Review - Ohanami

 

Players: 2 - 4
Playing Time: 20 Minutes
Age: 8+

According to a quick Google search, Ohanami (Hanami) (花見, "flower viewing") is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers.

In the game Ohanami, player try to grow the best garden! 

Cherry blossom season is about the blanket zen gardens with their resplendent wonder. Water, vegetation, stones, and sakura trees must be placed in perfect harmony in order to become a Master Gardener. 

Designed by the Spiel des Jahres nominated designer of The Game, Ohanami is a relaxing and competitive drafting game where players grow their gardens season after season.

The Goal:

Score the most points by building the best garden.

The Setup:

Shuffle the deck of cards numbered 1 to 120.  Deal 10 cards to each player.  Remaining cards will be used in future rounds.

The Play:

Each player looks at the 10 cards in their hand and chooses 2 cards.  Players pass the remaining cards to the next player face down.   Players must then play both cards either in their garden or by discarding.  

Players can have up to 3 columns of cards that represent their garden. To play on a garden, the card must have a higher value than the highest card in a column or be lower than the lowest number in a column.  If you cannot or choose not to play either of the cards, you may discard them face down.

After all players have played their cards, repeat choosing, passing and playing until card cards have been played (each player will have played/discarded 10 cards).  The round ends and you calculate your score for the round.

Round 1:  Only blue cards (3 points each) are scored.  

Round 2:  Only blue cards (3 points each) and green cards (4 points each) are scored.  

Round 3: All cards are scored...blue (3 points each), green (4 points each), gray (7 points each) and pink (sliding number of points based on how many pink cards you have in your garden.

You can read the complete rules here.

Review:

Fans of The Game will love Ohanami.  There are a lot of the same gameplay elements between the games, specifically making columns of cards in ascending/descending order.    We played it with both 2 and 4 players and it worked well with both, but we preferred 4 players because all 120 cards would be used.  With 2 players, only 60 of the cards are seen.

Overall, we give Ohanami an 8 out of 10.  It is a nice, fast game.  Would be a great filler game on game night  You can pick up a copy of Ohanami in our eBay Store or in our new web store at www.howlingfun.games. 
 
You can follow us on Twitter @HowlingFunGames and on Facebook.  

Review - "The Game": Are You Ready To Play?

The Game

Players: 1-5
Playing Time: 20 Minutes
Age: 8+
Suggested Retail: $19.99

Can you beat "The Game"?  Working together, players play cards from their hand to any of the 4 piles.  But be careful!  You might just mess up another player!  The Game is the 2015 winner of the Spiel Des Jahres.

The Goal:

Work together to play all the cards.

The Setup:

Shuffle the deck of cards numbered 2 to 98.  Create 4 piles, to ascending piles starting with the two "1" cards and two descending piles starting with the "100" cards.  Deal cards to each player.

The Play:

Each player MUST play at least 2 cards from their hand in any of the 4 piles.  Each card played must following the ascending or descending type of pile, with one important exception, if you can play a card that is EXACTLY 10 different than the card currently on the top of the pile, you can back the pile up.  This becomes a huge part of the game.  After playing, draw cards from the draw deck back up to your hand size.

When the draw deck is gone then players are only required to play 1 card from their hand.

During play, player may communicate, but they may not discuss specific card values.  For example, a player could say "I REALLY like that pile, please do not play on it."  However, the player could not say "I have the 28 and 29, please do not play on the pile."

Game End:

When the last card is played the players win.  If any cards cannot be played, then the game wins.

Review:

"The Game" is a fun, fast card game.  I was a bit surprised how hard it is to actually beat "The Game" without cheating on the communication rules.  It is really easy to say things you shouldn't.  We've played "The Game" with 2, 3, and 4 players and it works well with all these group sizes.

The only negative thing about "The Game" is it is next to impossible to find anything about it online.  Just try Googling "The Game Rules" and just try to find out anything about "The Game".  However, it is definitely worth searching out!

Overall, I give "The Game" a 7 out of 10.  This is not a game hard-core gamers will play more than a time or two, but fans of lighter games will love it!.  "The Game" is a game fans of Five Crowns, Quiddler, and TENZI would probaly love!

You can buy "The Game" in our eBayStore (www.howlingfungames.com) or by contacting us directly.


 
Follow us on Twitter @HowlingFunGames and on Facebook www.facebook.com/howlingfungames

Review - Poo (Take It Like A Monkey!)

