A Glimpse Ahead: Games in 2010
by Patrick Matthews

Every February, toy and game manufacturers from across the country and beyond gather in New York to show off their latest and greatest products. The show is industry-only, which means that unless you're in the business, you won't see what they're up to until after it arrives on the shelves. This year, we thought we'd invite the manufacturers and inventors to tell us what they would be introducing for the educational market, and this is what they sent us.

Smells Like Fun?

Daddy-O Games has announced a new line of scented card games called "Smells Like Fun." That's right. These games are scented. The first of the Smells Like Fun games is called Nab Nana's Num Nums and smells like chocolate. The idea is to collect sets of chocolates to score points, but beware! Anyone can nab your chocolates with a matching card (or cards) that add up to equal a set’s value. With chocolates changing hands on nearly every turn, it's easy to see how this game helps build math skills.

The game was designed by Tim Walsh, the inventor of Blurt!, so you know it's going to be a blast to play. Throw in the smell of chocolate, and I think you can expect this game to be a hit with parents, teachers, and kids alike. By the way, if you haven't played Blurt! yet, you need to give it a try. It's a lot of fun.

Out of the Box

The folks over at Out of the Box always seem to have something fun cooking for us. Here are two new games that sound like they're going to fit in perfectly both at home and in the classroom.

Word on the Street™ Junior
The Wacky Tug of Words
Word on the Street™ Junior brings the excitement of Word on the Street™ to the entire family! Players work with their teammates to brainstorm words that fit a category, then they agree on a word and pull each letter of that word one lane closer to their side of the street. The game is for 2-8 players, ages 8 and up.

10 Days® in the Americas
The Unpredictable Game of Making Connections
Gather your sunglasses, snowshoes and mosquito spray—it's time to travel to new destinations with the 10 Days Series. Players use destination and transportation tiles to chart a course through North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The game is for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up.

Fundex is getting fancy

Fundex is bringing us some games with exciting new elements for 2010. One has an electronic ark that talks, and the other features plastic worms that kids actually pull out of the simulated ground.

In Noah’s Ark, players listen to an electronic ark and try to recognize the sound of the animal that is ready to board. If they find the matching animal card, they move their animal one step closer to the ark. The first player to succeed in loading all his animals on board wins! The game includes an electronic ark, game board, animal figurines, animal cards and instructions, and is for 2-4 players, ages 4 and up.

In Inch Worm, you spin the spinner and pull the worms from the dirt one segment at a time until your color is revealed.  Some worms may be long and some may be short, but you'll never know until you pull.  If you free a worm, it's yours to keep.  Once the last worm is pulled, line up all your worms and the longest Inch Worm wins! The game board turns into a handy storage case that eliminates lost pieces and makes clean up a snap. It includes Inch Worm game board/storage case, 10 Inch Worms and instructions, and is for 2-4 players, ages 4 and up.

Zingo Grows

Zingo!® is one of those games that everybody seems to have. After we discovered it, we decided it would make the perfect birthday presents for my son's friends - only to find out they all already loved it. Now, in an answer to our birthday-giving needs, ThinkFun is rolling out a new version.

Zingo!® 1-2-3! takes the great Zingo game play and focuses on number skills. Players match numbered tiles to corresponding image arrays and words on their challenge card.  The first to fill the card shouts "Zingo!" to win the game. Two levels of play focus on counting and addition, providing appropriate challenges for young players of all levels and opportunities for differentiation. This fast-paced number game is designed for 2-6 players, ages 4 and up.

Educational Insights

If you're a teacher, the odds are pretty good that you already know all about Educational Insights and their line of fantastic educational products. This year, they're bringing us three new games to keep the kids' minds firing on all cylinders.

In Laundry Jumble™, players draw a card, reach into the dryer, and, using only their sense of touch, try to pull out the matching piece of doll-sized clothing. Designed for ages 4 and up, this game's engaging 3-D play encourages tactile exploration, fine motor skills, counting, and vocabulary.  

For the slightly older set, Stix & Stones™ is a prehistoric picture-making race that challenges players to create an image of a word on a card using only sticks and stones. It's perfect for mixed ages (7+), as well as the whole family.

The third new product is Fraction Matchin’™. Aimed at ages 8 and up, this game challenges players to use any combination of fraction tiles to match the fraction shown on the card. You can add, reduce, and compare fractions to figure out the answers.

Towering Fun

Learning Resources is rolling out some very intriguing three dimensional games in 2010. Everyone loves 3-D games, and Learning Resources has really gone the extra mile with these, creating experiences that fully engage players with gameplay that is both educational and fun.

