Say Anything Family Game

I recently received Say Anything Family game to review for Northstar Games.

Say Anything Family was just released for 2011. I have never played the previous version that did not have "Family" attached, but I can only imagine that the questions in this version have been adjusted so that they are more appropriate for kids.

Say Anything Family is a game for anyone ages 8 and up. It is a game for 3-6 players, and more can play by breaking off into teams. The game comes with:
• six Answer Boards and six little dry erase markers;
• a "Select-o-Matic 6000";
• 2 Player Tokens per person (12 total);
• a Score Board;
• a stack of Question Cards with 6 questions to choose from on each card (a total of 360 questions);
• a sheet with directions and a sheet with information about other Northstar Games.

It takes about 2 minutes to learn to play, and about 20 minutes to play (the box says 30 minutes, but that wasn't my experience).  To play the game, each player receives an Answer Board, a dry erase marker, and 2 Player Tokens, all color coordinated. A Score Keeper is selected, and the Score Board is placed where the Score Keeper can easily tally the score each round.

The youngest player gets to go first. The Select-o-Matic 6000 is given to this player, with a question card, and he/she picks a question to read. Each person puts an answer on their Answer Board. The Answer Boards are all put into the center of the table. The person who read the question picks the answer he or she likes best by turning the arrow on the Select-o-Matic 6000 to the color code for the Answer Board of that answer and placing the Select-o-Matic 6000 face down on the table. [In the beginning it is easy to mistake the Select-o-Matic 6000 for a spinner, but it does not spin that way and is not intended to be used as a spinner.] Then each player uses Player Tokens to guess which answer the question asker chose. In this photo, the sample question was, "In my opinion, ...If I could have any middle name, what would it be." So the guesses need to be made based on what the players think the question asker would like to have as a middle name.

At this spot, the Select-o-Matic had not been used yet, and it should have been upside-down.

The question asker then turns over the Select-o-Matic 6000 so everyone can see how they did, and the scores are tallied. One point goes to the person who wrote the answer that the question asker liked best, and one point goes to each person who had a Player Token on that Answer Board. The score for each player is added to the Score Board.

The next question is read by the person to the left of the previous question asker, so the Select-o-Matic 6000 is also passed to that person. The game is over when each person has asked a question twice, and the winner is the one with the highest score. In the event of a tie, the younger player is the winner.

My son has said several times now, "I really like this game!" This surprised me a little bit because my own personal opinion was a little less favorable. Maybe I have just been in a contrary mood when I have played, I don't know, but when I get the question cards I have had difficulty deciding on a question that I really cared about. And I have had difficulty having an opinion on the questions. For example, here are some of the questions that I just didn't even care about:
In my opinion...
• What's my biggest pet peeve? (Do I have a biggest pet peeve?)
• What's the best video game ever? (Do I even have any idea?)
• What would be the coolest thing to do with a $100 million lottery jackpot? (Like you would only do one thing with all that money?)

So, I was probably being ornery. Here are some other sample questions that are fun:
In my opinion...
• What's the best toy of all time?
• What's the most important invention of all time?
• Which TV show prop would be the coolest to own? (I definitely said the Tardis!)

So overall this game has been a hit in our family. Here are things about it that I liked:
• It's fun to have a game that you write on/wipe off with a napkin;
• It's quick and easy to learn; quick and easy to play;
• This game is so easy to play that my son can easily take it out on his own and play it with his friends. (We own some games that I never want him to play without an adult present.)
• This game is in depth enough that it can interest players of all ages.
• I like the neat make-up of the box for storing the game in.

Things I didn't like:
• Well, like I already said, I didn't like all of the questions so well. If I were going to change anything, I would probably do the questions differently. I think basically I probably prefer factual questions to opinion questions, so the problem is probably with me, not the game.

I would generally recommend this game to anyone as a good family game. I like for families to play games together, so I would recommend this to most families to add to their game selection.

Say Anything Family is available from Amazon.com for $13.85 (and Super-Saver Shipping is available). It would make a great Christmas gift.

The makers of Say Anything Family, Northstar Games, also makes the original Say Anything game,  Wits & Wagers Family, and the original Wits & Wagers game (less suitable for young children).

Disclosure: I received a free Say Anything Family game in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no other compensation (other than the game), and this page contains my honest opinions.

This has been a TOS Homeschool Crew Review.

To read more reviews of this product, visit the TOG Crew Review page for this product.