Players: 2 - 8
Playing Time: 5 - 15 Minutes
Age: 8+
Suggested Retail: $9.99

It’s been a tough day in the monkey cage and something in the food tonight wasn’t quite right. In monkey world, there’s only one thing that can be done about it – fling poo!

Poo is a fast-paced card game for two to eight players, requiring anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to play. It’s fast and furious – something you can play while waiting in line or on lunch break.

Each player takes on the role of a monkey. You fling poo and mess with each other until only one monkey is left standing. That monkey, of course, is the cleanest one. Each turn, every player gets to draw and play a card, usually either to fling poo at another player or to clean himself off. Out of turn, each player gets to play cards to defend himself or foil other players’ poo flinging.

With cards like these, you can’t lose!

Not in the Face!
King-Kong Poo
Grandpa Poo
The Big One
Montezuma’s Revenge
Buddy’s Face
Shimmy-Shimmy Shake
Blaze of Glory
The Golden Banana

The Goal:

Be the last Monkey standing.

The Setup:

Remove the Golden Banana Cards and shuffle the cards and deal 5 cards to each player.  Use Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine who "goes" first (no pun intended).

The Play:

On you turn either play a card or trade cards.  Playing cards usually ends up in some amount of Poo being flung at another player.   There are also card that allow you to remove Poo from yourself.

You can also choose to trade any number of cards from your hand for cards in the draw pile.

When it is another players turn you might be able to play Defense cards or Mishap cards.  Defense cards basically block poo that is flung your direction...maybe redirecting the poo to another player.  Mishap cards cause problems for the person who flung the poo, like losing a turn.

Players stay in the game until they have 15 Poo stuck on them.  Then they are out...unless a Golden Banana is available.  If so, the player can grab the Golden Banana and rejoin the game, but they start out with 8 Poo already stuck on them.

Game End:

When only one monkey is left standing.


Review:

Poo is a GREAT game!  Almost every group I have played it with enjoy it.  We plussed the game by using chocolate chips as hit markers.  Eating them whenever we clean ourselves...yup, kinda gross, but FUN!!!

You never actually see poo of any kind in this game, just a lot of monkeys with various expressions on their faces that match the level of poo being thrown.  The artwork is very well done and makes players smile as they "Take It Like A Monkey".  Families can bring this out and have a lot of fun with it, no need to be concerned.

Of course, Poo will never go down as a deep game.  It is a great filler and we usually play several rounds when it is brought out.

Overall, I give Poo 9 out of 10...mainly because it knows what kind of game it is and it does it well.


You can buy Poo in our eBay store (www.howlingfungames.com)  or by contact us directly.

Follow us on Twitter (@HowlingFunGames) for a chance to win a copy of Poo on Dec 15.

Howling Fun Games Annual Open House

Friday, November 18, 6:30 to 9:30 PM

Saturday, November 19, 1:00 to 4:00 PM

1587 East 300 South

Springville, UT 84663 

• Save up to 40% off suggested retail prices  on 100's of great games
  
• Lots of Door Prizes
• Refreshments
• Clearance Items 

Special orders are welcome and most will arrive in time for Christmas! 

Demos:

• Spontuneous
• Faux-Cabulary
• Shake 'n Take
• Steam
• Ticket to Ride
• Many, Many, More.... 

Review - Anomia

Players: 3-6
Playing Time: 10 - 20 Minutes
Age: 8+
Suggested Retail: $15.99

Anomia: [uh-NO-mee-uh] - Noun - 1) A problem with word finding or recall. 2) Chaos. 3) The game where common knowledge becomes uncommonly fun!

Anomia plays off the fact that our minds are positively brimming with all sorts of random information; things to eat, pop songs, websites, etc... Sure, under normal circumstances, it's easy enough to give an example of a frozen food, or a dog breed; but you will find that your brain works a little differently under pressure!

The directions are simple. Draw a card from the center pile and flip it over. Does the symbol on your card match one on another player's card? If so, you must quickly face-off with the other player by giving an example of the person, place, or thing on their card before they can do the same for yours. If you blurt a correct answer out first, you win their card and drawing continues. Sounds simple, right? Wrong!

Wild cards allow unlike symbols to match, increasing the number of things you must pay attention to. Cascading face-offs can occur when you hand over a lost card revealing a new top card on your play pile. All this adds up to a high-energy, hilarious play experience where everyone is involved at all times.

Easy to learn, fun to play over and over again, Anomia will have any group of friends, family, even perfect strangers, shouting and laughing out loud as they try to beat each other to the punch!

