Rhino Hero is a kids’ game, unless they allow their parents to play. And then, when the kids are asleep, it’s party time.

It’s a direct descendant of playing house of cards. But it’s a game instead of an exercise in masochism. And an innovatively fun game it is.

Of the 59 cards, 31 of them are “roof cards” and 28 are wall cards. The wall cards are scored down the middle so they can fold. The cards are much thicker than playing cards, which you might consider innovation number one. The folding wall card, which, as you might expect, stands upright much more easily than a standard playing card, and is far easier to build on top of, is innovation number two – a much more significant innovation, especially in the eyes and hands of younger players. The wall cards are also illustrated, so that one side looks like the outside of a house, and the other, the inside. You could consider this innovation number three, as it adds a constructive fantasy element which playing cards lack. But it doesn’t actually affect the playing of the game.

The Roof Cards are most definitely significant, innovation-wise and game-play-wise. Hence, we shall consider them innovation number three and four. Number three because on every roof card is an outline determining where the wall cards are to be placed – there may be only one wall card in the middle, or two wall cards in a surprising variety of positions. Clearly, roof cards that call for only one wall card result in a far less stable construction and hence more tension-filled game. The fourth innovation comes from the foil-embossed symbols on each of the roof cards – symbols which add truly gamish mayhem, resulting in a) direction of play being reversed, or b) the next player skipping a turn, or c) the next player drawing a new roof card, or d) having to use two roof cards on the same turn, or e) or having to take the small wooden Rhino of purportedly super significance from wherever it is, and place it on that card, without, of course, knocking down any of the surrounding or supporting cards.

In the beginning of the game, each player is dealt a hand of roof cards. The first player to get rid of all her roof cards wins. This card-game-like aspect is what you might easily consider the fifth innovation in this innovatively fun game.

The overall design is so effective that you can disregard the rules entirely and still have a grand old time, either by yourself, or cooperatively with your friends and family. Or, you can follow the rules, and have an even grander time, filled with tension, surprises, laughter, and much hilariously sudden toppling.

Rhino Heroe is for 1 to 5 players, as young as five and for older folk of steady hand. A round takes maybe 15 minutes. Cleverly designed by Steven Strumpf and Scott Frisco, with fanciful art by Thies Schwarz. From Haba, available in the US from Maukilo. Not just fun, mind you, but Major Fun.

One of the most entertaining games I played with my girls when they were very young was Statue. I would sit absolutely still and they would move my arms and legs and face into whatever position they desired. Sometimes we would name some pose that they would have to make: guy-on-bicycle, stinky-socks, spider-in-your-hair.

You Robot (available from Asmodee) has that similar vibe. A partner game, You Robot requires that one partner act like a mindless robot and the other, the teacher, must get the robot to assume a specific pose. The trick? No talking and no touching.

A posture card is drawn and all the teachers gather around to look at it. The robot partners sit on chairs, eyes forward, and hands on their laps. The teachers then proceed to instruct their robots using 6 Remote Control cards. Two cards depict the robot’s body. The teacher can use these cards to show the robot what body part to move. Two cards have arrows that can be used to indicate how the robot should move the body part. The last two cards either tell the robot to pick up something in its vicinity or to think for a second (the sort of oh-come-on-it’s-so-obvious message that always occur in games like these).

In many ways, You Robot is like a variation of Charades that does not allow acting.

Fortunately, it does allow laughing. Which makes the tasks that much more difficult. And the teachers’ job is TOUGH. It is tough to keep from talking. It’s tough to just use the Remote Cards. It’s tough to keep from gesturing. It’s tough to refrain from reaching out to strangle your robot when it doesn’t understand the ever-so-obvious gesture you are trying to communicate.

Asimov needed a fourth rule of robotics: A robot will only make small, careful movements (instead of wild flailing movements) or risk injury at the hands of the human teacher.

The pairs race to see who can strike the pose first. Teacher and robot change for the next round and the process starts over. First pair to win 5 poses wins.

After the first few rounds, robots and teachers figure out that small moves work best and the arrows can be turned in very useful ways. It’s not cybernetic neural science but it is major fun.

For 4 – 10 players, ages 6+

You Robot game design Alain Rivollet. © 2010 by Repos Production.