Throw me a bone! Leave me a comment! I love comments!

Wits and Wagers

Wits and Wagers Family is a group game made by North Star Games.

I had the privilege to review a game by North Star Games, called Wits and Wagers Family Game. What a delightful, refreshing game! Very quick and easy to learn; very quick and easy to play!

Here are the specifics about this game:
• Wits and Wagers Family is a game for ages 8+.
• It can be played by 3-10 players, making teams if you have more than 5.
• It only takes about 2 minutes to learn how to play.
• It only takes about 20 minutes to play each game.

The game comes with 10 little "meeples" -- I generally explain them to new players as "Me-peoples". There are two sizes -- one counts as 1 point if it is on the correct answer, and one counts as 2 points. The box also contains a score card, five "guess" boards, with a sixth similar board that has a "1" on it, and six dry-erase markers.

Basically, there is a box full of questions -- question on the top side of the card, answer on the bottom. One person takes "scorekeeper" responsibility. The youngest person reads the first question, and each turn thereafter the questions will be passed to the person to the left. When the question has been read, each person guesses the answer, which will always be a number, and writes guess on "guess board", and turns it face down. When all are done guessing, the boards are flipped and put in ascending order from the "1" board. Then, with all the guesses showing, people decide which answer is correct by putting their meeples on the boards. You can put both on one board or split them up. Then the answer is read. The board with the closest answer (that doesn't go over) is the winning answer. The person who guessed it gets 1 point for that, and then any little meeples on the board score one point, any big meeples on the winning "guess" board get two points. First person to score 15 points on the score card wins.

Good points:
• Easy to learn;
• Easy to play;
• Good solid construction
• Cool little dry erase markers;
• Meeples are fun!

What I would change:
• I think it should be marked for 2-10 players. I didn't open it for a long time because it said 3-10 players, and there were so seldom more people than my son and I when game time arrived;
• It would be nice if they include 5 little ...sponges or erasers... for the dry erase boards. We were wiping the marker off with our fingers and finally I decided to rip up a paper napkin so we each had something to erase with.

What I might do with this game in the future:
• Okay, only one bullet here. I thought this up, that this would be a cool way to practice, review, cement in our heads information that I want learned. I figured this out when a question came up: "What Year was Paul Revere's famous ride?" My son and I knew this because we have been listening to Johnny Tremaine and because we had just studied Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride." The poem goes this way:

Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
On the 18th of April, in '75, barely a man is still alive who remembers that
fateful day and year...

So I began brainstorming -- we could create 3"x5" cards and make our own review questions, as the years go by, and one day we'll have a great set of supplemental trivia cards, many of which will work better for us. I haven't read all the questions, so frankly I don't know but that these questions might also be in the set that came with the game, but I was thinking questions like:
• How many bones are in the body?
• How many countries are there in Africa?
• How many stomachs does a cow have?
• How fast can the fastest land animal run?
• How many teeth does an adult mouth naturally have (without extractions)?
• How many books are there in the Bible? (Old Testament? New Testament?)

I'm already thinking this will be a great way to make review fun! And, using your own question cards, you could make questions for the youngest players as well, so that children as young as 4 or 5 could play. The card could have several questions per card, with one of the questions being for kids 4-8 years old.

The first time we played this game, my 11 year old JD said, "I like this game!" And since then, he has been asking to play it again and again!

The makers of Wits & Wagers Family, North Star Games, also makes the original Wits & Wagers game (less suitable for young children), the original Say Anything game, and Say Anything Family game. Wits & Wagers Family is available from Amazon.com for $15.23, and Super Saver Shipping is available.

Disclosure: I received a free Wits & Wagers Family game in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no other compensation (other than the game), and this page contains my honest opinions.

This has been a TOS Homeschool Crew Review. To read more reviews of this product, visit the TOG Crew Review page for this product.

Throw me a bone! Leave me a comment! I love comments!

Scruble Cube

Have you heard about Scruble Cube? It's like a cross between Scrabble and Rubik's Cube.

This a word game in a cube, with parts that move on six planes, making in necessary to focus on many levels to create words.

The creators of Scruble Cube, RSV Productions, cooperating with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, sent select reviewers the Scruble Cube to use, play with, enjoy (or hate), and review. I was happy to be selected because I was intrigued by this device. (I received a free Scruble Cube to review; I did not receive any other form of compensation for my review. I try to make all my reviews balanced, reporting the good, as well as the bad impressions I have with any product.)