The Goal:

Collect the most cards.

The Setup:

Shuffle one of the 2 decks and create 2 draw piles in the center of the table.

The Play:

The starting player draws a card from either deck and flips it face-up in front of them.  Each additional player does the same thing.  Watch for symbols that match, when a match occurs, the players whose cards match much shout out an answer that matches their opponent's card.  The winner collects their opponents card and places it in a collection pile in front of them.  Play continues with the next player.

Wild cards will add additional symbols to watch for, so face-offs happen more and more frequently.  Once a card has been collected, it will reveal the card underneath, which often leads to a casade of face-offs.  Pay attention!

Game End:

When both draw piles have been depleted the game ends.  Each player counts the number of cards won in face-offs, the player with the most cards wins!


Review:

Anomia is an easy game to play from a rules prespective, but it is a brain cramp waiting to happen.  The hardest part of the game is to remember to shout out an answer for you opponent's card (not your own).  It is very fun as cards start to cascade and the face-offs start lining up.

We played with 4 players, which was very good, but I think 5 or 6 would make it even better.  You can play with 3 players, but I think that more is better.  Younger kids will likely have a harder time with it, but teenagers and adults will love it!

It reminds me a bit of Snorta, but it is more challenging because you have to come up answers for a variety of subjects.

Overall, I give it a 8 out of 10...it will work as a filler game on game night, or it would be a good primary game to play as well.

You can buy Anomia in our eBay store (www.howlingfungames.com) or Our Amazon Store or by contacting us directly.

Games To Play When Camping

It's amazing how fast the summer has been going.  I just realized it has been several weeks since my last post...so here is a multi-game entry for your reading pleasure.

My family likes to go camping.  Every trip, we end up playing some games, and we have found that some games work better than others.  Here is a list of our favorites to play in the great outdoors.

Guillotine:

This irreverent and humorous card game takes place during the French Revolution. Players represent rival guillotine operators vying for the best collection of noble heads over 3 rounds.  Each round, 12 nobles are worth varying points, depending on their notoriety. During your turn, play action cards to change the order of the line so you can collect the best nobles.

This is a nice quick game and comes in a small box that makes it easy to throw in with the camping supplies.



Travel Blokus:

This is the 2-player version of the award-winning classic game Blokus.  Each player has a set of Tetris shaped plastic pieces that you must place on the game board.  Each piece placed must touch another one of your pieces, but only at a corner...you cannot place them in any other way.  Play continues until neither player can place any of their pieces.  Count the squares on your unplayed pieces and player with lowest score wins.

This is an addicting game...the loser almost always calls for a rematch.



Five Crowns:

Five Crowns is a card game for the whole family. It has original game play, but uses skills that you have obtained from playing your old favorites like hearts, spades and rummy. Because Five Crowns has five Royal Families - the Stars, the Clubs, the Hearts, the Spades and the Diamonds - yes, five suits in the old usage, it allows a more equal chance of making a book or a run, effectively giving each player more possibilities to readjust their hand so as to go out. Good players are able to take advantage of this and win more than an average number of games.
The play starts with three cards and 3s are wild; next hand has four cards and 4s are wild....working up to the last hand when Kings are wild. Each of the royal families is portrayed in original art and has its own colors. The Renaissance designs result in cards that are beautiful to hold in your hand and give a "collector" feel to the game. Five Crowns is a fast paced, ingenious new game in eleven rounds. 

This is a game we have played for years...I especially like it because it is one of the few games we have that I can regularly win against my wife...and that is a big deal. 





Quiddler:

Quiddler, is a beautiful word game with naturally smooth game play that plays fast. These are essentials for a successful game that few word games have. Using special cards, Quiddler draws on one's ability to combine letters into words. Players must combine their entire hand into words trying to use the highest point value letters. Quiddler challenges you to do this first with three cards (round one), then with four, on up to ten cards in the last round. A bonus is given for both the longest word, and the most words made by a player in each round. The average game takes 20-40 minutes. 

The great thing about Quiddler is players of all skills and ages can play.  The bonus points given for either longest work or most words levels the playing field for the Scrabble-Gods and the younger players.  Love this game!!



Here is a pack with Quiddler, Five Crowns, SET, and Xactika all togtehr for a greta low price:


Review:
All of these games are compact enough to pack in the camping supplies.  The whole family can enjoy them...especially since they are all very easy to learn.

You can buy these games in our eBay store (www.howlingfungames.com) or Our Amazon Store or by contacting us directly.