Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

What Is It?
A travel version of Blokus -- winner of Dr. Toy’s Best Children’s Vacation Products 2003 -- the game is simple to play. Each player takes turns placing variously shaped pieces on the board, touching corners with at least one other piece of their own color. The goal is to cover as much of the board as possible, at the same time minimizing the area of a player´s remaining pieces. The player with the smaller area when no more moves are possible wins. Although four players can compete against each other with the full-sized game, the travel version is designed for two players.

What We Thought
It look literally 30 seconds to learn the rules of the game. It didn´t seem like a challenging game at first glance: After all, what is so difficult about putting shapes on a board? But as you play, you realize there are certain strategies to choosing and placing the pieces to block your opponent from putting down their pieces, or expanding your options to place your next piece. Each game took less than 10 minutes which is perfect for on-the-go. If needed, you can even save your board while jumping out for a quick fast-food break! The box is ingeniously designed in such way that you can pack up within a minute and get back on the road.

Why They’ll Want It
Travel Blockus is a game for all ages. Children and adults can develop different levels of playing strategy depending on their spatial planning capabilities. The best part is that the rules are simple! Players don´t have to read 15 pages of instructions to set up the game. The game is short and is perfect for quick breaks while traveling.

Educational Insight´s ToyDirectory Listing

-- Raywon Wang, 8/16/05

Back to top

What Is It?
There are four different color-coded kinds of cards that ask children to name items that share a common feature, such as all things with buttons or things that are shaped like a circle. Other times this open-ended game has kids make up stories or share their knowledge of a specific topic. There are no winners or losers.

What We Thought
This simple game is a fun conversation-starter and creates talkative children, aiding in building their vocabulary. Most adults will find this rudimentary game enjoyable only in the company of young kids as a way to bring them out of their shells. By far the biggest crowd-pleaser for any family is bound to be the “Clap out the names of different … Stores, Opposites, Insects, Meals” card. It’s a truly ingenious feat trying to guess what others are clapping. It would have been nice to have a few more abstract cards, like this one, thrown into the game. Also, it would be nice to see versions of NAMiTS in foreign languages, which would be useful for players of all ages.

Why They’ll Want It
This deck of brightly colored cards will occupy young minds on long road trips. The compact playing cards are looped on a plastic ring, guaranteeing that they won’t spill all over the car. The product encourages a creative mind and advances English skills. Players can make up their own rules if they decide to turn the game into a competition.

-- Vanessa VanderZanden, 8/16/05

Back to top

What Is It?
Using over 100 trivia questions relating to different geographical regions across the continental United States, this unique board game builds reading comprehension skills while educating kids about U.S. history and culture. The board game depicts a map of the United States with six differently colored regions that players move across using different colored plastic cars. Each of two to four players compete to answer reading comprehension questions, gaining game pieces shaped either like a mug, pennant, T-shirt, cap, or bumper sticker. The player that wins four game pieces and manages to make it back to his or her home region first, wins.

What We Thought
Used as an educational tool in schools or tutoring groups, this game will both entertain and captivate young minds. However, when used for family play, parents may need to act as readers rather than players due to the nature of the questions. Although the rules state that readers can join in on guessing answers to questions, the game is fairer when readers refrain from doing so. Also, because there are only two or three question cards per state, bonus packs may be required after a few rounds of play.

Why They’ll Want It
The game gets shaken up when players spin a tornado, which can allow them to take game pieces from winning players, leveling the field of play. The bright game board and game pieces are visually exciting and the icons on the game board are cleverly designed. Kids don’t have to wait until it’s their turn to shout out answers, keeping them enthralled throughout the game.

-- Vanessa VanderZanden, 8/16/05

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

What Is It?

Bella’s Mystery Deck is a set of 52 illustrated mystery cards, each telling the story of a different mystery that Bella and her dog Noche have solved. At the end of the story, kids can try and solve the mystery, but if they get stuck, the mirror card will decipher the answer written on the bottom of the card. Bella herself is a modern-day Nancy Drew with a Latina twist. Many of the mystery cards have a word or two in Spanish written into the text.

What We Thought

This is a great way to analytically challenge young minds with the art of mystery solving. The characters and dialogue are entertaining but the mysteries are concise enough for shorter attention spans.

Why They’ll Want It

Since Bella calls herself a “Chicana,” children of Latino decent may identify with her amusing anecdotes of the “barrio” more than other famous sleuths like Encyclopedia Brown or Nancy Drew.

--Rosette Gonzales

Back to top

What Is It?

