Fish Stix - Peaceable Kingdom

We also played Fish Stix the same night we played Celestial Rainbows.  This is a game that the other three members of my family had already played without me once.  The setup is very easy as each player gets a score sheet from the pad and they will need a pencil or something to mark with.  You take the fish stix's and make some draw piles.  Players take turns trying to match the color and direction of the fish on the sticks to score points.  As seen in the pictures below a stick can go next to any other fish, however you only score when the fish match and match the direction they are traveling.

Game in the early stages of play.

This game works well for younger kids as their is no reading involved.  My 6 year old was able to match colors and directions with ease, though he didn't always make the "best" play as he would get a certain fish he wanted to match stuck in his mind and play that card.  Usually to my despair as he blocked off a nice long run of a certain fish right before my turn.

The game also works well for adults as the game board can change so much between turns, one really needs to pay attention to his fish stix and the board to see where the best placement is.

Thanks to my mother Launa Stout for the gift of this game.

Players:

John Stout

Angela Stout

Megan Stout

Stephen Stout

Pros:  

Quick setup and take down.  No reading makes it great for younger kids.  Enough depth and strategy to keep adults entertained while playing with children.

Cons: 

Nothing I can think of.

Play Again?:

Yes.  I see many more plays of this game in our house. 

Fish Stix by Peaceable Kingdom

Designer - Susan McKinley Ross

Celestial Rainbows - Griggling Games, Inc.

I had high hopes for Celestial Rainbows when I pulled it out to play with the family.  It's got attractive colorful art complete with Travelocity gnomes. (The gnomes are not actually travelocity's gnomes, they just made me think of them)  We read through the instructions and were left feeling a little confused.

We re-read the rules and felt confident that we knew what we were doing.  We dealt the cards and started playing.  In this game each player has two cards that sit face up and two that sit face down.  On your turn  you get two actions.  Which include swapping a card with another players face up card, or playing a card among a few others.  The goal is to create as many rainbows as you can as a team, but you can't talk about the cards that are face down in front of you.

My first issue was that I don't know what colors are in the rainbow, and what order they are in, and the instructions don't tell you it either.  I think we also got dealt a bad hand as all the "special power cards" in a row, even though we shuffled the game and inserted them in the deck away from each other and shuffled more.

My second issue is that it just wasn't that fun.  My 9 year old daughter who loves rainbows asked if we were almost done as she was bored.  That's not a good sign when the rainbow lover is tired of the rainbow building game.

Players:
John Stout
Angela Stout
Megan Stout
Stephen Stout

Pros:
Small package which could travel well.  Cooperative game with no real stress or tough decisions.  Art was psychedelic and enjoyable to look at.

Cons:
Instructions felt poorly written, perhaps printing them in color to better show what was expected would have helped.  Game almost felt like a team building activity and less like a game.

Play Again?:
It's real hard to say.  I'd be ok with giving it a second chance as we already know the rules.  But it probally won't happen.

Celestial Rainbows by Griggling Games, Inc.

Designer - Ian Brody

JurassAttack! - Green Couch Games

After a few games with the kids this evening I pulled out a new game.  The game was a quick little 2 player game called JurassAttack!.  We had never played this before and I knew I only had a few minutes before the kids were done changing into pajamas and brushing their teeth.

We cruised through the rules pretty quickly.  I did however have the JurassAttack! Promo Pack mixed in so we weren't sure about how all the cards worked.  We started off and almost right away the kids showed up and started asking questions.  We had to keep them from asking too many questions about what does a number 9 do or that Tyrannosaurus Rex looks awesome so the other person didn't know what we had.

We stumbled through the first game and I won 25 to 22.  But I know we interpreted a few of the cards from the promo pack wrong.  We played again much to the kids excitement, as they both said they liked watching us play it.  We feel we played the promo pack correctly this time and my wife clobbered me with a score of 36 to 16.


Players:
John Stout
Angela Stout

Pros:
This game was easy to learn and was quick and fun to play.  The art was enjoyable and it would be good for gamers of all ages that can read.

Cons:
We both agreed that the card size was annoying.  Their was no reason for the extra large cards.  Just the 8 cards from the promo pack make it so the box barely stays on the game.  If they had been standard sized cards it would have stored better.

Play Again?:
Yes.  My wife asked to play a second time right after the first which is a good sign that she enjoyed it.

JurassAttack! by Green Couch Games

Designer - Ryan Cowler

After much thought and many games I have decided to start a blog of gaming.  I plan to put reviews to games, write play reports, talk about accessories I like and dislike.

Either way i'm just starting out.  Hope you follow.