DISAPPEARING GAMES A QUANDARY
Eventually, even some of the best games disappear. But before the public has heard about the game? Quandary was marketed by Milton Bradley as a specialty item, only in specialty stores like The Game Keeper. (Maybe exclusively there.) You knew this was a special property because the production values were very high, and the instruction sheet read, “Invented by Dr. Reiner Knizia.” When was the last time you saw an inventor’s name on a Bradley game in the U.S.? The game is simply great. Simple and clever. I thought this was going to be Bradley’s test game–the one where they let it build slowly by word of mouth until it becomes so popular it demands shelf space in Toys R Us. Word of mouth HAS been great–but only in the small circle of game players who find out about these things. No one else knew anything about Quandary. And so the game is gone. Hopefully, Reiner can found another source of production and distribution.
PAIRED UP WITH FINISH LINES
Games For All Reasons™ ( I like that name!) is a small, independent company that overcame the odds with the success of its first game, Finish Lines, in 1996. The parlor game, in which teams have to come up with the second half of popular lines or phrases, won its share of awards and listings, such as making the Games 100 list. Now the company has a pair of party products, with the recent release of Paired Up. This is a simple game that works for all ages. While one partner is using descriptive phrases in an attempt to get the other partner to utter a famous pair or an expression consisting of words bridged by “and,” other players get caught up trying to figure it out as well, careful not to blurt out their solution. For example, “an early comedy team with bowler hats” may be the clue given to prompt the response, “Laurel & Hardy,” or “black and white condiments on the table” could be used to elicit the correct “salt & pepper.” This is a game you can play time and again, in sickness and in health.
Finish Lines and Paired Up, and Games For All Reasons™, grew out of the imagination of Joan Moravick, a full time investment banker. Visit the website at www.game-board.com.
DRAGON DELTA
Euro Game’s new Dragon Delta by Roberto Fraga, is a Twixt-style game in which players try to build a bridge from their home base to a base across the board. The main differences are: 1) first you have to place the stones on which the bridge can be built; 2) then you have to move your own playing piece across the bridges; 3) players can remove bridge segments, provided it’s a segment size they don’t already own. There are other ways to foul up opponents’ moves, and ways to defend such actions taken against yourself, leaving you with attempting to develop a strategy that employs the right balance of offense and defense. Players are required to lay down in advance the five cards that will indicate their sequence of moves. The game is very simple–in fact, at first it may seem too simple; it also may strike one as being less than engrossing, and awkward in the way moves are taken. Give it an chance–this one grows on you, and the end game far outweighs the opening game. Though listed as two to six players, the game is best (I’m guessing) for three or four (we played it three-handed).
