Convention Report: New York Toy Fair 2008 – February 18 (Part One)

By W. Eric Martin
February 18, 2008

The rain has cleared from the skies and streets, creating a nice cool environment for a walk to the Javits Center and a second day at NY Toy Fair. Unfortunately, I’m running late, so I have to take a cab instead, a cab that carries a television screen implanted in the back of the front seat, featuring something called “Taxi TV” – the purpose of which seems to be to keep riders occupied during slow traffic so as not to grow murderous. Mission accomplished!

Educational Insights
Blokus looms large in the EI catalog, thanks in part to the release of Giant Blokus, which is the familiar Blokus game but bigger. While intended as a giant demo game for retailers, Giant Blokus can be purchased by regular Joes.

Goofball Rally is a new two-player game for ages 5 and up. Each player randomly places ten colored marbles on his side of the playing area, then you reveal a color card that shows the ten markbles in some order. Players race to flick the marbles and have them roll down into a well in the proper order. Once you’re finished, hit the blocking button that keeps your opponent from playing anything else. If you lined the balls up correctly, you score, and the first player to a certain number of points wins. Very fast and noisy game play that should be a hit with kids.

Word Storm, a new word game for 2-8 players, has players start a round by drawing some random letter tiles. As soon as one player creates one or more words in crossword fashion with all the tiles, he calls “Word storm” and everyone grabs four more tiles. This continues until the tiles run out and one player uses up all his letters. Players score points on their words and are penalized by the letters they don’t play. Seems uninspiring as there’s no interaction among the players: no stealing, no playing off others. Maybe I’m missing something.

Educational Insights has expanded its puzzle line with four new titles from Belgian publisher Smart, each of which is somewhat similar to a title released in 2007: Control Tower (see North Pole Camouflage), Pirates Undercover (Safari Undercover), Maze Ways Mummy Mystery (Maze Ways Cat & Mouse), and Royal Rescue (Castle Logic).

Rumis, part of the EI line and originally published by Murmel, will become part of the Blokus line under the name Blokus 3D, but not until 2010. The game play will be similar, but the bits will be redesigned to match the look and feel of Blokus, with pieces locking into place as you play them so that they don’t slide around.

Gamewright
BGN doesn’t normally cover activity games that go beyond flicking your fingers, but Gamewright has a winner in Boochie, a Bocce/Horseshoes-style game. The package includes a ball, a hoop, and a plastic wristwatchy-looking scoring device in four different colors along with a large foam dodecahedron.

To start a round, you throw the dodecahedron, then players take turns throwing either their ball or their hoop toward the die until everything has been tossed. The player with the closest ball and hoop scores two points; the second closest of each scores one point; and the top die face has a special scoring element, such as the closest two hoops each score one point. Players record their scores on the wrist device, and each point total has a different playing requirement for future rounds. You might have to sing while throwing, or bowl your pieces, or throw them under one leg, or throw them while your forehead is on the ground. The scoring devices have forty different commands among them, and the first player to 11 points wins. An extremely fun game, even in the barren non-green environment of the Javits Center.

Among the other Gamewright titles are:

• On the Dot – an English version of Cocktail’s Vitrail, in which each player has a set of four plastic sheets with colored dots on them. You reveal a target card with the dots in some arrangement, and players race to arrange their sheets to match the target image. The winner claims the card, and the first player to a certain number of cards wins.

• Tiki Topple – a game for 2-4 players in which players each have a secret target card showing tiki heads in some order: say, blue first, green second, and yellow third. You randomly arrange nine tiki heads in a column, then players take turns each playing seven cards that rearrange the heads: move a head up 1-3 spaces, move a head to the bottom, or remove a head from play. Once the cards have been played, players reveal their cards and move their scoring figure ahead based on whether they met their targets: 9 points if you matched the first head, 5 points if the second head was first or second, and 2 points if the third head is anywhere from first to third. Reach a certain point total and you win.

• Go Nuts – a quick-playing push-your-luck die game for 2-4 players. Players take turns rolling dice that show cars, squirrels and acorns. Roll a car, and the die is out; roll an acorn, and you score a point; roll a squirrel and you can reroll the dice, adding more points to your current total; roll all squirrels, and you lose all points for that turn. You do have a second chance round if you bomb with you trying to roll acorns before any other player can roll a dog on their die.

  

• Captain Clueless – a Ted Cheatham design in which 4-8 players compete in two teams. One player is blindfolded and serves as captain – perhaps misuse of pain meds is involved with the logic of this decision – then that player’s teammates give him directions to reach a port in the Caribbean. The teammates can give only five words total for the first port, then four words for the second port, and three words for the third port. After that port, you race back to your home post with only two words for clues. If you hit land or say too many words, your turn ends and the other team starts sailing. The first team to sail home safely wins.

• Hang Four – start with a dog on the middle section of a surfboard and three sand dollars. On a turn, you (1) roll the die and collect more sand dollars or take a special action card, (2) buy new cards at the cost of three sand dollars each or (3) play down cards to complete surfboards. The first player to complete four surfboards complete with poochy riders wins.

• Pounce - an English version of a Roberto Fraga design called GoGoGo from Drei Magier Spiele with simultaneous blind bidding to place a cat in one of five rooms. After the bids are placed, the active player lets loose a dog in one room, which prohibits cats from entering. Player reveal their cards and race to slap the room pile that matches the cat they played. The first player to collect four rooms of the same type or four different rooms wins.

  

• King Toad – players try to empty their hands by playing cards in sequence 1-4, then starting over again. If you don’t have a card to play, you can throw down a King card instead and call for a specific number by sticking out your tongue 1-4 times. (You are King Toad, after all.) The other players race to play that card, then play starts in clockwise order again. Run out of cards, and you collect a toadken; collect a certain number of toadkens to win.

• Hula Hippos – an English version of Heinz Meister’s Maus nach Haus. Two to four players compete to get four of their six hippos into the hoop. Each round one player starts the hoop spinning, then players flick their hippos toward the hoop. Once the hoop finally drops, any hippos inside the hoop or trapped underneath are removed from the game. If you’re the first to get four in the hoop, you win. Completely simple, and totally delightful...

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More publishers later....

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Comments:

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Glad to see Maus nach Haus is getting an English version :) Posted by Tom Rosen on Feb 19, 2008 at 01:44 PM | #

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