Dotzee is a coffeetable-worthy strategy game for 2-6 players. Sixteen large, colorful dice with serious heft nestled into a wooden tray – ah, and again ah. Lovely to look at. Fondle-beckoning. And a genuinely absorbing, easy-to-learn thinking game with just enough luck so that if you lose you don’t have to blame it on yourself.

One side of each die is blank. At the beginning of the game, all dice are placed blank-side-up. On your turn, you take any die that is on the outside of the array, roll it, and slide it back into the tray. Removing the die creates a blank space. Putting the die back in, you push a row or column of dice, closing the blank space, much like you do in a sliding-block puzzle. This is almost fun enough in itself. Especially if you’re younger than 5.

As players take turns picking, rolling, sliding and placing dice, from time to time they may just happen to notice that a row or column of dice are aligned in such a way as to be: all the same number (four of a kind), two pairs, all the same color (a flush), or a sequence of 4 numbers (a straight). Each and all scoreworthy events. And, from time to happy time, it may even happen that more than one row and column are simultaneously aligned.

That particular fun of pushing cubes around could, and the sheer elegance of the design could very well remind you of the Major Fun Award-winning game Quixo. Which explains a small part of why this game is as much fun as it is. But only a part.

And so the game goes, players taking turns, racking up points, and engaging in much self-congratulatory dialog. Sometimes one fails to notice that the dice are favorably aligned and scores less than one might score had one in deed noticed before the next player started her turn. Hence, one could think that the promptness with which said player began her turn was somewhat strategically motivated.

You could play more cooperatively, should you be so bent. You could help each other figure out the score. Or, as illustrated above, you could be, shall we say, a tad competitive. Or, if you don’t like keeping score because you’re just that kind of person, you could decide that whoever scores the highest on a single move wins. Or, well, that’s the point: Dotzee is such a simple game to learn, so elegantly designed, that you can tune it so that it becomes just the kind of game that the people you are playing with want most to play.

Designed by Mark Fuchs, available from Maranda Enterprises, as much fun for an eight year old as someone as old as your local Major. Dotzee is just the kind of game we call Major Fun.

A while back we lauded Ravensburger and games-designer-extraordinaire Reiner Knizia for adapting the mechanics of Tetris from the digital laptop to the analog table-top with their game Fits. Each round of Fits had a different challenge based on the card you were playing.

The follow-up game, Bits, uses similar Tetris mechanics but offers up a much wider array of challenges. The end result is a game that is challenging, surprising, and even more elegant than Fits.

Each player receives the following: a game board (a 6×6 grid of squares), a board holder called a ramp, 20 game tiles (colored), and a neutral tile (grey). There are also 5 stating tiles that players use to start each round. Each tile is rectangular and divided into two squares. Each square (besides the grey ones on the neutral tile) can be orange, blue, purple, yellow, or black. As you play on your game board, these tiles start to form patterns of color that you will recognize from Tetris and other block puzzle games.

Games consist of 3 rounds. At the start of each round, players blindly draw a starting tile and place it at the bottom of their board. What tile the players can use next is decided by a deck of 20 cards. These are shuffled and revealed one at a time to show players what tile must be used. When you play a tile you must be able to slide it into place from the top of the board (like when a Tetris piece descends) but it must come down without rotating or sliding left or right. If you do not want to use a tile that is revealed by the deck, you may use your gray neutral tile in its place.

Scoring changes from round to round. In a normal game, there are 3 scoring decks called task cards. Each deck of task cards is shuffled and the top card revealed at the beginning of each round. The task cards tell you what shapes will score points and what shapes will result in lost points. This method makes each round unique and unpredictable. It also means you have a lot of strategic choices to make as you place your tiles.

Although it seems like you need to keep track of a lot of cards and tiles, the game is largely intuitive and you learn most everything you need to know in the first round of play. Illustrated instructions show you how to move the tiles and how to score. The difficulty of this game is not generated by the cards and rules but rather by the challenge of fitting your pieces into a tighter and tighter space while keeping your eyes open for good and bad combinations of blocks.

