Gamey

I am not a playful person. I can be goofey, and I love me some sarcasm and punnery, but I really don't even know how to play. But board games? I can do games. It has to be good, though. I refuse to buy dumb games. (I won't mention any!) I love Charades, I love that drawing game and I love me some Scrabble. Until Boo is old enough for Scrabble, I'm on the lookout for a good, clever game. My friend introduced us to Sorry and we have played that until the board is ready to fall apart. Oh, and if Boo innocently wants to play a game with you, DO NOT, and I repeat: DO NOT go easy on him because he's a little kid. He'll eat you up! He plays by the "take no prisoner" rule.

Imagine my joy at finding Blokus! I was browsing the toy store shelves, you know, on my feet, in real time, when the geometric design of the cover caught my eye. You know, my being an architect an' all. It's pretty steep at $29.99, but I was intrigued enough to take the chance.

I love this game. HH loves this game. Boo loves this game. I can play at a very basic level with just Boo. Add HH and it takes on a whole 'nother dimension! Very easy rules, but the tactician in you will clearly be challenged! Everone has 21 modular pieces. You must start at the very corner. As you take your turn, you can only touch one corner of your own piece. That's it!

You must offensively stake out your own territory, while defensively blocking your opponents' access to their own corners. It reminds me of a combination of the game Go, or Baduk ("checkers") as it is known in Korea (BTW, the ubiquitous dogs' name in Korea is Baduk!) combined with Tangoes. It is terrific at making you (or your child) think tactically, imagine the fit of the geometric shapes and may be better than I Spy at making you really look! At the end of the game, the board may look something like this:

The person with the least number of squares left wins! Simple, sturdy, clever, intelligent, FUN!

Did I say I love this game?

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