About Drop It

This colorful, inventive family game is easy to learn but deceptively mind-boggling! One at a time, each player drops a shape into the vertical game board’s drop zone. Players earn points for the highest level that their shape reaches when it lands and extra points for touching bonus circles. But be careful: Don’t break a landing rule! The shape you dropped is not allowed to touch matching shapes or colors after it lands. If you break a landing rule, you will go away empty-handed. The winner is the player or team with the most points at the end.

Drop It is for ages 8 and up. It takes about 30 minutes to play and is available on Amazon for $26.87.

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Each month a box arrives in the mail with a letter from the Chief Seer of the Society of Seekers. The letter outlines which city you will be seeking in, the game pieces that are included in the box, the website that you will be playing at, and an invitation to the Finders Seekers Facebook Users Group-which is helpful if you need a hint to move forward in the game. Yes, the game is played online with clues and props that come int the box. We used my iPad and I left the game open in a tab in my browser so that anyone who had time to work on it could just grab the iPad.

On a recent Monday night, all 3 of us were home so we set aside a few hours to complete this quest. In our first 2 1/2 hour evening we completed the first 6 of the 10 puzzles. Over the next 2 weeks we would work on it separately or together depending on our schedules. Aaron was in town for a few nights and he helped us too. Puzzle 10, the final puzzle was crazy hard, but so much fun! I’d love to get this box in the mail every month.

About Finders Seekers

Receive a curious package every month that initiates a fun and challenging ‘Find.’ Explore world cultures solving puzzles, decoding cryptic messages and discovering underground societies. A limited number of boxes are sold each month so to ensure you receive yours there are different packages available.

• Monthly-place an order each month and pay $30.00 per box
• 3 month pre-pay is $87.00 a savings of $1.00 per box
• 6 month pre-pay is $162.00 a savings of $3.00 perbox
• 12 month pre-pay is $300.00 a savings of $5.00 per box

I wish I had the discretionary funds to receive this box each month, but I don’t right now. If someone wants to gift a subscription to me I’ll be very grateful

In all it took us about 6 hours total to solve the 10 puzzles in the Las Vegas box. I loved that there were different kinds of puzzles because I am good at word puzzles and patterns, Jordan is good a details and ciphers, and Ron is good at looking things in different ways. It definitely took all 3 of our brains and a little help from the Facebook Users Group to solve the Finders Seekers Box.

If Finders Seekers sounds like something you would like to try for yourself or give as a gift, visit their website and look around. We highly recommend this game for fun with family or friends.

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Fast Flip from Blue Orange Games

Fast Flip is the latest speed matching game from Blue Orange. This game is both simple and complex at the same time. Players race to count a specific fruit or number of fruits on the card in play. The game play is simple but works on high level visual processing skills as you quickly count the fruit on the card. Jordan and I played this game and we had a lot of fun! It is tricky because we often answered at the exact same time. There are two modes of play, with or without the tokens. We liked playing without the tokens best. This game reminded us of our very first Blue Orange game, Spot It! Fast Flip is another great game to travel with, the metal tin it comes in is small and you don’t need a lot of space to play in. My copy of the game will be joining Spot It! in my Wednesday night church bag. They are games we can play at the end of class when our lesson is done and we have a few minutes left before church is over. Fast Flip is available from Blue Orange Games for $12.99.

Dr Eureka from Blue Orange Games

I adore logic puzzles and Dr Eureka is a 3 dimensional logic puzzle game for ages 8-adult. Dr. Eureka, designed by the award winning Roberto Fraga, is a tactile problem solving and brain teasing matching game. Players pass colorful molecules between test tubes to match the pattern on a challenge card, building both cognitive processing and dexterity skills. Play it alone or at a party with friends, Dr. Eureka is your best bet for some crazy molecule juggling fun! This game was an instant family favorite. We can’t wait for our friends to come over so we can play with them. Again, the premise is simple but the execution is tougher. Dr Eureka is a nice addition to family game night and it really gets your brain working to solve the puzzles. Dr. Eureka is available for $19.99.