Since Scruble Cube is similar to Rubik's Cube, I need to tell you right now I was never very good at the latter. The said cube, by the way, had only 9 faces on each plane of the cube. Scruble has 16 squares per plain.

The Scruble Cube comes protected in a sizeable package -- one meant more for display than for storage.

I imagine eventually I will find some sort of box that is something like 6"x6"x4" to store this in. The Scruble Cube comes with a sand "egg timer", a pad for keeping score, and hidden in the box is a set of directions (that I was wondering about for ages, and finally found). The directions are very helpful! :)

Now here's something to make you think... The cube comes with a timer. That means at times you will be racing the timer, trying to figure out your word before the sand runs out. The bottom of the package comes with a warning: "NOTICE: The 4x4x4 SCRUBLE Cube has many moving parts and is not intended for high speed manipulation. Please align all rows before moving them and NEVER force pieces into place while twisting and turning. RSV Productions, Inc. cannot be responsible for damage caused by improper use." If the user needs to be careful not to manipulate rapidly, then I suggest they do not package it with a timer!... I know part of the idea is to limit the time when people are taking turns, but I still think it should go...

So there are many ways to play this cube. There are ways to play with up to four people. It is also easy enough to play alone! For this reason, in my opinion this cube makes an excellent gift to... for instance... a public school teacher. A teacher can find hours of mind-challenging fun just playing it her(him)self, but it can also be pulled out to engage the students at times. I think, though, that it takes a certain age of student, or at the very least a certain type of student, to enjoy the cube.

For example, I am a word-game-player, descended from a long line of word-game-players, originating from the long cold snow-covered winters of a family wheat farm out in the middle of no where, in the northern plains of North Dakota. This is an area where, similar to The Long Winter, snows fall to depths of over 6'. All that to say that I play and am good at these traditional word games, and it has conditioned my family to avoid word games since they seldom beat my scores. So, no matter how I have prodded, I have been unable to interest anyone in my home in playing this game.

So, since I was interested in seeing how others would react to it, I took the cube with me when I went to a meeting. I figured that since we usually sat around for a few minutes before they began, I would pull it out and see if I could interest anyone in trying it out. So, I pulled the cube out and offered it to another meeting attendee. He looked at the cube, looked at me, one eyebrow lifted, and he said, "I'm not very good at puzzles." That was it. He wouldn't touch it. ::sigh::

Anyway...
In addition to many ways that Scruble Cube can be played, there are many ways that it can be used as a supplement to your Language Arts program. It can be beneficial to your child's spelling. It can contribute to their critical thinking skills.

RSV Productions has provided all sorts of supplemental links that can be beneficial and helpful for you and your homeschool. Here are some educational ideas:
Math and Language activities, creating words using a dictionary and adding score (3rd-6th grade);
this one looks real fun, like a scavenger hunt - Scrabble Worksheet (3rd-6th);
Scruble make a sentence (3rd-5th);
Scruble Vowel Math (3rd-5th);
Scruble Word Logic (3rd-8th); and
Scruble Periodic Table fun (5th-10th).

Scruble Cube is available from RSV Productions, Inc. for $24.95. RSV Productions also makes another intriguing game called Jishaku, which I'd also like to check out some time!

You can read more reviews of the Scruble Cube on the TOS Crew Blog.

Eco-Friendly Portable Tri-Cross, by Games for Competitors

There is a new game on the market that is a cross between Checkers, Chess, and Stratego.

I started my adventure with the Tri-Cross Eco-Friendly board game when our family was away in the mountains for a church retreat. It was the first time I had even looked at the directions, and my noble college-aged daughter agreed to try to play it with me.

We opened it up, set it up, and tried to figure out what we were supposed to do from the printed instructions.

We failed. We put it away to try again later.

I was remembering, in the back of my brain, that I had received a CD/DVD in the package with the game. I decided I needed to find that, when I got home, and see what new insight I could glean from it.

It was a DVD, and it was very helpful. [Turns out, the same videos are also available on the Games for Competitors website. After watching it, I still had some questions in my head, but I understood the game a bit more and wanted to try it with someone.