There is no clock so the game invites planning and analysis, but we found that the pressure of knowing that others were ready to move on really motivated the slower players (like yours truly). The pace remained brisk. A single player can also have a rewarding experience in a game of solitaire. Ravensburger provides a score range for those who want to move up an accomplishment ladder by themselves.

The design is colorful and elegant. The puzzles are challenging. The action is intense. The rewards are great. There is fun to be had with Bits. Major Fun.

For 1-4 players, ages 8+

Bits designed by Reiner Knizia. © 2011 by Ravensburger Spielverlag GmbH.

Craniatics is a set of 10, stunningly graphic logic puzzles. The pieces are die-cut into magnetic strips, and punching them out provides its own sensual satisfaction. Because of the magnetic backs, all the puzzles (and, yes, games) can be played on the open lid of the box. Each of the five, two-sided boards is attached by magnetic discs to the lid. The lid is kept from falling back by two ribbons, giving a quaint feel to the whole set, like that of an old writing desk. The magnetic pieces slide easily around on the board, adding nicely to the efficiency and elegance of the puzzle experience.

Some of the puzzles are extremely challenging, others, only slightly less extreme. The instructions for each puzzle are printed on the corresponding board, the clarity and easy availability of the instructions again adding to the pleasure and sense of completeness of the experience. The puzzles themselves exercise both mind and eye; the eye, thanks to the the visual appeal of the strong colors and shading of the puzzle pieces, being at least as intrigued as the mind.

There are three logic games. Two of them have solitaire versions. All of them give you the opportunity to share the wonders of your Craniatic collection (without having to lose possession).

If you are intending this purchase for a child (8 years and up), you should be sure that the intended child is one who appreciates the subtle joys of keeping cherished things organized and neat. That’s all we’re saying.

There is a solutions booklet. We highly recommend that you give the booklet to a friend or close family member whom you can grill mercilessly, and will be able to dispence with the subtlest of clues while maintaining the stoic detachment necessary to give you every opportunity to arrive at the solutions yourself. On the other hand, said clue-provider should be able to maintain a loose enough hold on the booklet should there come the inevitable time when you will need to take possession.

One suggestion: there are a lot of pieces to punch out. You might strongly consider availing yourself of nine small baggies (baggies not included) to store each set separately. Ultimately you will find their crinkly presence only adding further to the sensual appeal of the entire Craniatic experience.

Though it is suitable for some select children, equally select adults will find Craniatics an entertaining and cherished possession – perfect for extended bed-rest and long, quiet periods on your favorite rocking chair.

Craniatics comes to us from FatBrain Toys. All the puzzles were designed by Ivan Moscovich.

Enjoy.

Space It is a numbers game. It’s also a tile game. Ninety-six tiles, to be exact, six of which are “Jokers” (wild), the rest numbers (three sets, each in a different color background, from 1 to 30). These all go into a drawstring bag. Each of up to 5 players draws 12 tiles from the said drawstring bag and spends the rest of the game trying to get rid of them.

The game, of course, is in what you have to do to get rid of your tiles. And therein lies the fun.

You make sequences out of your tiles – the longer the sequences the better. A sequence is a row of tiles in which the value between each tile is equal. 1, 3, 5  for example, or 3, 9, 12 for another. A sequence must be composed of at least three tiles, and can be placed horizontally or vertically. Further, you can continue add on to anyone else’s sequence. And even further than that, you can place tiles between the tiles in someone’s sequence, as long as the rule about equal value between tiles is kept. So if someone had an array like 2, 6, 10, you could add a 4 and 8 so that it became 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.

Think about it for a minute. Or maybe five minutes. So there you are, with a random collection of numbers, trying to figure out the best sequence you can make. There’s a lot of figuring. A lot of possibilities to work through. And then, since you can add on to other players’ sequences, even more options to consider. And since you can use those Jokers, and even, if you have the right number, use Jokers that are already played, and if the tiles you use are of all three colors you can make the other players add a tile to their collection…well, there’s a lot of thinking to be done, thinking of a fun kind.

