On a recent rainy day, we received a mystery box from Clever Kids Mysteries – the Mystery at the Lux Museum. Opening the box, the kids were immediately interested in what this mystery might be, and how they could solve it!
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Have you always wanted to be an architect? Try your hand at creating towers to fit in tight spaces in Tokyo Jutaku, a speed building game from Jordan Draper Games.
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Kings of Israel is a cooperative game for 2-4 players. You and your fellow prophets band together to preach to the nation, destroy idols, gather resources, and build altars to the Most High God. Along the way you will courageously hold back the tide of sin as you race to build enough altars to save the people and avoid ultimate destruction.
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In Junk Orbit, players take on the role of salvage ship captains scouring the galaxy for space junk and delivering it to any city that will take it. Eject unwanted junk from airlocks to propel yourself around the cosmos. Simple astrophysics for profit!
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We have loved Tiny Towns since the moment we laid eyes on it. The simple mechanics of the game left us to wonder how it was possible a game like this hadn’t already existed. Place wooden cubes in configurations to collapse into a building – so simple, our 4-year-old can play, but a surprising amount of depth and strategy as well.
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An alien ship has crash-landed in the forest outside of town. Agents have been tracking the craft and rush to the scene, hoping to dissect the Visitor and seize its craft. But a local Kid has also ridden her bike out to the wreck to save the Visitor. Who will make it through the ship’s force field first?
If you’re up for an unusual deduction game with asymmetric roles that accommodate many skill levels, we highly recommend Visitor in Blackwood Grove.
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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a skyscraper! Build the tallest and best buildings in Supertall, a micro game designed by Nat Levan and published by Button Shy Games.
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In ShutterBug from Mike Elliott and Calliope Games, play the role of a freelance photographer, traveling the country to find mythical creatures and snap pictures of them. Pursue tips and hope you can get high quality pictures – complete your assignment and some side jobs and become a world-renowned photographer!
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Playing Castle Panic (a fantastic game) with my 4-year-old felt more like giving instructions to an unwilling robot. He wasn’t enjoying himself, and I wasn’t enjoying him not enjoying himself. Would My First Castle Panic be different?
My First Castle Panic is a cooperative tower (castle) defense game for 1-4 players ages 4+ that plays in just 20 minutes. Team up and protect the castle from monsters coming to knock it down! Throw the monsters in jail and save the castle!
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Fluff, from Bananagrams, is actually the two-hundred-year-old game Liar’s Dice, with adorable but shady looking critters and clever dice cups. Claire tells you why we like it.
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In Shikoku, you learn that coming in first isn’t always the best. We try to tackle this game with rules that are easy to learn, but hard to explain, in about 8 minutes of audio.
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Get the MacGuffin from Looney Labs is a fast-playing game of player elimination. It’s silly and incredibly quick, even at the maximum of 11 players. Can we find the MacGuffin or were we disappointed?
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We’d recommend Poetry Slam to any hep cat. It’s fun for strategy gamers as well as fans of more casual word games.
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Be a pretty princess and save yourself with sweet spells in Sparkle Kitty, a silly word game from Breaking Games. Hear our thoughts in 5 minutes with this audio review.
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The Champion of the Wild is a voting and negotiation game for 3-8 players. Coach your animal(s) to victory in a series of competitive events. Listen to our thoughts in about 5 minutes.
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It is up to you to find the most Scarab relics! From the desert to the rain forest, from the Bermuda Triangle to Antarctica, these golden beetles are scattered across the world. Set up camps and mark Excavation Areas. Can you find the most Scarabs and uncover the mystery of Scarabya?
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In this group game, predict and out-think your opponents’ choices. Discard all but one of your ingredients and win. Listen to our wizards’ impressions in 5 minutes.
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Sheer adventure awaits you in Calliope Games’ Dicey Peaks, by Scott Almes. Up to six players assault the summit of a Himalayan mountain. Listed for ages 8 and up, we found that even kids as young as 5 can join in on the expedition, making this a good option for a wide range of ages. Strap on your crampons, brave adventurer, and read on.
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Welcome to the exciting world of bug collecting! Snatch bugs off the rug to add to your collection, but watch out for the bugs you don’t catch – they’ll fly onto the wall and do tricky things.
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Drop It was designed by Bernhard Lach & Uwe Rapp and published by KOSMOS. It feels a bit like Connect 4 played with tangram shapes, if your object was to make as few lines as possible. Hear our impressions of this strategic dexterity game in about 6 minutes, or read on for more.
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