I moved 12 times in my first 6 years of marriage. Many of those were short skips across town as we jumped from one cramped box of graduate student housing to another, but they all involved packing and repacking all our belongings into a truck and then emptying said truck a few miles away. Under those conditions you either gain a knack for the packing process or you learn to save up for a professional.

We could never afford a professional.

Those skills came in quite handy as I went up against Major Fun in a friendly game of Quadefy.

Maranda Games has released several handsome abstract strategy games and Quadefy is their entry into the realm of three-dimensional tiling games. 2 players take turns placing their wooden blocks within a 4X4X4 cubic grid. The last player to make a legal move wins. Each player has 8 game pieces that resemble three-dimensional Tetris shapes. An illegal move is any placement of a piece that extends out of the 4X4X4 grid.

The pieces are composed of attractive, solid wooden blocks that are designed for play and display. All 16 pieces fit together to form a perfect cube which means Quadefy serves double duty as a competitive strategy game and an engaging solo puzzle. Like the other games in Maranda’s line-up, Quadefy is visually striking and is meant to be left out for guests to see and touch and covet.

Games are fast, even when some players are *AHEM* deliberative [significant look in the direction of Major Fun…], but there are so many ways to start that re-playability is high. Patience and spatial awareness are handy traits, but that goes for most games.

And as fun as the game is already, I heartily recommend an alternative condition suggested by Major Fun himself: play with your eyes closed. Try it as a solo puzzle and then in competition. It’s a great twist on an engaging and well designed game.

For 2 players, ages 6+

Quadefy game design by Mark Fuchs. © 2011 by Maranda Games.

The Scrambled States of America – the 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is, as you might have guessed, the Deluxe Edition of the similarly, but not quite as deluxe edition of the Scrambled States of America Game, which is like, but clearly not the same as the more youth-oriented edition, The Scrambled States 2. All of which might leave you to conclude that there’s something here of genuine play value.

We are delighted to inform you that your conclusion is uncannily accurate.

Yes, it is a geography game, and equally yes, it is about the States of our united America. So, should you find yourself having become a rationale-needing parent, yes, you can tell yourself that your interest in playing this game with your chilren has nothing at all to do with fun – albeit surprisingly hilarious, sometimes silly, often challenging, ultimately delightful, fun-wise.

There are two decks of cards – blue and red. The blue-backed cards are the State cards. There are 50 of these, like any good set of United State cards, one for each State. On each there is a cartoon illustration of the State (with a face on it), the name of the state, the capital, and the nickname. These all come into play during the game. The red-backed cards make up what is called the “Scramble” deck. As in Scrambled States. The Scramble deck contains the challenges relating to the States. There are two kinds of challenges: Find-It (in which you have to find the State in your hand that has a certain color or touches a certain number of other States or has a certain number of letters or a person’s name in its capital), and Go the Distance. When you draw a Go the Distance card you turn over one extra State card from the blue-backed deck, and then use your map (each of up to 4 players gets their own map) to find which of the States in your hand is the closest.

There’s a lot of luck (you only have five of fifty States at any one time with which to solve a particular challenge) – but enough skill to keep you engaged. And, yes, you are learning, constantly. Picking up facts about the States, their capitals, their locations, their geographic connections. Which is incidental to the game play, but inevitable. All of which makes Scrambled States of America something close to the epitome of educational games. You’re having fun. You’re learning. The fun never stops. And the learning is not really the point. The point is playing together, sharing fun, knowledge, caring about each other, helping each other – all those really important things that come from playing a good game together.

This game has been around a long time, and the rules reflect the wisdom that comes from a game that has been played for more than ten years: easy to read, well organized, and including a version for early readers and several house rules to add longevity to an already deeply play-worthy game.

Scrambled States of America is based on the children’s book (whose title, by less-than-coincidence, is The Scrambled States of America) – a wonderfully playful, popular children’s book, a copy of which is included in the 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition.

Designed by Mary Doherty Ellroy, published by Gamewright. Major fun.

Scramblitz is a puzzle game. It’s a game, because you compete against players to be the first. Up to six players, as a matter of fact. It’s a puzzle because you have to solve it. It’s, in fact, primarily, you might say, a puzzle. A unique puzzle, you might notice. A very challenging puzzle, you will inevitably conclude.

There are six sets of 16 pattern tiles. These are called pattern tiles because they have a colorful pattern on one side of them. There are eight different such patterns, and two different color backs – black or white. This proves to be deliciously annoying.

