TurtlemaniaI was given this one a while ago by SimplyFun, but it fits well in our impromptu mini-series on games of speed. TurtleMania comes with 136 heavy plastic tiles and plays with up to six people in a very rapid 10 minutes. The design was inspired by the pieces in the Chinese game of Mahjong. Here, though, the game has been boiled down to competitive pattern recognition, which when I put it that way doesn’t sound as lively as it usually turns out to be when you lift that cover off and start the dash for tiles.

So what’s the difference between TurtleMania and those numbered card games? Just that instead of throwing out cards in a certain order, you’ll be grabbing tiles in pairs of matching symbols. Again, the fun comes mostly from the hectic nature of play. However, SimplyFun has upgraded that basic approach with some very colorful, substantial, and attractive tiles. Seriously, I don’t think you’ll find a better game deal by weight.