Part of the “Farmyard Tales Games” series from Usborne Publishing, Alphabet Lotto is a kid-friendly educational game for up to 4 players, and specifically designed for youngsters ages 2-6. The game consists of four brightly colored Lotto boards with letters on one side and pictures on the other. There are 36 letter cards, one for each of the letters on the boards, as well as 36 picture cards. The cards offer games of varied difficulty according to the age and stage of each child.

What We Thought

Enhancing pre-reading skills such as word and picture matching, featuring colorful cards of farmyard animals, as well as contents that can be adapted to varied difficulties depending upon the children, Alphabet Lotto is a friendly, inviting, and intellectually stimulating game.

Why They’ll Want It

Kids will surely have fun and learn valuable pre-reading skills, such as word and picture matching, with Poppy and Sam and the animals from Farmyard Tales. Parent’s notes are included to offer insight in helping children learn that words and reading can be fun. Alphabet Lotto is recommended for homeschoolers, and is a welcome addition to preschool and kindergarten curriculum enrichment resource collections.

Back to top

What is It?
Wall Street Spin by Fun Spin (ToyDirectory) is a board game that lets you “play” the market without risk.  Mastery of complicated stock market jargon is not required to take a spin on this pretend version of Wall Street. Just as Monopoly taught people how astute property development creates revenue, Wall Street Spin gives players an entertaining introduction to smart investing.

What We Thought
The game is challenging, but easy to master, so families can enjoy playing it together. It bridges the generation gap, teaching kids how to value and invest money.

Why They’ll Want It
Kids will find the cool board and colorful pieces engaging. Plus, how fun would it be to acquire all of Dad’s hard-earned assets! Parents will love it because it teaches children valuable lessons about saving money. No more misspent allowances!

     
         --Karen Grafe

Back to top

What is It?
Teams of Enemies by Big Toe Games (ToyDirectory) is a trivia game where teams keep changing and, in the end, only one player wins. With each round, new captains and teams are picked to answer challenging questions about nine different categories, including movies, music, and sports.

What We Thought
Big Toe Games has a hit with this game that requires players to build bridges while getting ahead of the group. Another unique aspect of the game is that there isn´t just one trivia game but five separate games that probe players’ brains.

Why They´ll Want It
All the brain-bending questions combined with a dog-eat-dog scoring mentality makes the game not only a test of knowledge but also of strategy.

--Nancy Tan

Back to top

What is It?
Oops challenges players to build a pyramid shape with the wooden balls provided. Sounds easy, right? The tricky part is building the shape while keeping the identically colored pieces separated. Balls are joined in pairs and can only be stacked on the cherry-wood base in one specific order for successful completion. Good luck!

What We Thought
This is a brain-teaser that will promote problem-solving and logical reasoning skills in any player.

Why They´ll Want It
Players can solve the puzzle repeatedly, and once they are comfortable, they can advance to Oops Again, Channel Craft´s more challenging version of this puzzle.

--Nancy Tan

Back to top

What is It?
Players compete to identify the speakers of pop-culture quotes in five categories: “The Arts,” “Leaders,” “Sports,” “Pop Culture” and “Life and Literature.” Individual players or teams get three points for any quote they can identify without a clue; two points go to players who can tell the speaker with a one or two word hint; and players receive one point if they can choose the speaker from among three choices.

What We Thought
Powered by great quotes, speakers’ biographies and a competitive play format, Don’t Quote Me is a romp through pop culture history.

Why They’ll Want It
In a sound-bite era, Don’t Quote Me provides the perfect party-game fix for lovers of legendary repartee and wit.

--Jeremy Loudenback

Back to top

What is It?
Scramble Squares by b. dazzle (ToyDirectory, ToyShow) is a challenging puzzle that requires players to unscramble the nine square pieces into a perfectly matching picture. Sound easy? Try it and you may think otherwise. The puzzle comes educational facts about the puzzle´s subject matter.

What We Thought
This brainteaser takes puzzles to a new level. Scramble Squares is a great way to practice attention to detail and logical reasoning for people of all ages.

Why They´ll Want It
You can redo the puzzle again and again because you can´t memorize where each piece goes, making the game a new challenge every time.

--Nancy Tan

Back to top

What Is It?
Buzzword is a challenging brain twister that requires players to discern familiar catch phrases that utilize a given keyword. For example, for the buzzword "over," what kind of answers do you come up with? “Oversee.” “Overtime.” “Over-the-hill.” “Hand over fist.” It's not as easy as it looks -- especially with only 45 seconds to answer 10 clues and an opposing team waiting its turn to steal your points. The game comes with 400 sets of clues on 200 cards, 10 scoring cards, sand timer, scoreboard and marker.