Basically there are three different ways you can play the game:
- Start with all the pieces face-up, showing each piece's value and strength. (See picture above.)
- start with all the pieces face-down, and remember where you put your pieces, but your opponent doesn't know which piece is which until two opponents' pieces get positioned where they must each be revealed, and the stronger piece then jumps. (To play this way you draw a color out of the bag to determine who goes first, then you take turns placing your six pieces on any available space in any starting zone.)
- start the game where the opponent puts your pieces on the board face down and you put your opponent's pieces on the board face down, and again pieces have to be revealed when they are positioned a certain way. (To play this way, after you determine who goes first, each person takes turns placing the other player's pieces face-down on available spaces in any of the four start-zones.)

So, I sought out my son to play the first version (above) of game with me (also known as the easy, face-up version). This time we played the boxed version.

He won the first game, and when we were setting up for the next game he already had the required positions for set-up memorized. (Amazing, these young minds. I still don't have the set-up positions memorized.)

Second game, I won. And by the third game, my son was saying he doesn't like the game. Frankly I don't think he has given the game an adequate chance, and I hope I can get him interested in it again sometime in the future.

My daughter was too busy with her new college semester to play again, so I was looking for another opportunity. Then my really smart brother came over to dinner. I knew this could be good! So I told him about the game, and he was willing to give it a try.

My brother has an amazing brain! It's one of those steel trap minds. He read through the instructions, and we began playing using the face-up method. I won a few, he won a few, and then he was willing to try the face-down version.

At this point I was at a total disadvantage. You need to understand my mind to get this completely: for me, once my pieces were upside-down, almost immediately their face-value would disappear from my brain. At best, I could remember that, like "one of these two is the six, and of these is the tri-cross", but I couldn't remember which was which, so I lost games to him because of this. He'd challenge what I thought was my six with his six, but it would actually be my tri-cross, and I'd lose it because a six jumps a tri-cross.

Anyway, this game has a lot of depth to it, and I think it is an excellent addition to any home's selection of strategy games. Tri-cross is different from checkers because: 1) when you "can" jump, you "must" jump; 2) jumps are horizontal or vertical, not diagonal; and, 3) when you jump it does not count as your turn. Because of that second rule, my brother and I were hard pressed in our efforts to remember whose turn it was. I'd move a piece, and then he would have to jump me, and then I'd have to jump him, and then he'd have to jump me, and then it was his "turn" to move a piece. It would get very confusing, but that's mostly because it's so different than chess and checkers.

Tri-Cross is not like chess because all pieces move in the same way: horizontally or vertically, one space at a time, and again, jumping does not count as a move.

Tri-Cross is won in one of two ways: either you jump all of your opponent's pieces and remove them from the board, or you occupy the Tri-Cross square in the center of the board for four consecutive turns.

Tri-Cross can be played by 2-4 players, and can be enjoyed by players aged 8 through adult. I have only played with two players so far. The eco-friendly version comes in a little canvas bag, and has a heavy-duty canvas board that folds up to fit in the bag.

Tri-cross received the Mom's Choice Award in 2010

as well as the Dr. Toy Best Green Product award for 2010.

Tri-cross is a game that was originally invented in the 1980's by a dad, Glenn Burns, who wanted to invent a game to challenge and engage his three sons. This would be a game that would force them to make connections in deep parts of their brains, create strategies, look ahead and see in their minds what outcomes would result from different moves. The game was a success with the Burns' boys, so Dad made 100 more copies of the game and made an effort to develop market interest in the game; but he was not successful, so he let it drop. The game then sat collecting dust for decades. The sons went on to college, grew into adults. And one day they were reminiscing about the game and got the idea to work together with dad to make another effort to market the game. And they have done a great job of creating a very professional-looking game that stands to be a big hit. I wish them all the best with the fabulous product.

The name of the company that makes Tri-Cross is Games for Competitors (GFP). The Standard version of the game (cardboard board and in a box) sells for $24.95. The Eco-Friendly Portable Tri-Cross sells for $19.95. They also sell a Tri-Cross Wood Edition for $34.95. In addition, they sell Tri-Cross T-Shirts for kids and adults for $12. To purchase, go to their website and click on "Buy Now" (to purchase over the internet), or go to Games for Competitors and click on "Store Locations" to find a location in your state.