In the Think Big Science™ Life Science Game players answer questions to move their pawns up a tower that is over ten inches tall. The colorful tower has tiers for players to race around. Three correct answers moves you up a tier, and at the very top there's a "big-idea" question to win the game. There are over 200 double-sized question cards, covering topics like animals, plants, life cycles, food chains, human body, and more. I've never seen the "big idea" concept in a game before - what a great idea. This game is for 2-4 players, ages 8 and up.

For the younger kids (ages 3 and up), there's a twisting tower with silly mixed-up monsters. The Twist & Match Monsters™ Early Learning Game has kids twisting the tower to try to match up the monster they have on their game card. This is a fun approach to matching and colors and offers two levels of play: match the colors or make a mixed-up monster. I doubt too many kids will choose the "match colors" option when there's a chance to make a monster, but it's a nice option. The game is for 2-6 players, ages 3 and up.

The new POP for Sight Words™ Game doesn't actually have a tower, but it does have the next best thing: a popcorn box. During play, children draw pieces of popcorn from the popcorn box. Each pieces has a sight word written on it. Read the sight word correctly and you keep the piece. Don't pull the POP! card, though, or all your pieces go back in the box. Featuring 100 die-cut popcorn cards (92 sight words and 9 POP cards), this game is a fun and engaging way to learn sight words. It's for 2-4 players, ages 5 and up.

So the monster game has a tower, and the sight word game has a popcorn box, can you guess what the new game Herd of Words™ A Vocabulary Game has? That's right: a corral. The board turns into a three-dimensional corral that's used during game play as children answer questions to round up cartoon animals. The questions focus on synonyms, antonyms, homonyms/homographs and homophones. The game includes 28 pawns (four different herds), 80-double-sided, self-checking game cards and that sturdy game box “corral” that I already described. It's for 2-4 players, ages 7 and up.

Top Trumps

Remember the classic card game War? Top Trumps takes that concept and runs with it, adding great artwork, themes kids love, surprising facts, and new game mechanics. The game is a fun way to strength reading and math skills. This year, they're bringing us Top Trumps Tournament - Star Wars, Top Trumps Activity Packs, and six new themed packs: Harry Potter, Baby Animals, Ice Age 3, Greek Mythology, NBA 2010, and FIFA World Cup 2010

The Activity Pack looks particularly interesting. Designed to help little ones with numbers, words, logic and recognition, it's for kids aged 3-6. It's not just a mini version of the game, though. Instead, each pack includes four different games: Pairs (memory), Take 5 (matching and collecting), Spot the Difference, and Observation Quiz.

Treasure Pools

Treasure Pools is the newest game from Lake House Creations, LLC (makers of Fun Meal Caper).  Designed by science teacher Patti Marsh, it is a perfect introduction to the physical and behavioral adaptations tidal pool animals have made to their environment. In addition to learning fun facts about tidal pool animals, players (aged 6 and up) get to enjoy the fast paced strategy and unpredictable play that made Fun Meal Caper such a hit.

BeadCrazy

I saw a prototype of Beadecked™, from HL Games, at ToyFair 2009. It looked great then. Now that it's shipping, though, it's really something special. The game consists of a deck of "Beadcards," cards with colorful images of beads on them. Each bead has a pattern, a color, and a shape, and players of Beadecked try to match 2 of the three attributes to win. By itself, this game is loads of fun, but the game also includes rules for five other games: Beadtween™, Beadspoke™, Beadmarket™, Beadrummy™, and Beadominoes™.

These other games take classic games we all recognize (like Go Fish, Dominoes, and Rumy) and effectively use the Beadcards to add a third dimension to them. If you enjoy any of these games, you should check this one out. It's not only loads of fun, but it really gets your brain cranking!

Truth Be Told

Buffalo Games has completed their "pre-launch" test period on Truth Be Told, and it looks like it's going to be another hit. During each round of the game, one player, called the "host", secretely writes the answer to a question card (like "my favorite snack is...."). Everybody else writes their own answer. The "host" reads all the answers aloud and players try to guess which one came from the host.

It's a fun game, and a great exercise for a social skills class, helping kids learn how to connect with each other.

Triplica

In Triplica, a new game by Fun Q Games, players compete by placing cards to line up three in a row of the shape that matches their secret goal card.  Each card has three shapes on it, and you place cards to try to get three of your shapes (the one on your secret goal card) to line up.

Rewarding Behavior

The Ticket Store Game is all about rewarding kids for good behavior. First, kids pick rewards that they want to earn for good behavior - anything from 1/2 hour of TV time to lunch with grandma to free time at the end of class. These rewards are placed on the game board, and the number of tickets required to win each reward is determined by the parent or teacher. Throughout the day, children are awarded tickets in exchange for good behaviour. The tickets are then used to buy the rewards from the game board. It's a fun easy way to set up an awards system that reinforces positive behavior.