There are 6 cardboard playing mats. They unfold to reveal a green area within which to fit your tiles.

Each set of pattern tiles is differentiated by a small shape in the center, which is punched out, making it easier for each player to determine whether or not she has a complete set. When you first open the box, you will discover each set of pattern tiles is already separated, and lovingly held together by a rubber band. These are good, these rubber bands. Useful. Don’t lose them.

There is also a set of 50 different puzzle cards. They are worth different points (indicated on the top and bottom border of each card). One of these is selected at random, turned over, and the competition begins.

Now to the sticking point. Upon inspection, you will notice that only some of the spaces on the puzzle card show colored patterns. The remainder are either black, white, or blank. So, you see, after you’ve placed all of your pattern tiles pattern-side-up as so clearly indicated by the puzzle card, and you go merrily on to fill the remainder of the spaces with black, or white tiles; you will inevitably notice that there are not enough of one or the other or both. Meaning that one or many of the pattern tiles you have so cleverly placed need(s) to be turned over. Which means that you’ll have to turn over one of the other black- or white-side-up pattern tiles that has the pattern on the tile you just turned over, if you catch my drift. Which results, unavoidably, in much frenzied flipping, unfortunate forgetting, much more frenzied flipping, and deep sighing once someone else solves the puzzle first, and secures the puzzle card as her own.

The game goes on until some extremely gifted player has been the first to collect enough puzzle cards to total 25 or more.

Designed by John A. Forte, Jr. Available from Mindware. Scramblitz comes in a tin box. The components (the tiles and puzzle cards) are of thick cardboard stock. The mats are made of glossy cardboard, thin enough to fold, sturdy enough to withstand years of hard-pressed play. Fun of excruciatingly major proportions.

Look Look (a.k.a. The Monstrously Speedy Seek and Spot Game) is what you might call a “seek and spot” game, or almost just as rightly, a “shape-matching” game, or even a “perception” game. It can demand, perhaps not monstrous, but often excruciating seeking/spotting speed. It is neither the first nor the only Major Fun award-winning game to require speedy spotting, but it is the first to stretch the mind in so many deliciously different ways.

There are eight frames, each with a different color border. There are also eight different, two-sided cards that fit in the aforementioned differently-color bordered frames. Each of these cards displays twelve different images on each side – nine of which feature silhouette-like depictions of strange, but clearly silly-looking monster-like creatures; the other three displaying a numeral, a symbol, or a muti-colored target.

There’s also a deck of 68 cards. The backs of the cards are marked with a single letter – that letter being either an L, O, or K. The front of the cards offer one of 6 different challenges. There’s your Question Mark card – a question mark surrounded by two frames, each of a different color. The challenge here is typical of most shape-matching games: to find the same shape on cards in two different frames. Then there are the Creature cards which demand that you find the one creature (in any frame) that is the exact match, the Symbol card which asks you to find the match to that abstract shape, and the Target card where you have to find the one bullseye-like target one the one card that shows a bullseye with the identical sequence of colors. Finally, there are Plus and Minus cards. Each is surrounded by frames of two different colors. Here you must find the number on each of the matching cards in the indicated frames, and be the first to announce the answer (the two numbers, either subtracted from or added to each other).

The first player to collect cards whose backs spell LOOK LOOK is the winner. Which means that you might actually win a particular challenge, but not the card that you need. Ah, luck. So comforting for some. So frustrating for others.

The variety of challenges adds a great deal to the fun of the game – not just unpredictability, but also engagement. To play the game well, you have to be more flexible, visually and intellectually. Not too much more flexible, but just enough to make the game a unique contribution to your collection of family games.

The frames are sturdy. The large board tiles are thick enough to withstand long bouts of repeated play, and fit well into their frames. Because the cards are two-sided, and placed into different frames each game, there is a welcome unpredictability. The cards in the playing deck are also large, but thinner, making them easier for the large-of-hand to shuffle.

Designed by Peggy Brown, and produced by MindWare, a company that has produced several many Major Fun award-winning games, and with Look, Look, yet one more.

You’d think that there’d be nothing more to say about Pajaggle, the already Keeper-award receiving puzzle game that has never left our living room. You’d think that the designers of Pajaggles would rest on their well-deserved Pajjagly laurels, and go on to make whole new games.

Well, what would you think if you learned that they have managed to make Pajaggle a better game than it already was?

How, you might wonder, is that possible?

