Tag card game

Poetry for Neanderthals is another family fun game created by the team at Exploding Kittens.

The Exploding Kittens team are back with another insane concept for a family game in Poetry for Neanderthals. Since it’s inception Exploding Kittens has been a staple in our household and the team of the same name was responsible for several of our favorite family games. Conceptually the game is quite simple, dividing into two teams players will take turns describing a word or phrase but must do so using only single syllable words. If at any point they gesture, use more than one syllable, use the word they are trying to describe or a few other instances or rule breaking then they will get hit with the inflatable club. Not going to lie but I felt like Captain Caveman while wielding it over my daughter’s head.

Every player during our games end up getting hit at least once or twice, most of us for gesturing. I was really bad at giving clues without moving because I am naturally very animated when I talk.

The game is a great exercise for the old noggin because you have to be a quick thinker to score points and avoid losing them at the same time. First game was parent’s versus the kids and some of the kids got bored early on (one was watching a movie and the other was too distracted to play) and so we started over for a round of boys versus girls. It was a close game but us boys won by only a couple points. Everyone that played to the end loved the game (4 of 6 members of the household) and the other two had fun until pulled away by the call of the children’s film on tv. We are all looking forward to the next game night we get to spend on this game.

Players take the role of their favorite Hogwarts heroes in the Hogwarts Battle Cooperative Deck Building Game from USAopoly!

In Hogwarts Battle players work together fighting against increasing odds but with the help of your expanding decks of spells you will be able to fight and eventually defeat them. The fine folks at USAopoly supplies us with our review copy of this game (along with others) and we let our son choose which we played first. So one thing became apparent early on in the game- the more players you have the easier the fight will be. Makes sense because anytime you have a set number of enemies and increase the number of people fighting them you usually will have an easier time of it.

We went around the table adding cards to our individual pools of magic spells in order to quickly get an upper hand against Draco Malfoy, Crabbe & Goyle and eventually Professor Quirrell.

I’m notorious for misreading rules the first few times I go over them so to save time I asked my wife to give them a quick read and we were able to jump right into the game within only a couple minutes. The rule book is full color and well written and you’d have to be a fool to misunderstand them. Somehow I did and she straightened it out quickly.

The first stage of the game took about forty five minutes total, including multiple readings of the rules and even a check of them again later on. In our house the toughest critics are the kids and after completing the first stage Merrick immediately asked if we could do the second stage tomorrow. This game is a definite keeper and I think this image says all you need to know about whether or not you should get this for the Harry Potter fan in your life.