Author: Michele

MysteryRummyMystery Rummy: Escape From Alcatraz
U.S. Games Systems, Inc., 2009

The card game Rummy has been around since the 19th century, with variations of the game coming from much further back in history. Melding, laying off, and going out are all familiar old friends to the card players among us.

Back in 1988 a friend and I were wandering around a convention looking at new games when we came across a guy teaching a rummy game. Well that seemed easy enough to learn, since we already knew the basics. The game was Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper. We were hooked. Since that time there has been several different iterations of the game: Murders in the Rue Morgue, Jeckyll & Hyde and Al Capone.

In the newest version, Escape from Alcatraz, you play Alcatraz prison guards, attempting to foil escape attempts by collecting melds of plans. When a total of 8 cards have been laid off on a plan, the melds are placed in the score piles along with the ringleader. When either a player goes out, or the deck is exhausted, the cards are scored, and points awarded. The first player to 100 points is the winner.

What I love most about these games is the historical themes. The cards are filled with historical trivia, and Alcatraz is no different. Each escapee card details the history of one of the prisons infamous inmates, their crime, and their escape attempts, the “Plans” deck details some of the successful escapes.

The cards keep the look of crime files, much like the earlier versions of the game and the “suit” colors are easily distinguished. We have had some difficulties when playing in identifying the escapees. Some of them have suit colors, and can easily be mistaken for plans cards when drawing. They do have a different icon, so knowing that they are mixed in, and making sure you keep watch for them is an important thing to remember.

The game also has action cards. The first time that you play a meld from your hand, or lay off on an existing meld, you draw an action card, which most often gives you extra cards. This is a nice feature and adds to the game. In basic rummy, sometimes players will hold their melds until they can finish them. The action deck encourages players to lay their melds in order to get more cards to finish them before the other player.

Of the versions of Mystery Rummy that have come out over the years, this one rates highly with me. The theme translates very well to the game play, and the action cards keep the game moving. I recommend it with 3-4 players though. Our two player games have been a little clunky.

CrappyBirthdayCrappy Birthday
NorthStarGames, 2011
Do you like giving gifts? Like giving funny gifts? Like Apples to Apples? Then Crappy Birthday may be for you. The game consists of about 150 or so cards. Each card has a strange, weird or downright horrible gift on it.

Like Apples to Apples, each player in turn is the “judge”, or in the case of Crappy Birthday, “The Birthday Person”. Every player tries to find a gift that from their hand that they think will be the WORST gift for the Birthday Person. The cards are placed face down in front of the Birthday Person. When all cards have been played, the Birthday person unwraps their gifts (looks at the cards), and determines which, in their opinion is the worst gift. The person who gave the gift is the winner of that round. The number of wins it takes to win the game is determined by the number of players.

Crappy Birthday is a simple game, but fun in the imaginative and strange gift ideas included. I especially love that the cards have real pictures on them. That means that these things actually exist somewhere. In some cases this is cool (The Darth Vader Air Balloon, or the Monster Smart Car) others it’s frightening. Warning to families, the game does have some “adult” cards, but you can remove the ones offensive to your family and continue with normal play.

If you are looking for a light party game in the tradition of Apples to Apples, you will probably like Crappy Birthday. If you play with the same folks all the time, it could get stale as the card pool is limited. Lightweight, easy, slightly weird game, pick up Crappy Birthday. Heck, give it to a friend as a Birthday gift.

TetrisTetris
Milton Bradley, 1989

You are probably familiar with the video game Tetris. Blocks of various shapes fall to the bottom of a column, where you must place them in order to fill rows to make them disappear while Russian style music and artwork appear in the background. In 1989, Milton Bradley decided to capitalize on the popularity of this video game with a board game version.

In the board game, a bag or box of familiar Tetris pieces is set in the middle of the table. Players draw pieces and place them on their game board as quickly as possible, handing off to opponents ones they are unable to satisfactorily place. After all pieces have been placed, or when one player has filled their board to the top row, players count the spaces they have covered. The player who has covered the most spaces wins.

This is a simple, fast playing game. It nicely captures the feel of the video game. It is a nice addition to any game collection for the novelty. If you are looking for a good game however, I’d stick with the video game version.

SutakkuSutakku
Smirk & Dagger, 2011

Sutakku is a Japanese themed press your luck dice game. The gameplay is simple. Roll 3 dice, stack them as you can low to high, and decide if you would like to press your luck and continue on, or take your points as they stand. Push to far, and you might go bust. Roll well and stack higher and higher, gaining more points and/or bonus points.

The game comes with a nice Japanese theme. A short story starts off the rules and the dice use Japanese characters. The game is played over 5 rounds, so it can be played quickly. It is a simple to learn, easy, lightweight game. One drawback of the game is it can seem a little like competitive solitare, with no interaction between the players. Much like Farkle with a Japanese theme. However, there is a small card expansion to the game which makes it much more interactive and gives a nice dimension to the game. I highly recommend that if your copy does not come with the expansion that you find a copy and add it to the game. Once this expansion is in place, you will be left with a nice lightweight game that you will want to play again and again.

Recommended.