By changing, subtly, but drastically, the design, not of the puzzle itself, but of the presentation.

Pajaggle, which formerly came to us in a lovely drawstring bag, now comes in a far more functional plastic box, the lid of which is the board for the game itself. And this lid/board is also different. The back of it is flexible – just flexible enough so that, should the need be dire enough, you can pop out any misplaced Pajaggle piece (a Pajiggle) without having to resort to using the new and improved Pajiggle piece-popping tool.

Being able to store the pieces and rules and timer and piece bag all in the remarkably functional box is part of the gift that this new Pajaggle presentation has to offer. It makes the award-winning puzzle/game it far more portable, because, instead of having to carefully place all the pieces on a drop cloth, you can keep the pieces in the box while you’re playing. Even when you’re not the only one playing. And with consummate ease, throw them back in the box when you’re finished.

Another minor change: the Pajaggle pieces now are outlined with raised ridges. They are also textured on one side. They are otherwise exactly the same as the original pieces. The ridges make the game easier for partially sighted people. The textured side invites people to play some of the two-set variations, using only one set.

We do recommend that you consider purchasing at least one additional set of pieces. There are more games to play. Extra sets are available for a most reasonable price. And there’s room enough in the box to house them with ease.

Chromino. Hmm, you might say to yourself. Chromino. Like domino, perhaps? That would explain the “…omino” part. Hmm again. Perhaps the “Chr” refers to, yes, chrome? Of course. Dominoes made out of chrome. That would be lovely, don’t you think? Possessing quantities of shininess and heft. But that would still be dominoes, just by another name and material. No, Chrominoes is more than that. Related, but significantly other. The “Chrom” is as in chromatic, you see. As in having color. Hence, far more visually appealing than dominoes. Yes, there are tiles. But each tile is composed of three, not two sections. And each section is a one of five different colors. And there are 75 of those. And another five, similarly three-sectioned tiles, the center of which is mysteriously yin-yangish – a special tile, known as the “chameleon,” whose center can be considered any color, or, should the circumstance manifest, two different colors, somehow simultaneously. And each Chromino is unique.

So you get all these colorful, three-sectioned tiles in this hefty, all cotton, flat-bottomed, drawstring bag. You fish around in the bag for a chameleon tile. Place that in the center of the table. Each player then draws eight tiles. The game commences. Players take turns trying to find one tile in their collection that can match two colors of tiles already on the table (as illustrated). Intriguingly, and often causing a moment of rapacious delight, it is possible to place a tile so that its end color matches a color on two different tiles, fulfilling the connect-to-two rule, yet with all the same color. Fascinatingly, and occasionally giving rise to a sense of aesthetic comeuppance, sometimes one of your tiles can bridge two different, hitherto completely unconnected tiles. And as the game progresses, more and more of these fascinating, colorful, eye-catching, mind-absorbing possibilities make themselves evident.

Chromino is easy to learn. But, as you play it, it fairly reeks of evermore enticing strategic implications – none of which is particularly threatening, but most often engagingly fascinating. Those chameleon tiles can sure come in handy, which means that you just might want to hold on to yours until that most excruciatingly strategic moment. And the way the tiles get clustered as the game evolves, enticing the eye and often befuddling the brain. And it all seems so innocent, so easy to understand, and yet offers so much to play with.

To win, all you need is to be the first player to run out of tiles. On your turn, if you don’t have a match, you must pick (which, as in dominoes, is antithetical to the “getting rid” part. If you can use your new tile, you can play. In one variation, you have to keep on picking until you have a match (o, the ever-increasing anguish). In another (one we made up), you can keep on playing until you run out of matches. There are more variations. O, yes, there are more. There’s one called “Bambino” (of special interest to the younger set) in which you only have to match one color. Then there’s the Expert version in which each Chromino has a value (depending on how many different colors it has), and you score each play by adding the value of the Chromino and the other Chromino(s) it touches. Then there’s the solitaire-like Conondrums variation, more of a puzzle, really, where you attempt to determine all the possible ways a particular Chromino can be correctly placed in the growing array. This, of course, gets more and more challenging as more tiles are added.

The variations, the ease of making up your own rules increase the replay value as well as the likelihood of finding a way to play that each player will find inviting, and suitably challenging.You can play it by yourself, you can play it with as many as eight people, you can play it with peers, with kids as young as six. You can play it with anyone who has a steady enough hand to place a tile without disrupting all the others (it’s better to play on a tablecloth than on a slippery surface).