You might want to use a timer though, with all that thinking going on, especially if there are five players. And you might even be tempted to change a rule or two about how many tiles you have to have in a sequence, or what kind of sequence (prime numbers maybe? any odd number as long as it’s more than the one before and less than the one after? Fibonnaci anyone?), or how many tiles everyone gets to start, or just taking a bunch of tiles out of the bag and seeing who can come up with the longest sequence – all of which demonstrates what a solid game this is, one that can remain just as solid even after you start playing with its rules.

Well-made, with nice thick cardboard tiles, and a useful drawstring bag and colorful cardboard stands you can use to hide the tiles you have yet to play. Designed by Martin Nedergaard Anderson, with artwork by Brian Kolodziejski, Space It is Major Fun for people who like to play with numbers and friends and family, even.

The Major Fun Keeper award-winning Qwirkle is now available in a handy travel-size carry-everywhere version. Everything we loved about the original game is still the same. Even the tiles are still made of wood. They’re smaller (3/4-inch), but stand just as easily, and the smaller size makes it the game something you can play on a restaurant table or the empty seat of a nearby chair.

The zipper case is very attractive. And the travel version sells for $10 less than the original.

Life is good.

Humans love their stories. Especially those that feature animals. As soon as someone recognizes something vaguely human in the way an animal behaves, you can bet that story will make its way into our collective unconscious in much the same way that beach sand always makes its way into our collective sandwiches.

A few animals, the ones that have a lot in common with their human cousins, get a lot of stories: monkeys, dogs, cats, wolves, pigs, crows, horses, mice. Some get only a few passing words. The lemming has one story but it is a doozy.

I won’t be the one to go all Mythbusters on the story (you can find that here). Instead, I’m going to warmly embrace the over-the-top, absurd twists supplied by Mayfair’s Lemming Mafia.

So everyone “knows” that lemmings jump off cliffs. And everyone “knows” that mafiosos love to gamble. Add some dice and you have Lemming Mafia!

The game consists of a board with a twisting linear track (start to finish), a regular die, 2 “Lemming” dice, 36 betting cards, 18 mission cards, and 6 lemming figurines. Each lemming is color coded and these colors are used on each side of the lemming dice. At its most basic, the game consists of rolling the 3 dice and moving one of the lemmings (shown on the 2 lemming dice) a number of spaces equal to the number on the regular die. As the lemmings move toward the finish line at the end of a pier, the players bet on the finish order. Points are scored after one lemming leaps off the pier. Successful bets score points. Most points win.

Of course it’s more complicated than that. Each space on the track can help or hurt the lemmings as they race toward the end of the pier. When players roll the dice they have to decide which lemmings will help the bets they have made. The betting cards are used to predict the finish order of the lemmings. The mission cards give players special conditions that must be met to win points (for example: “Green finishes before Red”). If you want Green to finish before Red, you will move Red so that it lands are spaces that hurt the lemmings—maybe give Red some concrete boots—and you will move Green to spaces that will zip it toward the finish line. Needless to say, your opponents have different ideas for the lemmings. Despite all the choices and complications that emerge from the betting process, the game is very intuitive and the rules are clearly illustrated.

Silly? Yeah. Major Fun? Are you kidding? Lemmings! In fedoras. Jumping off a pier. And there is no saving the lemmings. Only betting on their watery demise. So limber up your best wise guy voice and get yourself fitted for concrete galoshes.

For 3 – 6 players, ages 8+

Lemming Mafia game design by Michael Rienick. Art and graphics by Joscha Sauer. © 2010 by Joscha Sauer and distributed by Mayfair Games, Inc.

In the quest to get from point A to Point B, the individual must contend with two transformations: the wanderer must move and the path will change. In many board games, this second truth is neglected in favor of wanderer’s transformation. The board remains static and players manipulate the pieces in order to reach some final destination.

Mine Shift by MindWare deftly utilizes both transformations to create a game that is strategic, easy to learn, and fun. Very fun. Major Fun.

But a little difficult to describe.

You and your opponent have 4 colored gems (red and blue). The object is to move the four gems from your home tile to your opponent’s home tile. In addition to the 2 home tiles, the game board consists of 8 tiles arranged in a square (imagine a 3×3 grid with the middle tile missing). Each tile is divided into 4 spaces and most tiles contain at least one wall. Walls can block edges of the tile or divide the spaces from each other.