What We Thought
This is a great activity for family game nights or get-togethers with friends. Team competition and time constraints make the game exciting, as well as a mental workout.

Why They’ll Want I
Buzzword is a combination of quick wit and synaptic firing that’s fun for the whole family.

-- Nancy Tan

Back to top

What Is It?
Ravensburger´s Penguin Pile-Up is a fun new twist to games such as Topple because, instead of colorful disks, the game uses the most loveable Antarctica animal: penguins! Players attempt to balance their penguins on the shifty iceberg without making any of them fall into the “icy water” below. The game comes with a game base, iceberg with flag, 24 penguins and game rules.

What We Thought
Penguin Pile-Up is a great game to play alone or as a group. It involves concentration and balance that would challenge even the most coordinated of adults. Penguin figurines do require assembly, but this is also an amusing activity to do with the entire family before play.

Why They´ll Want It
The stacking game is tons of fun, and it’s even better with penguins!

-- Nancy Tan

Back to top

What is It?
ShanJari is an African word meaning "line." It’s also the name of FUNaddicts strategy game that stretches the Tic-Tac-Toe concept into four-or five-in-a-row sequences requiring players to think critically about their next move. The game comes with 1 game board, 60 game pieces with bag, 2 sequence markers, 2 sequence cards and rule sheet.

What We Thought
The multi-player format makes ShanJari a great family game. With different levels, the game can become increasingly difficult as players learn to maneuver their pieces around the board to outwit their opponents.

Why They’ll Want It
World cultures are a hot topic these days and this game is a breath of fresh air from a far-away continent.

--Nancy Tan

Back to top

What is It?
The bustling bazaar is reimagined as a board game in Out of the Box’s Basari. As players haggle and barter with one another to earn gemstones, they accumulate points. After three rounds, the player with the most points gains victory.

What We Thought
Basari will turn your youngster into a seasoned wheeler-and-dealer faster than you can say, “Sold!” The game requires shrewd strategy skills and, most of all, a quick wit to weigh the best deal. Aimed at 3-4 players, the game is best played with a full cast so every player has ample opportunity to negotiate with a wide range of offers.

Why They’ll Want It
Constant banter and negotiating makes sure every player is in on the fun. And, at only 30 to 45 minutes, Basari is a game you won’t have to wait hours to finish.

--Jeremy Loudenback

Back to top

What is It?
Polygon by Jax Ltd., Inc (ToyDirectory) is a strategy board game that requires players to create scoring number combinations through laying down numbered tiles. The game comes with a play board, 49 polygon tiles, die, game instructions and score sheets.

What We Thought
This is a complicated game that expands players’ ability to think ahead and critically look at the board for optimal moves. It is also a fun activity for families to play together.

Why They’ll Want It
Polygon offers mathematically inclined players a chance to outwit their opponents.

--Nancy Tan

Back to top

What is It?
Infinity Feng Shui Fortune Telling Game by Empress3 Publishing (ToyDirectory) deals with the ancient Chinese study of the relationships between humanity and the earth´s environment. In this kit, players learn to sharpen their intuition and psychic ability to predict the answers to questions and wishes. It also gives them a chance to explore spirituality and maximize their life force (called "chi"). The game comes with a gameboard, five dice, a compass and instructional cards.

What We Thought
This game simplifies the practice of Feng Shui as a fun game that is sure to amaze partygoers with its accuracy. People of all ages can appreciate the Feng Shui philosophy and learn from its long tradition.

Why They’ll Want It
Interest in Feng Shui continues to grow in North America. This game offers laypeople a fun way to learn more about this rich Chinese tradition.

--Nancy Tan

Back to top

In Dread Pirate, Front Porch Classics’ newest release for the 2003 Holiday season, players move cast-metal playing pieces, roll knuckle bones (dice), vie for doubloons and jewels and move around on an aged map as they savor the pirate’s life.

After opening up a wooden chest and unfurling a detailed treasure map, players are launched into the wonderfully imaginative world of marauding outlaws and hidden booty.

Dread Pirate comes housed in an authentic wooden treasure chest, and with its characteristic dedication to pre-electronic gaming experience, Front Porch leaves no stone uncovered in creating an authentic and wondrous playing experience for younger players as well as their parents.

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top

Back to top