Game Rating:*****

Game Review: I had never played this game as a child, but was introduced to it as an adult, and became almost instantly addicted to it. It's endlessly fun, because no two games are ever the same, and one's fortunes can change in a heartbeat! So it's exciting and fast-paced up to the end. And it's also good for children, because it's challenging enough to keep them occupied, without being overly rule-bound. A true family classic that has stood the test of time!

Game Rating: This nicely packaged and designed Ravensburger "game in a box" is a nice little addition to one's game collection, and could easily be played on the go due to its small footprint. Players roll the dice to decide how many water pieces they will be forced to add to the raging river. If your pieces push treasure over the falls, the player BEFORE you gets those treasure chests, not you! Hopefully other players return the favor and you are able to get a few treasure chests yourself. I liked how easy it was to set up and learn to play this game, and the fact that it all fits into one small box. I can see how the number of small pieces might be a deterrent to using this as a restaurant "game on the go" but in general it's a nice little game. Best of all, it's quick to learn, set up, and play, so it's great for kids with a short attention span!

Game Review:

Game Rating: ****

Game Review: I refer to this game as "Clue Lite". You've got the classic Clue characters, and a mystery you are trying to solve by collecting clues, but the game is not as convoluted and involved as the original Clue game. In this version, there are 50 unique mysteries which are introduced to players with a 2-3 paragraph summary. Then you set each of the cardboard houses which represents the different suspects to the appropriate number on its clue dial, and roll the dice to move around the gameboard and collect clues. The clues will remind you of "Guess Who". ---they allow you to eliminate suspects by mentioning things like hair color, whether someone is wearing glasses or a hat or not, etc. In this way, the game is more straightforward than the original Clue and may be easier for younger players. However, you must have an adult or older child availbale to do the reading, so the age range of 8 and up is probably about right. We enjoyed this game because it was shorter than the original Clue and much simpler. I think the 50 different mysteries will last us a good long time, although of course at some point you will have played all the games and basically "used up" the game.

Game Rating:*****

Game Review: We were introduced to this game by another couple who liked to play board games in the evenings after dinner. I guess this is really a children's game, but due to the changeability of one's fortunes on the game board, and possible strategic moves, it really works well for adults too. I tried the game out with my children today, and found to my delight that once they got the hang of it, they really liked it. Basically the labyrinth cards are laid out on the boards, and every other row can be "moved" by pushing the one extra card onto the row on one side or the other. This changes the path of the "labyrinth" and hopefully allows you to move to where the item shown on your treasure card is located. Of course, you may have your path and your plan all laid out in your mind, only to find that someone else's moves totally mess you up by the time your turn rolls around again! Now that I've seen how much my children enjoyed the game, as well as how quickly we got set up and going on it (the rules are well-written and easy to understand!), I know we will be playing it over and over again. Apparently there is also a "junior" version of this game available, although we have not played it.

Game Rating:***

Game Review: Ok, up front, let's get the whole "malfunctioning DVD" thing out in the open. Maybe it's just our dvd player, but it seems to be almost a given that with any of the seemingly endless line of new DVD games, at some point in the game, your dvd player is going to freeze up or malfunction in some other irritating way, and you will lose your game and be forced to shut it down and start over. It's incredibly frustrating and makes you never want to play the game again, but let's put that aside for now and assume this game is playing correctly on your dvd player (it didn't on ours, but we got to see enough to make a reasonable review). The game itself is BORING. The questions are outrageously too easy for the adults, and at least for my kids, too difficult, even though they are supposedly divided up into things kids would know, and then things adults would know. I think the main difficulty with this game is that if you keep answering questions correctly, you just keep going, and because the questions were so easy, we adults pretty much "ran the board" and before the kids knew it, they were out of golden jellybeans and the game was over. In addition, the whole game is run by the remote control -- have your kids ever even USED a dvd remote before? It can be fairly confusing, and given the level of difficulty of the questions in this game (or lack thereof), I can only recommend this game for younger children (and adults who are willing to answer questions incorrectly on purpose to give the kids a fighting chance), and I really don't see them being able to operate the remote. On the timed questions, this could be a problem. I don't even want to think about how the kids on a given "team" might fight over the remote. Hoo-boy. Don't waste your ten bucks on this game; it's boring and frustrating.

