In 1984, board games were all the rage. People were still talking about Trivial Pursuit, which had hit the market like a tidal wave the year before. And Pictionary was about to create a similar if somewhat smaller splash in game stores nationwide.
And so the Friday Section, in its first year of publication, devoted an entire issue to games, evaluating the new ones challenging Trivial Pursuit’s crown.
We’ve been on a dice roll ever since.
Welcome, then, to Friday’s 10th Annual New Games Issue.
From the Games Issue’s first year, people have wondered when “the next Trivial Pursuit” would arrive. They’re still waiting. No game has dominated the market like Trivial Pursuit did in the mid-’80s. But the lack of a dominant game doesn’t seem to have hurt the market any; all those Taboos and Adverteasings and Outbursts and Balderdashes add up to some impressive numbers.
These days, the adult-game category is a $200 million-a-year market. That’s a lot of dice. Add in children’s games and puzzles and Americans buy 200 million games every year.
A market that lucrative draws a lot of hopefuls. And so every year, more than 100 new games enter the fray to do battle with Monopoly and Risk and Candy Land and the myriad versions of Trivial Pursuit.
And, every year, Friday Section staffers (with family and friends) wade through the new offerings to pick the best of the bunch. We play them all and fill out questionnaires and tell you what we think.
We even identify the best of the best. In previous years, we’ve selected a Top 25 games, a Top 20-last year, even a Top 12. This year’s number, appropriately enough, is 10; you’ll find our Top 10 list in the Friday Guide (see index on this page).
Also in the Friday Guide, you’ll find a separate Top 10 of electronic games-a broad term encompassing computer games, home video games and interactive VCR games.
Beyond the two Top 10s, however, you’ll find reports on dozens of other games, including a special section on kids games. You’ll find the entire list in the index on this page.
If there’s a recognizable pattern to this year’s crop of games, it may be that 1993 is the Year of the Sequel. A great many companies this year released supplemental or slightly different versions of established games.
Pictionary released a new edition with updated words. Terrace, a strategy game, introduced a smaller, more economical edition. Articulation added Articulation Jr./Sr. Edition, which allows adults and kids to play together. Twenty Questions released a junior version with a science and nature hook.
Add the usual derivative efforts and outright imitators, and you have a games crop that has a distinctly familiar ring to it.
Of course, the king of sequels has always been Trivial Pursuit, and naturally TP is out in two new incarnations this year-including the much-ballyhooed All-American Edition, for which Parker Brothers asked people to submit questions.
Is the next Trivial Pursuit-a game that people will still be talking about in 10 years-listed in this Games Issue? Only one way to find out.
Please note: Most prices listed are the manufacturer’s suggested retail price; when that price was unavailable, we took the wholesale price and doubled it. When the suggested price was given as a range, we went with the highest price in that range. That means that you ought to be able to find these games at a price no higher than what you see here; in many cases, you’ll be able to find these games at prices much lower than the ones we quote. And if you can’t find a particular game at all, check our list of game makers (see index) for help.
And now, the Games of 1993.
A Rhyme in Time, Poet And Didn’t Know It, $40. If you can rhyme, you can rule in this board game designed for rhyming fools. Draw a card and read the word (say, fake), then whip up a poem using rake, cake, snake-whatever words that suit your mood (opponents vote if your work’s any good). To win, you write a greeting-card poem-topic chosen by opponents-and then you’re home.
Across Ticklers, FUNaddicts, $30. Object of the game is to create acrostic sentences out of ordinary words. For instance, away becomes Always Wave At Yuppies. You advance farther along the board for longer words, but that isn’t up to you; a die roll determines the size of the word you’re given to work with. Best play is during the Speed Round, in which the first player/team to complete a sentence (all working with the same word) advances along the board.
Arch Rival, Parker Brothers, $22. Thirteen hollow compartments are placed to form an arch on an unsteady base. Object is to place various objects in the compartments (dice rolls influence what, where and how many) without toppling the arch. At certain points you may have to take objects out of the arch, and that’s even trickier. Good skill game.
Bedroom Adventures, TDC Games, $25. First in what may become a series of directed role-playing scenarios for two consenting adults. Plots are based on bodice-ripping romance novels; this first, titled Rapture’s Voyage, requires the couple to assume the hero and heroine roles: He’s the swaggering, magnetic sea captain; she’s the willful, spirited damsel who has smuggled aboard disguised as a cabin boy. Most couples we know could take it from there, but there are more details and instructions if you want them.
Bluffers Beware, John N. Hansen, $30. Pull out one of the picture cards. What is it? One team comes up with bluff answers, mixes them with the real definition (you pretty much have to accept the game’s authority; there’s no obviously right answer) and the other team guesses what the object is. Our players found it almost impossible to succeed at this game, but they had a good time failing.
British Rails, Mayfair Games, $25. This is a classic game in new, easy-to-use packaging. Each player runs a railroad company, building rails between cities in order to fulfill contracts and earn money. Of course, building rails costs money; strategy is one of effective resource management and determining which contracts are most profitable. This version is packed in a plastic tube; roll-up game board is plastic-coated for durability.
By Hook or Crook, Avalon Hill, $25. This is an English version of the game Adel Verpflichtet, a popular German game-and a Tribune Top 20 pick in 1991. Somehow, it didn’t sell well under its original name; it’s back with a more understandable title. Object is to acquire valuable antiquities; you can do this by successfully bidding at auction or stealing them. If stealing seems easy, consider that the owner may have hired detectives to catch you in the act. Each player decides in secret, in sort of a paper-rock-scissors manner, so on one round you may find yourself the sole bidder, on another in the midst of a pack of thieves. Logic, anticipation and perfect timing win the day.