We have never been disappointed by a Blue Orange Games game. All of their games are high quality games that require multiple levels of thinking, quick reflexes and yet are always fun for families to play together. In case you missed them check out our reviews of Tell Tale Fairy Tales and Battle Sheep. They all would make a great addition to your next family game night.

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Battle Sheep

About Battle Sheep

Opposing sheep herds go to head to fluffy head in a strategy game the whole family will love. The goal is to occupy the most pastures with your sheep. On their turn, players split a stack of their sheep and move a portion as far is it can go in a straight line to a new pasture. Watch out for sneaky sheep and plan your moves carefully to fence out your foe! A different playing board is assembled before every game, so Battle Sheep is full of new challenges every time you play! You can also click here if you want more exciting games just like this.

• Battle Sheep is for 2-4 players ages 7-adult
• Battle Sheep has a high replayability factor because you create the game board every time you play so no 2 boards are the same.
• Battle Sheep encourages social play, strategy, abstract thinking, focus and attention

Mom Maven’s Thoughts

I played this game with 8 yo Matthew while I was babysitting him and we both enjoyed the game. It only takes 10-15 minutes to play the game so it is a great time filler game. We played several times and I watched Matthew improve as he went along. I could see him understanding the strategy more and more with each game we played. His parents said he talked about the game constantly when he got home, so I’d say it made a big impression on him.

When Matthew and his parents came over again, he and I played a game to show his parents and my husband how to play. Then Matthew played against the other 3 adults for several games. Matthew and his dad are both a bit ruthless when it comes to playing games and all of the adults enjoyed playing. I can’t wait til we have a chance to play with 4 adults.

The above picture is of the game box. All 4 adults that played the game felt that if we saw that box on the shelf at a store, we wouldn’t have given it a second look. It looks like a child’s game with the fluffy sheep prancing around. Anyone who overlooks this game is missing out because it is a lot of fun. We just wonder if it could be re-packaged to entice adults and families to want to purchase it.

You can get Battle Sheep on Amazon, the BlueOrangeGames website or at local stores. To stay up-to-date on all Blue Orange Games news follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

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About Bejeweled Frenzy

Age: 8+; Players: 2-4; Available: Spring 2013; Approximate Retail Price: $14.99

It’s a sparkly flurry of a card game as kids race to match gems and build the largest stack of cards in Hasbro’s BEJEWELED Frenzy game. Kids will love competing with their friends to collapse their stack, collect Boost Gems and score the most points to win! The game comes with a link to redeem four Rare Gems to be used in the Bejeweled Blitz online game. Mobile device not included. To access the digital features, you must be 13 years or older and have a valid Facebook account. Additional terms and conditions apply to digital features offer.

Our Thoughts

As soon as the game arrived Jordan (18) and I played a few games. The rules are very easy to understand basically you each get one card to start with then you deal as many cards as there are players into the card holder, dealer goes first choosing a car that hopefully has a gem that matches there card. When you have 3 matching gems you collapse those cards into a stack and continue playing. Each game takes about 15 minutes to play. We had fun and I won both games.

I brought Bejeweled Frezny with me to church the other night, I often let the girls play a game at the end of class if they get their work done. This time I was playing with a nine year old and an eleven year old. Both girls caught onto the rules quickly and there favorite part was earning the pretty Boost Gems. The older girl loved the game and the younger girl said it was a bit slow but she would play it again.

If you are looking for a fun game that can be played by kids of all ages, Bejeweled Frenzy might be just what you are looking for. To stay up-to-date on all sorts of family game night fun make sure you follow hasbrogamenight on Twitter and on Facebook.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Bejeweled Frenzy for the purpose of this review. All opinions are 100% mine or those who played the game with me.

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This past spring I told you about the game Spot It! by Blue Orange Games, it has become a staple for family game nights. Now I’m going to tell you about Tell Tale Fairy Tales. Tell Tale Fairy Tales is a great game for families with kids ages 5+. I played it with a group of 3rd-5th graders and they keep begging to play it again.

