Three new games from Fat Brain Toy Co. are on their way, with one hitting retail right about now and the other two coming up in April. Farm Alarm (mid-March, $13) is a sequential memory game for preshoolers on up. Players have to remember a sequence of animal noises displayed on cards; if someone makes a mistake, the others grab the squeezable pig toy and make it squeal! Cute packaging, cute pig, silly sounds.
Crankity (early April, $20) is more of a logic puzzle than game, but it fits in the same space as Thinkfun’s Rush Hour line of games. A challenge card is shown with the starting position of colored gears and by placing the listed colored gears in the correct locations, you try to get the entire apparatus to turn. 40 challenge cards come in this travel-friendly brainteaser.
A rhythm party game, OffBeat (mid-April, $20) has a raised board with a spinner with colored discs indicating which motion or action to do next: tapping the box, clapping, snapping, or more. Fall off the beat or do the wrong action and you’re out of the round. Last player clapping wins.