July-bation

Game one: "Zombiegeddon" Alright! Let'as start the eve with an ol' fashioned brain eater beater. The object of this game is to collect guns 'n' supplies during the first part and in the second part to KILL THEM ZOMBIES while getting your own markers safely into shelter. Actually not as brutal as it sounds and far more of a cerebral puzzler than an actual whomp down.
Still ...lots of fun and comes with a recommendation in spite of the fact that the winner was half an undead grey matter ghoul himself. We see the triumphant Dr Kirby hiding his win grin behind the game container above.

Game two: "Destination Mars"

Hmm ...sounds like it might be fun ...awfully small board ...cool rockets though ...only two players? Well, this was a basic card draw, count dots and first to the finish is the winnah. *yawn* This MUST have been a free give away with some kind of sign up for cable TV or something! A magazine subscription? Prize for selling flower seed packets? I doubt even an 8 year old would be fooled into playing this more than once. Isn't it possible to at least throw in some fun Mars facts? I guess there was planetary facts in the cards but ...man! Can we go back to beatin' zombies pleeze?
Here we see the dynamic 12" by 4" inch game board simulating the treacherous trip to the red planet. *GASP!* OH! The peril! How did our contestants ever make this flight of danger?
The rockets were neato retro but ...only 2 of them? seems a gyp not to mention a waste of a great marker.

Well, no surprises that the triumph went to Dr K. Above we see him hitting the ham with the liliputian box this game comes in. I believe I'll cut this baby up for parts. Gotta be a better way to use those rockets!

Game three: "Mind Maze"

Cue ominous theremin music. Mind Maze! Will your puny mentality be able to withstand it's frightening rigors? Mind Maze! A challenge to strain the brain of mortals planetwide! Mind Maze! Made for the Mensa set!

It's obvious from the pic on the box cover that this "no peek" variation of "Tickle Bee' (Anyone recall that game? Anyone?) has the same magnetic premise: get the marble to the goal. Ta-Da! The gag here is that you set up a maze for your opponent to run while they do the same for you and first one done takes the laurel.

Above "Evil E" and Dr Kirby struggle with each other labyrinths trying to raise their steel marker to the goal.

And the winner? Well ...after a short time everyone gave up. This after flipping the board and being unable to run the maze that they themselves had constructed. HA! Blame Game had the best seat in the house watching them both try over and over again, each slowly beating their ball against an impassable wall. Ahem!
Evil takes a look and still has a challlenge trying to wiggle the steely along. Give up man! The clocks run out and our three guy game play has come to an end for yet another month. See you in August with hopefully a far better turn out!

May Hem!

Game One: "The Magnificent Race"

Here we go! A throw back to days of yore when board games meant playtested gimmicks! This one was a gamblin' marble race with the real possibility that no one could win. Can you imagine? The game could actually beat us all! A nonentity made of cardboard and chemically altered oil! Fantastic! Surreal! Thankfully for humanity a personage of flesh and blood won. See his gloating triumph in picture number 2. The upshot of this 1970's near antique was to fill your card with wins from 4 sets of races, balloon, auto, boat and aeroplane. Why 2 air races? Well ...I imagine they had to round out this square somehow. Lot's of fun son. I'd play this again in no time, especially if it doesn't move out at my next convention. Nice and a plus recommendo!

(Now ...at this point in the evening the gamesters were given a choice as to what the next selection would be. "Cheeky Monkey" or "Waterworld". And the winner? "Cheeky Monkey". More on this later.)

Game Two: "Cheeky Monkey"

This is a game of guts and random draws. I knew my strategy would be devil may care abandon from the start. Chips with pics of various animals are placed in a cloth bag and drawn out one at a time. When 2 of the same are pulled they all go back. If the player stops before the match they keep the chips drawn. Value of animals is judged by rarity of their images on the chips. A simple childs game suitable for ages 7 and up. I recklessly drew over and over emptying my kept chip pile to zero again and again, and then, at the end, I drew and saved the lucky combo to bring home the win! Take that all you game night lames! In picture 3 we see special guest Big Boss "B" holding the monkey box. The number 4 photo shows me with my full wart hog gloat on. MMMMMM!!!! Victory sweet!

Game Four: "We Didn't Play Test at All or Either"

This is actually kind of a retread for us. Played round after round just to fill up the extra time we had. Fun? How can a game that lasts 5 minutes and gives such chortles to mortals not be graded high?