Game Rating: ****

Game Review: Monkey Mission is another thoughtful and well-engineering board game from the folks at Ravensburger, and this one's a winner. The game is designed for players ages 7 and up, but I think even younger children (barring the choking hazard on the small pieces) could play this once they get the hang of the game, since reading isn't really required (except in the initial reading of the instructions). Basically you travel the board and try to open the chambers to retrieve monkeys. When getting ready to turn the "lock" on a chamber, you say in advance how many times you will turn the wheel -- one, two, or three. If you open the wheel in the correct number of turns (or less), you get to take a monkey from the chamber and place it on your commission card. You get more gold if you can do it in fewer turns, and an extra piece of gold if the color matches the monkey on the card. For a little more interest, each player is given 4 "fortune bars" at the beginning of the game which can be used to help his odds of being successful at the game in several ways. What I like about this game is that while it is primarily a game of luck, there is an element of strategy, and in addition, the look of the game is just great. I love that it's three-dimensional, and is played in the box. All of the pieces store neatly in the box as well; like I said, so thoughtful, as one would expect from Ravensburger. A very nice game.

Game Rating:**

Game Review: It's pretty amazing that someone could take something as wonderful, enchanting, and exciting as the "Chronicles of Narnia" and turn it into such a deathly dull game. We did not even make it through one complete game of this Milton Bradley board game. While the board, cards, and character tokens are well-made and designed, nothing can make up for a poorly planned and paced board game that bores everyone involved. In this game, you roll 2 out of 3 dice on every turn -- the first dice moves the White Witch or the Wolves, and then you choose whether to roll the numbered dice to move, or Aslan's dice to collect "Aslan tokens" which can help you in the game. After about 15 minutes of play, we all found ourselves barely moving on the board, hardly even making it to the first "Event Space". And the Event Spaces all you to draw...GASP...a card which tell you to roll the dice again for either a positive or negative outcome. There is just nothing particularly imaginative or interesting about this game. Even big fans of Narnia like our family may find this one too dull to play more than once (if even that). Maybe worth a purchase for a Narnia collector, but other than that, I can't imagine this game getting much playtime at anyone's house.

Game Rating:*****

Game Review: You just can't go wrong with any game that includes the fabulous Popomatic dice in the gameboard. Actually I am sure there is a patent on that amazing invention, because I think Trouble is the only game that actually has it. And as a parent who has chased dice across the floor (and fished them out of the dog's mouth more than once), I do appreciate the Popomatic feature! This is just a wonderful, simple, fun game. Move your pieces around the board and try to get them into "home base" before your opponents do. You can send your opponents' pieces back to their home base by landing on them, although of course, turnabout is fair play, and you may find yourself back in homebase just when you were about to get all the way around the board. You simply can't go wrong with this game, and for the price, it's definitely cheap entertainment.

Game Rating:****

Game Review: When we first started reading through the instructions for this game, we were all a little confused. But like so many card games we've encountered, this one works best if you just start playing it -- all the rules and nuances of the game seem to reveal themselves best when you are "hands-on" and actually going through the motions of playing. This pirate-themed card game actually turned out to be a much better game than we anticipated originally. Basically every player is given a hand of 6 cards from which to play -- on each turn, you can either draw another card from the draw pile, or play one of your cards. You can play a merchant ship and hope no other pirates capture it -- or set your sights on one of your opponent's merchant ships. I like the simplicity of the card deck -- you just have merchant ships, pirate ships, pirates, and one admiral. The value of the cards is determined by the number of gold coins (on merchant ships) or number of skull-and-crossbones (pirate ships). Pirate captains add value to pirate ships, and the admiral can trump everything else to save your merchant ship from defeat. This game moved quickly once we got going, and the rules began to make sense. We did have to consult the instructions a couple of times for clarifications, but that was a minor inconvenience. The graphics on the cards are colorful and fun, and most adults and kids will enjoy the whole pirate theme, which is so popular right now due to "Pirates of the Caribbean". I recommend this card game for the whole family, and can even see younger children being able to play it, as long as they are able to count up to 10 so they can count the gold coins and skulls on the ship cards. A grown-up may be needed to read and clarify the rules of the game initially, but after that, children could play on their own.

Game Rating:*****

Game Review: An enjoyable, challenging, and yet simple game. Choose one of the 40 challenge cards, set the vehicles onto the gameboard as shown, and then attempt to slide the pieces (you can't pick them up!) to create a clear path for you to extricate your little red car from the traffic jam! It's harder than it sounds! Thankfully the cards come in a variety of difficulty levels, so there is something for everyone here. You can challenge a friend or family member, or just play solo, making this game even more versatile. Or time yourself -- how fast can you find a solution? Maybe another family member can beat your best time, or maybe not! This game can help with mathematical and spatial abilities, and is apparently even used in some elementary school classrooms. It's also a sturdy, well-made game; the cards store conveniently in a drawer beneath the sturdy plastic base, and a drawstring bag is included to hold the plastic vehicles. Highly recommended, and also good as a "To-Go" game.