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.