Ok I used to hate Christmas,
perhaps hate it too
extreme, more of a general distaste for the mass hype and mass
marketing of the season, I was younger, single, or with my adult
partner and the season just didn't hold much magic for us.
Then we had kids
So here is one of three obligatory Christmas posts I’m planning on doing this year.
Maybe in years to come
I can do or say more but our family is relatively new to this hobby
so we're starting small.
Christmas gift lists.
There are those who
have done a number of them already. I personally follow the dice
tower videos quite closely and use their shopping lists for advice.
However, not to feel
left out I thought I’d add my humble opinion to the ether that is
known as the internet.
I”ll write one lists
here, one for kids/family (probably more kids) and later in another entry one for adults
because these are the games I have the most experience with
personally. In yet another entry I’ll be addressing games that are
being released for the silly season this year, games I haven't tried
but I’m excited for either because they are new to the market or
because they have been between print runs and the new stock is soon
to be released.
Any ways on to the
lists
for the kids!
there is another
similar game to this called zooloretto that I have yet to try, it's
possible ihat it's better given that the theme is more engaging but
nevertheless coloretto has been enjoyed by everyone in this house.
We play it as a family and even my slightly fractious four year old
understands the mechanics of how it's played. The point scoring
system is a bit above her, as it is miss 5, but they both enjoy
trying to collect the colours into sets. It's quick enough that we
usually play twice but on a third play through both girls lost
interest half way through.
Buy it:
This is both an
adorable and annoying game. It's adorable because you're moving
little plastic penguins around to collect as many fish as possible.
It's annoying because the board is made up of little hexes and
children bump game boards, its inevitable and in the case of this
game that's messy and inconvenient. However, even though the
'straight line' concept is a little hard to get through to the wee
ones particularly as we're talking about diagonal straight lines,
they do enjoy it, and miss 5 now understands the scoring I based on
how many fish she managed to collect. The way I see it it's a great
start in learning game play similar to chess, and for that reason
even the adults can enjoy this deceptively engaging kids game.
Buy it:
I know I know, not
technically a kid game
but it's been a hit
with both my girls for almost a full year now. We adapt the rules as
I’ve previously written about but they love it all the same.
Collecting the coloured cards, placing the trains it's both mentally
stimulating and physically engaging enough to keep them interested
for a full game. It is their number one requested game, which is why
it's right here in the kids list.
Buy it:
This is a new one and I
actually have yet to play it with my girls. I'm fairly certain miss
4 won't get it but miss 5, yeah, with the images on the cards that
show what they do as well as the words, she'll get it pretty well.
Ad who doesn't like a game about pushing each others pirates off the
ship? This was a kickstarter campaign that I backed and i've been
happy with the results. Made by the same company that made 'Getbit', a game about who can swim away from the shark the fastest,
'Walk the Plank' it was marketed as a prequel, and if one can imagine
that the pirates, once they fell into the water, managed to escape
the kraken like death awaiting them and somehow managed to turn into
robots in the process (because really who wouldn't want to be a robot
surrounded by all that salt water), it can sure be seen that way.
But anyway, it's fun, it's simple, and it's one of the cheaper games
on the list.
Buy it:
Ok I know the subject
matter on this one might seem a little off for wee ones. And if not
for the fat that in her first week of kinder miss 5 came home and
started talking about zombies and moaning whilst asking for brains,
my girls would probably still be unaware of the whole world of undead
media flooding us lately. But she did come home talking about it and
as such I kind of decided not to fight it and went with it. So, of
course, zombie dice. It's a simple game, miss 5 has even taught it
to an adult quite effectively before, but it has a lot of educational
value (I’ll write about that some time) to it and it's a quick fun
game for anyone of any age.
Buy it:
The game that didn't
make the list – Rory's Story Cubes
This was simply not
written about because i've already written about it quite extensively.
But it's good.
So there we have it the top 5 hits with my girls as of Dec 2013.
Lots of fun, none super expensive, all almost small enough to put in the Christmas stocking.
And Merry Christmas!
And Merry Christmas!
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