Tell Tale Fairy Tales is a progressive story telling game that helps kids with literary development, storytelling, creativity and imagination. There are four different ways to play this game which includes 60 two-sided picture cards to aid in story creation. The games can be played with 1-8 players depending on how you use it. This game has great re-playability which is only limited by the player’s imaginations. We played eight games the first night we played and the kids wanted to play more, but we ran out of time.
To tell a new personalized bedtime story each night, parents can improvise a tale based on 10 cards selected by the child. No matter how you play it, the wonderful illustrations and library of images will whisk you away to another time and place in just a few words. This is a fun and educational games suitable for play at home, school, daycare and in homeschooling situations and at $12.99 it is an affordable addition to your family game collection.

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The 4th game in the series is based to the Family Game Night television show on The Hub. We watch the show regularly because we are fans of the host Todd Newton. In the TV show 2 families of 4 compete in over-sized versions of classic Hasbro games. Each time a team wins they choose a Monopoly Crazy Cash card and at the end of the game they put the cards in the Monopoly Crazy Cash Machine to see how much money they have won and the team with the most money wins the game.

Game Overview

The video game play is similar to the game show, with Todd Newton narrating, but it has a few flaws, First this is a “family game night game” and the whole family can’t play! This is a one or two player game! To me, that is a major problem. It should be at least a 4 player game with 2 people on each team. Also at the end of the game if the second team’s money total surpasses the total of the team that counted first, they stop counting! Each time we played I ended up with more cards than my son but in each game once my cash total was greater than his, they stopped counting! I had 3 Crazy Cash Cards left and I don’t know how much I earned. This makes it difficult to turn it into a 4 player game where we play 1 parent against 1 child and keep a tally of the total cash to see who wins after we play the 2 games necessary for our family of 4 to play since not all the money is added in.

Before playing each game go into the options menu and learn how to use the Wii controller for that particular game.

Connect Four Basketball is a fun competitive game of Connect Four played by throwing basketballs into the columns instead of chips.

Yahtzee Bowling is a fun twist on Yahtzee where instead of dice you are playing with six-sided bowling pins and a large ball.

Bop-It Boptagon is a family favorite on the TV show but the game controller interface doesn’t work very well. At the beginning of each round they show you the actions for each command but “twist it” never works for us and the action hints go away after the first few turns so players must remember what each command means.

Scrabble Flash is a fun game to play and once you understand how to use the controller it is quite enjoyable.

Sorry Sliders is a lot like playing Curling where you are sliding Sorry pawns down into a scoring ring where your oonent can knock your pawn out of the scoring rings. The game play is pretty easy but the narrator is often talking over himself in this game and it gets confusing.

Our Thoughts

Family Game Night 4 the Game Show for Wii isn’t a bad game but it isn’t as good as it could be. The game retails for $29.99 which is a low end price for a Wii game but I don’t think it is worth more than $19.99. It is rated E and the whole family could play but since it is only a 2 player game, that is difficult. We have several EA Play games that we love but unfortunately, this one missed the mark.

Have you played Family Game Night 4 the Game Show for Wii? Please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Disclosure: we received a copy of this game for the purpose of this review. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Game Features

* Simple playbook: A coaching playbook that makes it easy for everyone to learn and play the game of football!
* Power-ups: Earn power-ups during gameplay to enhance certain attributes including speed, strength, passing, and interception for a limited amount of time. Use them wisely to gain momentum in the game!
* Quickplay: Jump right into the action! Select two teams and the stadium you want to play in to get started. Up to four players can play for 2-on-2 football fun!
* Season: Play through a nine game season, each game against a different opponent. Defeat every team to be the best!
* Tournament: Play your way through a double-elimination tournament and be the last team standing to win it all!
* Mascot Mode: You can play as your team’s mascot, or as one of 10 unlockable mascots in Mascot Mode!
* Mii Compatibility: Load in your own Mii and play against your friends’ and family’s Miis for a more personal experience.

We have enjoyed playing this game. The controls are less complicated than other football games making it easier for younger children to play. I can’t wait to bring this to our holiday family gatherings because finally, my nephew will be able to really join in on the football fun! The game is rated E for everyone and can easily be played by ages 6 and up.

Disclosure: We were supplied with a copy of the game so that we could play and review the game. All opinions in this review are mine.

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