Celebrity Challenge, Gambol Entertainment, $40. Game of identifying celebrities by means of four progressively easier clues that reveal little-known to universally known facts about the celeb’s life and career. Nicely put together game; plastic-coated cards will stand up to repeated use. Bonus for owners-you can order personalized celebrity cards to mix in with the others.
Cheers, Classic Games, $35. If you know Sam’s career batting average (.211), what Carla’s cousin Santo does (private detective) and Frasier’s middle initial (W), you’re ready for this game, which includes more than 1,000 trivia questions about the long-running series.
Daring Passages, M.J. Moran, $38. Inside this cleverly packaged game (a wine bottle with a false bottom) is an entertaining game in which players identify famous people by their quotes. Each quote comes with three clues to help you guess; the number of clues you’ll hear, however, is determined by a die roll. If you can’t answer, each opponent gets a chance; if they can’t answer, an additional clue is read and you get another opportunity. By the time the third clue is read, it’s almost a certainty that someone will answer correctly, so play moves along reasonably well.
Diceball, Intellijeux, $30. Complex game that attempts to re-create a baseball game simply by rolling dice. This involves rolling a die for balls and strikes, rolling multiple dice when the ball is hit, rolling dice to determine whether the runner beats the throw to first (thrower and runner must roll) and so on. Unlike even more sophisticated games, in which the odds are adjusted to match the statistics of particular players, with Diceball it’s a level field, so to speak.
Dictionary Dabble, PSI, $30. Dictionary Dabble came out a few years ago and was blown out of the market by Balderdash, the most successful of the myriad dictionary-bluff games. The Dictionary Dabble folks are hoping that game players are ready for something a bit different.
Dirty Money, TDC Games, $22. Take the premise of the film “Indecent Proposal,” add multiple scenarios and you’ve got Dirty Money, in which a player decides whether, for instance, he would give a failing student a passing grade for $100,000. Other players predict his answer. A group of teens playing this game enjoyed it.
Double Talk, Boyle and Elggren, $25. This game has fun with homophones, words that sound alike but have different meanings. You’re given definitions for both words (or pairs of words); e.g., a compromise that satisfies everyone and a joyful ghost contacter translate to a happy medium. To climb a mountain and the worth of a thought are ascent/a cent. The makers of the game saved a few cents by using colored dice as game pieces, but otherwise components are of good quality.
Dream On, E & M Games, $30. Though billed as a game of dream interpretation, this is really an enjoyable bluffing game. Players come up with plausible interpretations of dreams in order to fool their opponents. Creative people with a good sense of humor can have a blast with this one.
Extinction, Incredible Game Co., $25. Card game with a dinosaur theme. Players match like cards to form herds of dinosaurs. Various catastrophe cards and predator cards (played on you by opponents) affect game play. High-quality cards depict various dinosaurs in full-color, identifying them by the period (Jurassic, Triassic, Cretaceous) in which they belonged-so there is some educational value. Not bad, even if one player predicted “this game will be extinct in two weeks.”
Feeding Frenzy, Aristoplay, $22. This is a game for families; the action isn’t interesting enough for adults, but is a bit complex just for kids. Players are Great White sharks, competing for food. But there’s a strong ecological subtext to the games; you get points for eating prey, but if you get greedy you wipe out entire populations and everybody loses. Don’t eat enough and either you starve or the prey reaches overpopulation. Our players liked the neat shark figures, which reminded them of museum souvenirs.
The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, University Games, $20. If you know your Scooby-Do from your Yabba-Dabba-Doo, you might succeed at this cartoon-trivia game. “Should adults even admit that they know this stuff?” asked one player.
Gone With the Wind, Classic Games, $35. The box includes several games. Most prominent is a very challenging game of GWTW trivia, but the beautiful, full-color cards also can be used to play several card games (rules included). Still, its appeal is strictly for the GWTW fans.
History of the World, Avalon Hill, $35. This redeveloped version of a European game (of the same title), History of the World is a multi-player game of world conquest and diplomacy. Players seek to re-create history from the beginning of recorded time to the close of the First World War. Players are randomly assigned various empires, such as the ancient Egyptians, Romans or the Manchu Dynasty. The game is designed so that less-experienced players are given stronger empires, thus increasing play balance and competitiveness. Designed for two to six players, best played by four to six, this is a very good game with rules that are only slightly more difficult than such games as Risk and Diplomacy.
Ice Breaker, Brain Grease, $30. A teacher who was trying to teach students about public speaking invented this game, in which players take turn performing before the others. Depending on the card drawn, you might have to explain how deodorant was invented, recite the Gettysburg Address, pantomime an amusing situation, sing a song or imitate the sound of a bullfrog. Not much to this game-a spinner, a few hundred inexpensive cards, a wholly superfluous game board-but, as the name suggests, it has some potential as an icebreaker.
Lovers and Liars, Catalyst Game Corp., $23. From the man who invented Scruples comes this game of sexual scruples. Questions are posed to players about how they would handle hypothetical situations-and whether they would tell their lover the whole story. Players score points by correctly predicting responses. Our players liked the game and found it to be a good conversation-starter; a few players especially appreciated the game’s generally genderless character, making it easier for gay couples to play.
