Games from Christmas/New Year's 2010

Another two-week Christmas vacation has come and gone, and now blogging begins anew at Snippets & Wisps. As I did last year, today I want to talk about the games we played over the extended time of family and relaxation. This year, I will divide the list into new games, ones we have played before, and console games.

[And, as a bonus, I have some photos of the people playing some of the games. Included is a photo of Paul smiling. See if you can spot it!]

{Paul smiles a lot during the annual NYE gaming days. It's nice when we can get a photo proving it!}

New to Us

Pirate's Cove - by Days of Wonder. Troy and Sarah actually got this game as a free bonus gift from Days of Wonder because they had purchased enough games from that company this year. It's for up to five players, and each of the players is a pirate, trying to gain more fame than each of the others by finding more treasure and winning more battles. It has an easy look, but is a bit more complicated than it appears. I'd play it again.

Funglish is a party game, and one of the hits of the year at our house. Pairs of people try to get others at the party to guess words, names or phrases by choosing from a set number of words. The first time we played, with six people, it was fun. The next time, with eleven, was three times as fun, and we had a riot. It's fun to see how easy it seemed to be to guess "jam" and yet "jelly" took much longer. How? Darned if we know, and we were there!

Harry Potter Clue gives a couple of Potter-esque twists to the old game. First of all, all the suspects are non-players, which removes one of the frustrating aspects of normal Clue, because a player is not dragged away from a room he or she had been working hard to get to. Second, players can, and do, "lose" the game before the end. Various random events cause players to lose "House Points" and when a player has none, they are out of the game and their Clue cards are revealed to everyone. It's how I won, because by the time I made my accusation, only one other player had any House Points left, so I had seen almost every card. Fun, but I don't think it's going to get very many re-plays, given the other options we have.

Farkle - I am amazed that this dice game, which is apparently based on a very common game known by many people, was completely unknown to me. It is a fun group game of risking, probability, and luck. Easy to explain and play. I think this is something we will play frequently with groups. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for the new fun.

Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries is a two-or-three-player version of Ticket to Ride. It removes "stations" from the game, making it much harder to assure that all of your routes can be completed. But the map is fun, and the addition of ferries is a nice change. Thanks, Sarah & Troy, for the gift! And for playing it with me.


Old Favorites

Skip-Bo is an old stand-by and must be played every New Year's Eve. Mike was not here to partner with Sherry, so Adam did, and they won handily. Simple, but fun.

Ticket to Ride Europe - We've been hooked on this game for a few years now, and the game doesn't get old, though experienced players have an advantage. Still, like the other "train games" we play, much of the fun is in the playing -- building tracks, accomplishing routes, working towards plans. For the record, Adam won this year without saving "the long route," which is a first, in our experience. He made up for it by completing the "long tunnel", despite not needing that tunnel for any route. Interesting and effective tactic. Also, for the record, Adam, Marisa and Sarah are all better at this game than I am. But I had fun.

Magic: the Gathering - A game of Emperor Magic, a game of Two-Headed Giant, and a few duels. That's all we got around to, but with so many other games that include the women, it's hard to devote time to this males-only (for us) game. But oh, so fun. Oh, and another "for the record": Troy beat me three out of four games at one point.

The Great Dalmuti - One of the games that is a tradition. New Year's Eve. It has to be played. It's not fair, but then again, life is not fair. And we all play for fun. This year, Marisa, Troy and Leah each got to The Big Chair. Huzzah!

Superworld - This is the traditional game of the holiday season, because we've been playing this Superhero Role Playing Game for over 20 years on or around New Year's Eve. Paul creates a scenario, putting someone or something in danger, or creating a mystery to be solved, and our heroes must take on the mission. This year, the group included Icebird, Foil, Solo, Toymaker, Phoebe, Phoenix (no, not that one) and Anastasia. Our heroes investigated the disappearance of some friendly operatives who had been sent to investigate an area the heroes left unexplored. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, only one was left alive to save, but we did it, and got out in time before some buried starships exploded. Oh, and we learned the backstory of three kinds of aliens we had been encountering over the years. It was fun! Thanks to Paul for creating the adventure, and to my fellow Heroes for the bravery and awesome displays of superpowers.

I blogged about Arkham Horror earlier this year. One evening was a "guys only" night (because the young women were off at a party) so seven of us took on the Lovecraftian game. It was new to a few of the people who played it, but we still played it in under four hours, and it never dragged. The game achieves quite a bit of "horror" flavor, and we had a great time with some of the rules from new expansions. And, initially, it looked like we might lose, so we did feel the danger.

Console Games

We now have two gaming consoles. The Nintendo Wii has been around for years, but I also got a Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) with gift money.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. This is the third time Sherry and I have played through this Wii game, but it had been two years since we did it last, so we didn't have detailed memories of everything. Our vague recollections helped us move more quickly through some of the quests, and we certainly had obstacles which took us much less time this time around. It still has been fun. We will likely finish it before she returns to school.

Boom Blox Bash Party. Another game I blogged about this past year. We broke it out again when Sarah & Troy were the only other people in the house. We played a variety of the game where two teams of two compete, Sherry & I against Sarah & Troy. It was a fun time, and it demonstrated the versatility of the game. Thanks again for it, Sherry.

X-Men Arcade game for PS3. For Christmas, Adam bought me a PS3 controller. I did not, at that time, own a PS3. It was a strong hint, and I took him up on it. One of the final deciding factors in my getting this game system was X-Men for PS3. You see, many years ago, when video game arcades were still prevalent, my friends (The Dudes) and I got hooked on the X-Men game. It allowed up to six players to cooperatively battle super-villains and their minions, plugging in quarters to revive our heroes after they were bashed to the floor. We frequented the mall and the Galleria for lunch in order to indulge our addiction to this quarter-eater. But, arcades ceased to be, and the game disappeared. Sherry had once investigated buying me the actual arcade game, pictured to the left, to place in our toy room. Well, we don't have to do that anymore. I can play Storm or Nightcrawler, the other Dudes can pick the other one, and Wolverine [aka "Targetboy"] and Colossus -- and if forced into it, Dazzler or (heaven forbid) Cyclops. The boys and I have already been through the game three or four times, but I am excited about the chance to have "The Dudes" join me again. Nordmoe! We need you!

So, once again, my vacation was replete with gaming. Aside from getting together with family and friends, it is the thing I look forward to most about the extended vacation time. Even more than sleep, which is evident in how many hours of sleep I traded for playing these games!

Dalmuti - Proof that Leah was The Great Dalmuti

Playing Arkham Horror

Playing Superworld

Foil got separated from the rest of the party