The Family Gamers

2 Button Shy Games: Cow, Tiger, Santa Claus & In Vino Morte

April 2, 2018 Updated: July 11th, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

Button Shy is a micro-publisher dealing exclusively in micro-games. All of their games are small enough to fit in a wallet. Although some of these games are quite involved despite the small number of cards, we’ll be looking at two of their lightest games: a travel game and a fast deduction party game. Cow, Tiger, Santa Claus As a child,

Top Trumps: War Without Politics

March 19, 2018 Updated: August 20th, 2018 Anitra Smith Reviews

Sometimes, you just want a simple game to pass the time. It’s even better if you can learn a little bit while you’re playing. For decades, Top Trumps has been doing its part to fill this need in the UK, but after being acquired by Winning Moves, they are now available in the US. With hundreds of different decks, did

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Anitra, battle, Card Game, card games, educational games, War, Winning Moves

4 Ways to Help A Sore Loser

March 1, 2018 Updated: May 22nd, 2018 Anitra Smith Resources for Parents

We’ve all had that friend. The one who bellyaches about how poorly he’s doing in a game. In adults, this behavior can be amusing, and even if it’s not, we can choose to exclude a sore loser from our gaming circle. But what about our kids? Learning to put up with disappointment is part of growing up.

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Anitra, family, Family Gaming, losing, sportsmanship, winning

Ancestree: Fiddling with Families for Family Fun

February 12, 2018 Updated: August 7th, 2023 Anitra Smith Reviews

“My family is better than yours!” That’s the premise behind Ancestree, created by Eric Lang and published by Calliope Games. Draft tiles and build a dynasty worth commemorating! Or will your lineage be merely mediocre?

Match Madness: Parallel Puzzling for All Ages

February 5, 2018 Updated: August 7th, 2023 Anitra Smith Reviews

Playing puzzle games with children can be frustrating. If it’s mildly challenging for me, it may be impossible for my 7-year-old; but if it’s the right level for him, it’s far too easy for me. I don’t want to hold back: I want to beat my children fair and square. What to do? Match Madness gives us a possible solution.

OK Play (Cinco Linko): Play Anywhere with Anyone

January 29, 2018 Updated: February 2nd, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

The rules are so simple and intuitive, even a toddler can understand them. In fact, since the game is easy enough for toddlers to understand, this makes it a great game to play with them. You can slowly introduce them to strategy, and the materials are resilient enough to handle whatever it is that makes their hands sticky all the time.

Flip City: Urban Planning Upside Down

January 15, 2018 Updated: April 19th, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

As a city planner, you naturally want to make the most beautiful and crowd-pleasing city. But watch out! Other players may offload their problems to your beautiful city, even as you upgrade your buildings to become more useful. Will you flip for Flip City, or is it more of a flop?

Loot: Piratical Plundering Cards

January 8, 2018 Updated: January 6th, 2023 Ray Kelley Reviews

Arr, mateys! We be pirates, sailing the high seas in search of Loot. We play cards to capture or defend merchant ships. Loot is one of the earliest games from designer Reiner Knizia. It’s been available in the United States since 2005 from publisher GameWright, but the newest version has updated artwork and comes in a metal tin.

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2 players, 3 players, 4 players, 5 players, Anitra, card games, Gamewright, pirates, Ray, Reiner Knizia

Super Beat Sports: We’ve Got the Beat

January 2, 2018 Updated: February 24th, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

A rare video-game review! Harmonix is known for rhythm-and-music video games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. We love every game they have made (we regularly rave about Amplitude), so when they announced their new game for Switch, Super Beat Sports, we were intrigued. Sports in a music game? How could that work?

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Anitra, Harmonix, music, Nintendo, rhythm, sports, Video Games

BLANK: A Game That Teaches Game Design

December 12, 2017 Updated: February 19th, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

BLANK is basically a starter pack for the interested designer; it provides a template to create rules and effects to make the game your own.

