The Parents' Choice Foundation recently announced the recipients of the Fall 2013 toy awards. The games in the list mostly consist of kids' or educational games, with a surprising number of games promoting yoga for kids. However, if you look closely enough, you'll find several good choices for casual gamers of all ages. Here are the ones that caught our attention (click here for the complete list).
Forbidden Desert – This game is the sequel to Forbidden Island and was designed by Pandemic designer Matt Leacock. In this cooperative game, players try to escape the desert before their water supply dries up by building an ancient flying machine from parts hidden in the sand. Players move around the board removing sand and excavating tiles, and each player has a special ability to assist the group.
Spot It! Party – This deceptively challenging game tasks players with finding the one-and-only matching symbol between cards as quickly as possible. Fast reflexes and attention to detail are needed to earn a victory in each of 6 different game variants included with the game. The included hand mascot adds additional challenges over the original Spot It! game. Click here to read our review.
20 Express – Any number of people can play this Bingo-like game in which numbers from 1 to 30 are randomly drawn from a bag and announced. Players write down the numbers on their score cards, which contain a train with 20 empty boxcars. The object is to create the longest sets of consecutive numbers to score big points. Read our review in the Fall 2013 issue of Casual Game Insider.
Fluxx: The Board Game – This is a sequel to the original Fluxx card game by Looney Labs, a chaotic game with ever-changing rules. The board game features the same style of play while adding 9 tiles that are laid out in a 3x3 grid. Based on the cards that are drawn, various aspects change, such as the hand limit, the movement of player pawns, the pawn a player controls, etc.
Start 11 – In this domino-style game, players compete to get rid of all of their tiles by placing up to 3 tiles each turn into 4 different-colored rows. The number and color of a tile determine whether or not it can be placed. The game begins with the 11 red on the table, hence the name "Start 11."
Monster Cafe – Monster Cafe is a simple card game about the culinary preferences of several crazy monsters. Each turn, a player draws from the monster deck and seats it at one of the tables containing various gross culinary dishes. Once during each round, the player can choose to retrieve a table and all of its diners instead of drawing a card (ending the round for that player). After four rounds, players match up their monsters with the monsters' favorite dishes, scoring points for those that are fed and losing points for those that aren't.