To contact GFP, write to GFC Georgia LLC (Games For Competitors)

3069 McCall Drive, Suite 1
Atlanta, GA 30340

or reach them by telephone:
Phone: 770-452-7987
Fax: 770-452-8138


or reach them by email: info@gamesforcompetitors.com

I received a free set of the Tri-Cross Eco-Friendly Portable game, as well as a standard version boxed set of Tri-Cross, in exchange for my review of the product. I think this is a great game for developing logical thinking in kids, and it is so versatile that it would be a hit with home school families, co-ops, school classrooms, youth groups, ...you name it. The biggest obstacle is that it takes a bit to learn the game (it's not as easy to learn as Checkers), but the website tutorial really does a great job to help people learn the game. I did find that I tired of the game after a bit, but that may have been because I was at such a disadvantage playing against my brother. I felt like he fried my brain. He played several games, trying to figure out my strategy before he realized I didn't have a strategy.... :P I had much more fun today when, in order to take photographs, I played against myself! :D

I think I like this game, but I think I want to pick my opponents carefully, because playing against my brother made me feel stupid... ;-)

Any questions? You can ask me, but you might understand the game better by watching the tutorials on the company website!

To read more reviews about the Eco-Friendly Version of Tri-Cross, go to the TOS Crew Blog.

Nature Nuts

We are in Week 2 of our school year, and we are slowly ramping up to speed.

One of my goals this year has been to make school more fun. My son has/had developed a mindset of hating school, and I don't want it to be that way. I had been thinking about how I could change what I was doing to help my son enjoy the process. And then I was given the opportunity to try out an educational game called Nature Nuts. Initially I had some doubts about if the game would be "too young" for us, since it was marked for ages 8+, but I now know it is probably way over my head. Read on to learn more.

Let's just say my son is wise to my scheme, and he greeted the new game with less than enthusiasm, but grudgingly played a game with me once I informed him that I required it of him. The game started off a bit rocky, with each of us missing the answer to question after question, but by the end of the game my son was enjoying the fact that he was getting a significant number of answers correct, and I was not. He won the game.

I won't whine long about how the game conspired against me. Some questions wording threw me: "Since snakes have no teeth, how do they eat?" I answered, "They unhinge their jaws." My son snickered and read, "They swallow their prey whole." Then there was the question that came up that I got wrong, that two turns later repeated itself in the deck for my son, who now knew the answer and joyfully added points to his score.

Anyway, I am really enjoying supplementing our science course by playing this game throughout the week. And my so is, too, although he might not admit it if you ask him.

Nature Nuts was created by a company called Griddley Games, and is part of a series of games called Wise Alec Family Trivia Game. Nature Nuts can be used as an expansion to the Wise Alec game, or it can be used alone as a trivia game.

It contains a die with colored dots on the six faces, and four stacks of trivia cards. The person whose turn it is rolls the die, and is then asked a question from one of three categories. The question category is determined by the color rolled on the die. There are questions for red, green and yellow (animals, plants and earth, respectively). If you roll blue, you can pick which category. If you roll orange, your opponent can pick which category, but your score is double if you answer correctly. If you select purple, you pick a "Wise Alec" card which might ask you to do something totally unique. My son had to stand with his palms together over his head, with one foot resting against his other leg, and balance that way for 30 seconds to get 7 points. He succeeded. Fortunately I wasn't asked to do that! :)

You can choose to play the game to a certain point ceiling (we played til someone had 50 points), or set a timer and play for a certain amount of time, like 30 minutes. If you play as an expansion of the Wise Alec game, you have a game board that you move around with game pieces; otherwise you play just by rolling the die and having questions asked. On each turn you can pick a 3 point question (easier) or a 7 point question (harder). I wasn't very good at either, but I look forward to increasing my knowledge of nature trivia as we continue to play the game.

I am enjoying this game and I highly recommend it as a supplement to your school program. It is highly educational. Or you can use it as a supplement to your game collection, if you prefer to think of it that way. I received my set of cards for free in exchange for an honest review. Please visit the Homeschool Crew Blog to see reviews by other members of the Homeschool Crew.

Griddley Games also makes the basic Wise Alec game, as I mentioned above, as well as Civilize This! and Wise Alec: Sports Buffs. In addition to trivia games, Griddley Games makes sports trivia games (Griddly Headz Strategy Games), Chronicles of the Mind, and Words of the Wise. All of these games look like fun ways to help the entire family learn trivia and vocabulary while having fun. Also, their website is chock-full of videos explaining all the different games, making the rules and the play easy to understand.

I recommend you give this company a good look. They have a lot to offer to supplement your educational program. Nature Nuts is not available locally in all areas (not available in MY area), but is available online, and costs $14.99.