There’s just enough luck so that you don’t really need to take the game seriously, and just enough strategic potential to make you believe you can win by virtue of sheer mental superiority. Designed by Louis Abraham, published by Asmodee, Chromino is fun for the whole family. Major Fun.

We have already greeted Rory’s Story Cubes with appreciation and enthusiasm. This elegantly designed Major Fun award-winning set of nine story-building dice has found happy welcome in classrooms and restaurants, libraries and living rooms. The evocative images on the faces of each die, the simple rules, the sturdy little box with the magnetic closure – all work so beautifully together to invite creativity and humor and the endless invention of new invitations to the imagination and new ways to play with it.

So it is with great interest and anticipation that we greeted the arrival of the Actions set of Rory’s amazing cubes. Same packaging. Same number of dice, but, instead of nouns, the illustrations suggest verbs. And, even if this is the only version of the Story Cubes you have, you’ll find the Actions set as stimulating and and inspiring as the original set. And, should you have both sets, you’ll soon discover that you can happily combine dice.

According to Rory:

One tip is to mix 3 Rory’s Story Cubes®: Actions with 6 Rory’s Story Cubes®. We find this to be a good combination for storytelling.

We find that some prefer the Actions for storytelling. Especially people exhibiting Autism. They can relate to the character it seems. Others don’t like the use of characters so much, as they find it hard to use images in other ways (unlike the more metaphoric icons on the original set). The Actions have been used on their own, and all 18 together, especially with larger groups (like in the classroom).

Quite a few teachers teaching ages 4-6 like to use just 3 dice of either set, to form simple sentences and stories.

What a fascinating invitation to explore not just story telling, but also story tellers. So much to play with. Such fun, as a way to spark your own imagination, as an exercise, a game, for children, families, creative thinkers of all ages and purposes. Thank you Rory. Thank you Gamewright.

Unlike the David Fincher movie of the same name, Seven! by the New Zealanders Julian Stewart and Jarn La Rooij is a peppy, witty, feel-good game that is a great way to kill time (unlike the rather gruesome killing throughout David Fincher’s movie). Julian and Jarn are going out on their own to produce and distribute their labor of love. It takes a lot of work and dedication to bring a game out of the circle of friends who can fit around your dining room table and offer it to the gaming masses—many of whom live on the other side of the world (in this case, quite literally). For that they have my respect.

But Major Fun is not here to traffic in respect!! We want the fun.

And Seven! impressed us by cracking open an old chestnut and making it fun. At it’s heart, Seven! is a variation of Go Fish! Yes, you read correctly. Go Fish: the joy of young children and the scourge of their parents. But Major Fun wouldn’t hang you out to dry on that line. Jarn and Julian have tweaked the inner workings a bit and the result is a game that provides a competitive test of a player’s memory as well as a bit of chaotic strategy.

There are seven suits. Each suit has seven cards. Players try to collect all seven cards of a suit in order to make a set. The player with the most sets at the end of the game is the winner. As I mentioned above, the Go Fish! mechanic drives much of the game. On your turn you may ask any other player if they have a SPECIFIC card. You may only ask for a card that fits one of the suits in your hand. In this way, your opponents will know what suits are present in your hand when it is their time to choose. If you choose successfully, you may ask again. If you ask for a card that your opponent does not have, you draw from the deck and your turn is over.

The memory and set collecting work very well but the game really comes alive because of the 17 special cards and 4 Jokers. 14 of the cards are beneficial to you. 3 hurt you. The Jokers allow you to refuse to answer someone’s question. The 3 cards that harm you must be played as soon as you receive them (either in the initial deal or when you draw at the end of your turn). The 14 beneficial cards may be played AT ANY TIME! Choosing the right time is a blast (especially when it wipes the I-know-what-you-have-and-I’m-going-to-take-it look off your opponent’s face). Beneficial cards allow you to do things like steal cards from other players or draw extra cards. The harmful cards make you read all your cards aloud or miss a turn or lose cards.

The illustrations are funny and the special cards increase the strategic choices for each player rather than just making the game more random. This isn’t just a wackier Go Fish! This is Seven! This is Major Fun!

3-5 players. Ages 7+  

by Julian Stewart and Jarn La Rooij. © 2010 Greenstone Games.