On your turn, you take a total of three actions. You may do any combination of the following: move a gem one space, rotate a tile 90 degrees, or slide a tile into an empty space. Gems cannot move through walls so rotating and moving tiles is often the best way to get your pieces into position. Or mess with your opponent. And as I have said in many other reviews, messing with your opponent is always fun.

The game rules are wonderfully illustrated. In the time it took you to read this review you would have already been well into your first game. There are 27 tiles, each with slightly different wall configurations so each game is different. MindWare also suggests adding more tiles to the starting grid—yet another way in which the path can change.

I would love to see a version for more than 2 players, but as it stands, Mine Shift is a clever, engaging, and surprising strategy game. Excellent pieces, clear rules, and Major Fun.

For 2 players, ages 8+

Mine Shift game design by John A. Forte. © 2011 by MindWare.

In keeping with the clean and minimal nature of this beautifully balanced bidding game, I will review Gryphon Games’ Yin Yang with a Major Fun koan:

A gamer came to Major Fun and asked, “I have a deck of cards, numbered one to fifty, and many tokens: some white and some black. All players are dealt nine cards. How shall I keep score?”

Major Fun replied, “Mu.”

“Of course,” the enlightened gamer replied. “The player closest to zero shall win. A player with many chips cannot win.”

“Mu,” stated Major Fun.

“I see,” said the gamer. “Gathering pieces is OK because white tokens and black tokens negate each other. A player may collect tokens and still approach zero. Thank you Major Fun.”

But Major Fun shook his head and gave the gamer ten cards. On each card was a white number and a black number. The gamer smiled and bowed low to Major Fun for he was enlightened.

Mumon’s comment: It is only fitting that the highest card played would receive the white number of tokens. The lowest card played must receive the black number of tokens. In this way are the tokens dispersed each round and the No-one declared the winner.

In turn, each player lays down a card
so that the high card takes the white tokens
low card takes the black tokens
white and black cancel each other

Leftenant Fun says: Yin Yang’s simple rules, shifting strategies, and attractive packaging make this one of the best card games on game-store shelves. The mechanic that allows white points and black points to cancel each other out creates dramatic shifts over the course of 9 hands, and each hand is important. This is a huge game packed into a handy little tin.

For 3-5 players, ages 9+

Yin Yang game design Reiner Knizia. © 2011 by Gryphon Games.

All apologies (and deep respect) to those who ponder the zen of The Gateless Gate.

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.

Hexover by Maranda Enterprises is a great entry into the field of 2-player abstract strategy games. Take a familiar and robust game mechanic (Othello-style capture by surrounding), add a little twist, and bundle it all up with well-crafted, attractive game pieces and PRESTO you have yourself an engaging strategy game. It’s a crowded field but Hexover stands out with interesting innovation and excellent aesthetic design.

Like Othello, Hexover uses double sided chits as game markers. Each player attempts to make a row of five of their color by placing one piece and then flipping over the opponent’s color. The novelty of this game derives from the board which is composed of hexagons (instead of a square grid) of two different colors. Winning lines must be made on the white tiles. The red tiles may be used to flip over opposing pieces but those pieces on the red tiles do not count toward a run of five.

Games are quick as players move to consolidate their position around the long white corridors that radiate out from the middle. Because the game mechanics are so familiar and engaging, players can move very quickly from the moment the box is opened to the time they slap their heads at how fast one move can change the entire game. And for those who are perhaps not familiar with the Othello rules for placing and capturing pieces, Hexover provides very clear and intuitive rules.

As with another Major Fun award-winning game from Maranda Enterprises, Pathagon, it is worth emphasizing the impressive material quality of the game. The board has real heft and the playing surface is covered with a soft, leathery material that prevents the pieces from sliding around. The double-sided playing pieces are similarly weighty with a stone-like feel. All in all, Hexover is a game you would feel good about leaving out on the living room table or in the study.

It looks good. It feels good. It plays good.

It’s major fun!!

2 players. Ages 10+

Hexover by Mark Fuchs. © 2011 Maranda Enterprises.