We're always on the lookout for great casual games, wherever we can find them. In May, the Parents' Choice Foundation announced their newest line-up of games receiving the award. Award levels include Gold, Silver, Recommended, Approved, and FunStuff. While the awards are primarily intended to help parents make informed decisions on the products they buy for their children, many of the games they select may be a good choice for casual gamers, as well. Here is a list of the games that caught our attention (click here for the complete list).
Garden Dice – A gardening game for 2 to 4 players, originally funded on Kickstarter. Use the dice to plant, water, and harvest 5 different types of vegetables with varying point values, from the squash (lowest) to the eggplant (highest). Players can also control birds and rabbits, which move throughout the garden devouring plants. It is also possible to protect one's own tiles or modify dice rolls using the sundial and scarecrow tiles.
Clubs – Clubs is a trick-taking card game similar to Hearts and Spades (we have included a review in the Summer 2013 issue of Casual Game Insider). Players try to collect as many clubs as possible, while also trying to get rid of their cards as early in the round as possible to score bonus points.
Chain Letters – Chain Letters is a simple dexterity word game that is a cross between Barrel of Monkeys and Scrabble. The idea is simple: try to make the highest-scoring words you can by linking up letters to form a chain. Different-colored letters are worth different points. Each letter must be picked up in the correct orientation, and if the chain breaks before you're done forming a word, you don't receive any points on that turn.
PicWits – In PicWits, one player (the judge) draws a caption card and all of the other players select a photo card from their hand that they feel best represents the caption. The judge then selects his or her favorite, which scores a point for the player who played it. Could be a fun visual alternative to Apples to Apples.
Ooga Booga – In Ooga Booga, players take turns acting like cavemen by reciting a series of caveman-like syllables and actions. The sequence grows on each turn as each player adds a new card to the mix. If a player forgets the sequence or does it wrong, he or she must draw more cards and begin a new sequence.
Flash – Flash is essentially competitive speed Yahtzee. In each round, one player selects a goal from the scorecard that everyone will attempt to roll using their own set of 6 dice (e.g., 3 pairs, all odds, 6 of a kind, etc.). Everyone then rolls simultaneously, trying to achieve the goal as quickly as possible. When a player completes the roll, he yells "Flash!" and takes the highest-valued scoring token available. In this way, everyone (including the final player to achieve the goal) scores at least one point per round.
Bejeweled – In this multiplayer tabletop version of the popular digital game, players take turns swapping two adjecent jewels on the board to create sets of 3 identical jewels in a row. A coin is rewarded for a set of 3 jewels, with extras won for larger sets or sets that include a power gem. The first player to earn 3 coins of different colors wins.