Seikatsu: Beautiful from any Perspective

November 27, 2017 Updated: March 7th, 2023 Anitra Smith Reviews

Birds and flowers and fish, oh my! This beautiful abstract game has players work together to make a beautiful garden. But will the garden be most pleasing from your perspective, or will your opponents have a better view?

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2 players, 3 players, abstract, animals, Anitra, birds, flowers, IDW, isaac shalev, Tabletop Games, tile laying

Macroscope: Hidden Picture Prediction

November 6, 2017 Updated: April 6th, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

Remove windows from the Macroscope and be the first to guess the picture correctly. Did Macroscope reveal hidden depths, or was it out of focus?

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2 players, 3 players, 4 players, 5 players, 6 players, Anitra, guessing, Mayday Games, Tabletop

BOO: A Petite Phantasmal Puzzler

October 23, 2017 Updated: September 7th, 2018 Anitra Smith Reviews

Did you know that ghosts can scare each other? Neither did I until I played BOO, a compact game for two players from Perplext. Did this ghostly game grip us, or were we perplexed by this petite phantasmal puzzler?

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2 players, Anitra, card games, ghost, halloween, Microgames, Perplext, spooky

Dairyman: Milking It

October 2, 2017 Updated: December 28th, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

In Dairyman, you are a dairy farmer, competing with your fellow farmers to see who can produce the most milk. Make cheese and ice cream along the way, and don’t let it spoil! Do we think Dairyman is a gouda game, or is it all jacked up? Read on to see if it hits a rocky road, or if it is the cream of the crop!

Problem Picnic: Attack of the Ants

September 4, 2017 Updated: April 14th, 2018 Anitra Smith Reviews

Ants are invading the picnic! In Problem Picnic: Attack of the Ants, you control the ants. Send them out from your anthill to retrieve the most food. Will your ants emerge victorious, or will they get squashed?

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Anitra, dexterity games, dice, food, insects, Kids Table Board Gaming

Number Ninjas: The Ancient Art of Arithmetic

August 28, 2017 Updated: October 17th, 2024 Anitra Smith Reviews

Add, subtract, and multiply your way to victory with Number Ninjas, a Dicecapades® educational game from Haywire Group. You and your fellow players are ninjas, competing to collect four quest items and race to the Golden Dragon.

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Anitra, dice, educational games, Haywire Group, math, ninja

Silly Street: Silly Fun for All Ages

August 21, 2017 Updated: April 16th, 2022 Anitra Smith Reviews

Every person who takes care of children knows the importance of play. But sometimes young kids need to be encouraged to stretch their imaginations. Sometimes their grownups need permission to be silly and simply have fun. Have you howled like a wolf today? Maybe you should!

Toasted or Roasted: A Marshmallow Victory?

August 10, 2017 Updated: May 9th, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

Nothing says family fun like marshmallows on a campfire. Can you toast your marshmallows to a beautiful golden brown, or will your opponents cause you to roast them, leaving you with nothing but a blackened crisp?

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Anitra, camping, card games, Education Outdoors, food, jeff johnston, set collection

S’mores: The Card Game – Delicious or Stale?

August 3, 2017 Updated: December 6th, 2020 Anitra Smith Reviews

A s’more traditionally consists of two graham crackers, one marshmallow, and one piece of chocolate. S’mores: The Card Game tries to re-create the fun of assembling a s’more in a card game. Can you craft a s’more from your cards before the deck runs out?

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Anitra, camping, card games, Education Outdoors, food

Potion Explosion: A Magical Concoction!

July 24, 2017 Updated: September 19th, 2022 Anitra Smith Hall of Fame Reviews, Reviews

Whizz! Clack! At first glance, Potion Explosion looks like just a gimmick – a board game adaptation of digital match-3 games like Bejeweled. Pull out marbles, make matches. But there is so much more to this delightful game!

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