And the victors? Let's look:

Winnah One!

Winnah Two!

Winnah Three!

And finally we see the card that, while not giving a win, prevented anyone from winning ala Professor Tung style. So fine the shine! Spite makes rite!








See my smarmy smirk at having taught everyone a real lesson in poor sportsmanship! Cheeze!

And now a word about games not chosen. It was put to a vote whether we should open a sealed copy of "Cheeky Monkey" OR a minty fresh factory sealed vintage copy of "Waterworld". And everyone chooses "Cheeky Monkey"?!?! What planet are we on? Grown men now pick a aminal match game over the possibility of "sinking the Deeze"? WHA-HUH?!?!?! Did anyone not see the slimy evil of Dennis Hopper in this Kevin Costner extravaganza? The rusting boiled hulk of the Exxon Valdez run by filthy smokers laying a final polluted layer of crap over the earth coverin' briny? And we're going to lay paws in a bag to pull wildlife tokens instead? Mother of mercy! Is this what the game gang is reduced to? Stay tuned folks. We'll see if the "Deeze" don't do some damage by and by in July! Hasta lumbago!

Behind the Blue Door

Checking out The Blue Door. Tiny place. Not so hot on burger stuffed with cheese. But the food not stuffed with cheese was great.



Then it's off to the races.



All round approval for the roulettey action (see video below). Evil is first around the world.



Cheeky Monkees.



We fumbled a bit with the rules (maybe the ones for 5 year olds were more our speed) but once we got it down it was way cheeky.



Stopping with Wally the Walrus was the right thing to do.



Second Night in a row for this one.



And these are the rules.



Outstanding & quick. "Fun is mandatory." Well ain't that the truth!

Round and around they go

Mesmerizing

April Fuel !

Game Three:"We Didn't Play Test This At All"
OK ...let's take these in reverse order. "WDPTTAL", as we like to refer to it, was a sock rollickin' laugh hardy mess o' joy. How can I recommend this game enough? Not possible! Who won you ask? Who cares I reply! Went 2 rounds with this whacky pasteboard offer and could have gone the entire night just playing this over and over. I think Red Frog took one round or maybe we all lost. Can't recall. Too busy holdin' my sides to try and keep them splittin' from the laughter! Short rules and total chaos! Get this now you must! Yep!

Game Two: "Mad. The Card Game"

Now we've played Mad the board game before and it was a tunne o' funne. The Mad Card game was likewise weighty with pleasure. Below we see the winning hands. Red Frog and Evil E may be mad but not in an angry way with this one. Picked it up at a yard sale last season and had to get the rules online. Well worth the effort. Try it, if you can find it!

Game One: "Asteroyds"

Movable asteroids are set up on a hex board and moved at the beginning of each turn by a random throw of three dice, one red, one blue and one white. Contestants must maneuver their spacecraft via a timed pre-plotted course to land on asteroids marked with unique symbols. Well, that all sounds pretty arcane but it's not really that bad. Actually simple once you get started. Tricky to win though as it's easy to outsmart yourself as to where your landing pad will be. Evil rejoices at his master moves which brought him in for the win. Played several rounds and I believe Dr Kirby took the first win. He also brought the game. A good mover with expansion rules (which we did not use) to add to the complexity. Try this one too.

This is a close up of one of the ships at a target landing station. OOH! Spacey!

And let's close out with a DEVO quote!

"Cube top, squared off, eight corners, ninety degree angles,

flat top, stare straight ahead, stock parts, BLOCK HEAD!"

See ya next month! Hopefully two more side of our little square circle (Dennis, & Room n Board) will make the groovy scene. They were sorely missed this month.

Forsooth, your honor!

This was the first episode of Perry Mason I've ever watched in my life. Very appropriate that I started with the first episode. Not sure why Mason was not a staple in our household growing up. It was on CBS on Saturday's from 7:30 - 8:30 opposite People are Funny and Perry Como. But on second thought how could you not watch Linkletter or an ex-barber. Blame Game led us astray on the course of the plot which led me to pick the butler. Unfortunately there was no butler in this episode. The board game was not much better with my strategy failing me miserably. I can't remember the last time I won. I'm the anti-Lou Gehrig of game night. My consecutive loss streak must be in the 40s. Maybe it would help if I listened while the rules were explained. Or not.