For me, the highlight of Patch’s booth this year—a highlight of the show even—was Chrono Bomb (July, $25 in box or $35 in case). It’s one of those games that has kids playing through the house, turning rooms in to part of the story.

With Chrono Bomb, strings attached to sensors are meant to imitate those laser-detection systems you see in all the spy action movies. Kids are supposed to stretch those strings across halls and doors making a sort-of obstacle course for their friends. Then object cards are spread through the course, a mission is chosen (indicating the specific objects that need to be retrieved), and a timer set.

In addition to simply playing the Chrono Bomb game, I could definitely see kids challenging each other with tougher courses or using the devices as an alarm system against their younger siblings entering their rooms.

Yeti in My Spaghetti (August, $18) has a certain similarity to Pick-up Sticks. Players take turns pulling noodles and hoping that the yeti won’t drop in to the bowl.

For children starting at 2 years, Patch is launching the Smart Start line in July. Sparky ($25) teaches shapes and colors with a cute light-up insect. When someone presses the button on top, Sparky says a shape and his tail lights a matching color. Cheese Dip ($20) is a letter recognition and spelling game. Children use the tails of their mouse pieces to pick up letters made with holes like Swiss cheese. Puppy Up ($25) is for numbers, which it teaches with a scale. On one side go a number of puppy figures, on the other matching numerals.

5 Second Rule Junior (fall, $20) includes a board for scoring, as well as questions easier for kids (for example, “Name three things dipped in ketchup”).

Stack Attack (July, $12) combines dice, fast-play, and dexterity elements. Players, all at the same time, stack their dice on a single tower. To place a die, though, it has to be showing a number either one more or one less than the last die at the top. Points are scored for dice that remain should the tower fall and for getting rid of all one’s dice.

A travel version of The Game of Things (March, $10) will include 107 new cards.

All In (fall, $25) is a get-to-know-you type game. Players wager on whether a fact about the reader is true or false. That wager, though, need not be all for one or the other. Each player must bet all his chips but can hedge by distributing them between true and false. The winner—because getting to know people is only fun if it’s a competitive process—is the last player with chips remaining.

You Bet Your Ass (fall, $25) plays the same as All In but features risque questions and donkey betting tokens.

In the Perplexus line of three-dimensional mazes, fall will see release of a micro series featuring thematic designs, including Q-Bot and Drakko (both $10). Also a Star Wars Perplexus Death Star ($40).

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Patch Products

Lion Rampant Imports is a game distributor out of Ontario, Canada. I stopped by their booth to check out a bunch of new games from companies that didn’t have any other representation at Toy Fair, and what I found excited me.

Trakkx – Ages 8+

A combination Rummikub and Qwirkle, TrakkX has players try to rid their hands of tiles by playing sets of numbers in sequential order, or playing the same number in all the available colors. There’s also special tiles that let you swap tiles or have another player draw 3 tiles.

Mangrovia and Safranito – Ages 10 +

In Mangrovia players are trying to place huts in the best locations. A role-selection game, there’s variable paths to victory. The board is gorgeous, and the gameplay is on the lighter, gamer fare. A good looking family game for those looking for a bit more meat in their games, but nothing super heavy.

Safranito was an awesome looking dexterity game where players are competing to create recipes using the required spices. To do so you have to toss your coins on the board and land on the spices you need. Of course you can knock your opponent’s pieces around, too! The first person to cook 3 meals wins.

Bandu – Ages 8+

It was hard to contain my excitement when I saw a new version of Bandu being put out by Zoch Games. Klaus Zoch, having recently reaquired the rights to his game, has put out this new edition of the classic building game with 5 different ways to play, and excellent looking gems to replace the beans most people remember when playing Bandu/Bausack. The pieces of excellent quality, and it seems no shortcuts were taken in this most-welcome new release.

Beasty Bar – Ages 8+

A cute little card game where players are trying to get their animals into a party. The animals line up, but only the first two in line will get into the party. Of course every animal played has special rules on how it effects the line. My favorite was the drunk skunk with the bubbles coming out of his backside.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Lion Rampant Imports

While Continuum Games has a bunch of new products for 2015, the two they were spotlighting were Mega Monster City Smash and Word Q. Both games couldn’t be more different from each other, one having remote controlled monsters, and the other being just a box of letter tiles.

Mega Monster City Smash – $29.99 – Ages 5+

To tell you the truth, this is more of a toy than a game. Each player controls one of two giant monsters trying to knock down the buildings of the other player. Each remote has two functions: move forward, or spin. Get your monster to face in the right direction and then charge the towers! I have to admit I even tried to push the other monster off the board, which I don’t know if that’s actually allowed or not. In the end I lost horribly.

Word Q – $12.99 – Ages 8+

Word Q is a puzzle game where you’re trying to create words in every row and column. Words can be 3 letter words for easier puzzles, and 4 letter words on the harder puzzles. The book that comes with the game lets you know the starting layout of each puzzle, and which letters are already in the correct spot. There’s only 1 solution per puzzle, and it’s a lot harder than it looks.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Continuum Games

Drawn to the booth by the exquisite craftsmanship of their games, Across the Board had a trio of pub-style games to show off. The uniqueness of each game comes from the fact that they’re all handcrafted out of wood and metal. The boards are all one-of-a-kind as the color, grain, and even species of the wood is different from board to board.

Horseracing Game – $75 – $116

The Horseracing Game they have is just that, a gambling game where you’re betting on horses and using a deck of cards to determine which horses are scratched from the race, and which horses then move towards the finish line. A quick demo proved how, even when playing with small coins, a good pot of money can be won from a lucky horse! The game is pure luck, and would fit in well at a pub setting.

