fret everyone. I have a new project on the horizon. Everyone prepare for (drum roll please) .... A Yoga Pose A Day. Now, it may be a little while before I start this project. I have to start some research and find a killer Yoga outfit, but I plan on at least attempting a different Yoga Pose every day and posting a picture to prove it! If only they had a Yoga themed board game. Get excited folks and that is How Lou Sees It! 

Qbitz

Day 43 - Q•bitz
Designed by Peggy Brown

I would be very interested in knowing how this game received its name. After playing the game, the first thing that popped into my mind regarding the name was quarterback blitz. Perhaps the name came from this phrase because the game is played so quickly and the players must react quickly to win (any insight Peggy?). Q•bitz is, excuse my alliteration, fantastic family fun.

Q•bitz is a game for 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up and it only takes about 15 minutes to play (this can be shortened or lengthened - it just depends on how many rounds you really want to play). The game includes 16 dice in 4 different colors, 100 card designs, and 4 recessed boards to fit your dice in a 4x4 grid. The cards, dice, and boards are good quality (the dice are a lot lighter than I thought they would be).

The game reminds me of tangrams because of the different shapes that are created using the dice, but Q•bitz makes creating these different shapes and designs so much fun. There are three different kinds of rounds to play in Q•bitz:

1. The first round - A Q•bitz card is flipped over and players rotating and placing their dice as quickly as possible try and be the first to create the design on the card.
2. The second round - A Q•bitz card is flipped over and players roll the dice trying to create the design first with what is rolled. The dice can be re-rolled at anytime, but it is an all-out race to be first.
3. The third round - A Q•bitz card is flipped over and players have 10 seconds to memorize the card before it is flipped back over and the players try and recreate the design first.

I love the slight variations in each round and the third round is definitely the most interesting. I love shapes, geometry, and patterns so this game was a big hit with me. I also really like the fast pace of the game. I think that Q•bitz would be a great game for children to play as well to help them with visual spacing and memorization. 

I'm working on a 2 player variant as well where each player takes one of the other unused sets of dice for a fourth round. The round would consist of taking turns rolling the dice Yahtzee style. The player can choose how many dice of his color he rolls along with how many dice of the extra color he took for this round (we will call them "attack dice"), where the total of the players dice must add up to 16. The dice that are his/her normal color may be used on their playing board to fulfill the design trying to be made while the "attack dice" of the other color rolled, may be used to take up spaces on your opponents board with die matching the required space.

Q•bitz is a lot of fun. Again, a big SHOUT OUT to MindWare games for making this review possible and that is How Lou Sees It!

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's to the Mines We Go!

Day 40 - Mine Shift
Designed by John Forte Jr.

Everyone loves jewels, but too often we don't reflect on where that jewel came from and the effort that was taken to obtain the jewels for your enjoyment. Mine Shift is a quick 2 player strategy game where each player not only maneuvers their 4 jewels around the board, but they maneuver and change the very board itself! I think the cover does a great job instilling the visual idea into the player's mind. So, strap on some head lamps, grab your pick, and start singing Heigh-Ho as we enter the Mine that is constantly ready to Shift.

The game is very quick and simple to learn, and you will be playing before you know it. The game includes 27 nicely crafted tiles which have random walls placed throughout the tiles (each tile divided into 4 segments). The players shuffle the tiles and draw 10 tiles creating a 3x3 box with 2 tiles which off-shoot the square to create each player's starting piece/home tile. The goal of the game is to get your 4 jewels from your start piece to your opponent's start piece (or your home tile). Each player takes 3 actions a turn and can choose from either of these: moves a jewel (or also referred to as a stone), rotates a tile, or shifts a tile. The player must move at least one jewel during their turn.

Being able to rotate the tile pieces and shift them reminded me of The aMAZEing Labyrinth board game (Day 16), and players are allowed to jump over other stones like in Chinese Checkers (and the whole concept of moving your stones to your opponent's starting area as well). If you like The aMAZEing Labyrinth and Chinese Checkers, I think that you will enjoy this game. The game can also be adapted or changed to your liking. Because the game comes with 27 tiles, you can create a bigger starting board and the game will be different each time. The game comes in a nice tin, although it was a little larger than I originally thought it would be (it may not be as travel friendly as you might think). I love games that come in a tin. The Wife and I enjoyed the game tonight (she won by the way), but it didn't seem too challenging to either one of us. I believe kids ages 7 - 14 would enjoy this game the most, but it definitely is interesting enough that adults will enjoy it as well. Mine Shift is also a Mensa Select game winner!

A big SHOUT OUT to MindWare games for making this review possible and a thank you for their support of my A Game A Day project. You should also be exited for an up-coming review of Q-bitz. MindWare games produces some fantastic educational and thought-provoking games (I'm hoping to get a hold of Qwirkle and/or Qwirkle Cubes for an upcoming review as well!) and that is How Lou Sees It.