ASTRA 2014: A Virtual Tour for the Casual Gamer: Page 2 of 9

Casual Strategy from Blue Orange Games

Blue Orange Games is best known for their hit game Spot It!, which seems to have hundreds of different re-themes and spin offs. While Spot It! is certainly not a bad speed game by any means, I can only handle so many versions of the game before it wears out its welcome. Fortunately, Blue Orange seems to be inching more toward the casual gamer market, coming out with a handful of great casual strategy games that are impressively designed and produced.

Battle Sheep is an abstract strategy game in which two players battle it out for control of a pasture whose shape is randomly created at the beginning of the game. Each player controls a single stack of sheep tiles, initially. On a turn, a player picks up any number of sheep from his stack and moves them to the furthest possible space in any direction (stopping at either the edge of the board or another sheep). On future turns, a player can choose from among any of his stacks, splitting it and moving it once again. The player who controls the largest area at the end of the game wins. There is plenty of opportunity for planning and strategy, since zero luck is involved. Clever players can do things like block out certain areas of the board for themselves, preventing their opponent from entering.

Aztack is essentially a unique game of Dominoes in which the tiles are stacked on top of each other instead of side by side. Each tile must bridge the two tiles underneath and match them by color or shape. Players try to block out their opponent and stack the most stones to win.

In Niya, the object of the game is to simply place 4 stones in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) or in a square formation. A stone is played by replacing any tile on the grid. The tile that is replaced determines what options are available to the opponent — only a tile that matches a visible element of the previous tile, such as a sun or maple leaves, may be removed. In this way, not only do you place a stone of your color on your turn, but you have an opportunity to manipulate your opponent's turn, as well.

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