Baseball Game – $48

Another beautiful game of pure luck. Roll the dice, check the results on chart, and move your polished metal pieces around the bases. There’s even a small dry-erase board on top to keep track of score.

Soccer and Hockey Game

The Soccer and Hockey games differ from the above two as they aren’t games of chance. They’re both dexterity games where you flick a penny around the board. They’re both pretty much identical except for design and placement of the bumper pegs. Both incredibly study, they reminded me of days playing Foosball in my cousin’s basement as a kid. I didn’t snag the prices on these, and couldn’t find them on the website.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Across the Board

While part of the Goliath family now, Pressman is still being maintained as a separate brand. And it’s products are distinct enough that I thought they deserved their own report.

In terms of new products, Pressman has a license for Shopkins games. Out already is Shopkins Pop ‘N’ Race, with Shopkins Supermarket Scramble ($20) following soon. The former is a version of Trouble, the latter a simple spin-and-move game of collecting characters from each section of the grocery store.

Other than that, Pressman is bringing back some out of print titles.

Lucky Ducks (fall, $24), formerly a Milton Bradley title, is a cute matching memory game with a little added challenge. The plastic ducks, on the bottom of which the various shapes are printed, are constantly in motion, circling around the board.

Wheel of Fortune ($20) returns for a fourth edition in the fall with 90 puzzles included.

And for the game’s 50th anniversary, there will be Tri-ominos Junior (summer, $15). What makes it kid-friendly is the inclusion of some wild-card pieces and the addition of colors corresponding to the matching numbers.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Pressman

KidRealm was another booth I found out of the way from the main gaming area at Toy Fair. A really interesting company, KidRealm runs camps for kids with geeky activities. There are LEGO games, Minecraft & Pokemon camps, Engineering camps, tabletop gaming camps, and more. Not only that, but they also put out their own game, Castle Combat.

Castle Combat is a CCG based on War with some very interesting twists. I was very impressed with how low the barrier to entry was for the game, and how it looked like it was something my 4-year-old could play yet something my older kids would enjoy. The game is sold in starter decks, booster packs, and single cards. There’s well over 200 cards to play with now and there looks to be more coming in the future. Even their business card at Toy Fair was a card for the game with a QR code sticker on the back.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—KidRealm

Goliath’s products are always good for a few laughs and leading in that role this year was Who Tooted? (fall, $24). A game about farting—complete with whoopee cushion buzzers and electronic sound effects—you know it’ll be a hit with the 6-12 year old set.

Really more of an aid in performing magic tricks, there’s also Magic Mindreader (fall, $20). It’s an interactive plastic skull that can do such things as guess the card a person picked or lead participants through simple number tricks.

Sands Alive! (fall, $15) is a game played in a mini sandbox. Players draw cards that allow them to build certain structures in an effort to connect one side of the box with the opposite side.

In Fool the Frog (fall, $24) one player wears a mask of frog eyes that open and close at random intervals, while the other players pass back-and-forth a fly. The frog player, then, tries to guess who’s holding the fly.

Slap (fall, $24) is a trick trivia game with a special device to figure out who gave the first answer. It’s trick trivia because questions are designed to confuse players (for example, “What does a cow drink?”). And the device works because the players have to write their answers on the end of its spring-loaded arms, and then when they let go, the arms slap down on top of each other in to the center.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Goliath Games

Last year David had posted about 5 Stones, a modern take on the ancient game of Knucklebones. The game was just in a prototype form then, but this year I had a chance to check out the final product.

The final version has ditched the bag in favor of a sturdy cardboard box with a lid that velcros shut. The stones are still hematite, and the same shape as we’d last seen them. There’s also rules for 5 different games in the box, and Griddly encourages players to come up with their own games and share them with the company.

The cost is still $8.95. Ages 6+.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Griddly Games

tonni-co, LLC was at Toy Fair with TAG: the art game, a game that has all the players creating a collaborate piece of art.

The game is played with a color wheel, cards, dice, and art supplies. The color wheel is spun at the start of the game to dictate what colors will be used when the die is rolled. Gameplay is simple.

1. Roll the die. Match the number on the color wheel. This is the color you’ll use this turn.
2. Draw a location card. This will show you where on the paper your art will go.
3. Draw an action card. This will tell you what to place in the location.
4. Draw a medium card. This will tell you to either draw, paint, or make a collage.
5. Play continues until the “Finished?” card is drawn. Players can choose to end the game there, or keep going.

It’s a cool concept, with some really cool results. Their booth was filled with art pieces created by playing the game.

TAG: the art game is available now in several different packages. There’s a full set that includes art supplies for $39.99, an Educational Edition that just has the game components for $19.99, and a Classroom Edition that has 3 sets of the game components for $39.99.

• 2 Comments

I had never heard of Twizmo before Toy Fair this year, and now I’m glad I have. The only game they were showing off this year was tak•tak, and abstract strategy game for two players ages 8+. The game’s rules are fairly simple. You move your pieces forward either straight or diagonally. You can attack other player’s pieces by moving of of yours with the same number or color on top of the opposing piece. You now control that stack. Of course your opponent can stack on that, and so forth. The game ends when one player has no more pieces in the center section of the board. The winner is the one with the highest numeric score in the opposing player’s Safe Zone.

It’s quick, easy to learn, and has a good amount of strategy to it. tak•tak ships in April of this year, and has an MSRP of $16.95.

• Comments Off on Toy Fair 2015—Twizmo