I always enjoy a stroll through the “family fun pavilion” in the exhibit hall. There, the games are brightly colored, game explanations are quick, and it’s great to see younger kids saddling up to a booth and having a good time. Last Night Games was showing off Mystic Manor, a ghost hunting game where you use a rubber stamp as you explore and catch ghosts. Moose Games (known for Bluey games, like Keepy Uppy or Shadowlands) had a quick dice-based matching game based on tiny Hello Kitty figurines as well as a more serious Menagerie game based on collecting butterflies and other insects. Finally, there’s the ever-yellow HABA booth. Games I checked out this year include Secret Code 13+4 (a simple math dice game), Point of View (a cooperative Where’s Waldo sort of deal), Fast Factory (cup stacking without cups), Forest Festival (a card based memory game), and a rerelease of the hilarious Dancing Eggs (where you compete to hold the most eggs in your elbow, between your knees, under your chin, etc….)

Last Night Games

Mystic Manor

Mystic Manor is a 2 to 5 player game of rushing into a haunted house, capturing a ghost, and then running back out to get paid for your ghost-catching services, payment depends on the type of ghost caught. Payment is important as money is also used as victory points in the game. The main board is a sheet of paper that displays a house and its attic filled with a grid of squares. Players must spend “courage” to move through the house, making a mark with a real rubber stamp and ink pad when they’ve explored a spot. When fighting a ghost, players roll a die and check the number on the ghost token to see if they are able to capture it.

When a player runs out of courage (or decides to leave sooner) they head back outside the house to turn in what they’ve found, and refill their courage meter. While the main part of the game is going into the house to get ghosts, there is a whole world of collecting and upgrading that goes on in the background. Players have an inventory, starting with three open slots, and these can hold all sorts of items and upgrades. Some upgrades come with a cost – your hard earned

A cat will give you a +2 roll when fighting, a dog bone (carried back out of the house) will give you a dog that grants a +4. There’s a Net that can be used to capture imps in the house, which can be sold once you leave the house again – but you then also lose the net. Players can collect sets of paintings for big points at the end of the game.

Deep in the house, there is an attic containing apparitions and treasure chests. Apparitions do not require a combat roll, but will take up an inventory slot when you bring them out. Treasure chests can be opened to give bonus cards, worth money at the end of the game. All this is great stuff, but since the attic is so far into the house, players must first build up their base courage level high enough to be able to make it that far.

If the game hasn’t ended (due to actions and collecting things) by the time the house is almost completely explored, the number 20 ghost appears in that last empty space, giving players one last chance for a big catch.

Moose Games

Hello Kitty and Friends: Reach for the Stars Game

Reach for the Stars is a quick little 2 to 6 player game involving “rolling” little Hello Kitty brand figures and then trying to compare their positions to those on a card.

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All (9?) characters are tossed down onto the table. Then a card is flipped over displaying the characters in various positions. Players are trying to spot which characters are in positions that match the card. If found, players make a grab for one of the four point tokens (1,2,3,star.) Once all the tokens are grabbed (or all that players want to grab) players take turns showing which animals are matched. However, matched figures are removed, so a player may not have a match left when its their turn to score. If there isn’t a correct match left, that player loses a point. The game continues for several rounds until someone scores a total of 20 points.

Menagerie

On the more grown-up side of things, Menagerie is a 1 to 4 player game that has players putting together an insect collection to display to their friends and frenemies. Players manage collections in three different terrariums, paying attention to the color (the Linneaan “order”) of the insects. Each turn they get to pick out an insect from the field and add it to one of their terrariums. They may then also use one of the traits on the insect card gained. This could be things like collect a bonus nearby insect, move insects around, etc…

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The best way to earn points is to collect as many insects of the same order (color) as possible into the same terrarium. Players also start the game with a secret objective which gives points if achieved.

To help them in their endeavors, each player receives a benefactor ability. Some are one-time deals (like giving with extra resources) while others have an ongoing effect.

The game ends when someone fills up all three terrariums with five insects. There is a solo mode that simulates a rival collector by messing with the insects available on the main tableau. Due to the period art and excellent insect illustrations the game has a nice table presence, probably why the game sold out in 12 minutes on Saturday morning. Those missing out can pick up a copy in Barnes & Noble in September.

HABA

Secret Code 13+4

I could call Secret Code 13+4 a roll and move game, but there’s also math involved. Players are attempting to move forward along a path of numbers to reach the end of the path. Players roll the five numbered dice and then may use any number of dice and any number of basic math operations (add/subtract/multiply/divide) with any (or all) of those dice to equal the number on the next spot on the path. Realistically, it would be very hard to NOT have a solution, it may just take some thinking to get there. All in all, it’s math that has a bit of a game wrapped around it, and that may be enough for this level of play.

Point of View: Spooky Festival

Point of View: Spooky Festival presents players with four large fold-out photo/drawings of a (somewhat) spooky amusement park. The twist is that each player’s image is taken looking in at the park from a different cardinal direction (N/S/E/W.) Players must work together to answer a series of clue cards. Each card has a question that needs to be answered, with the correct answer given on the next card. The game is presented in four chapters of 20 or so questions, taking about 1 hour each to complete. Throughout the game there is an overarching story line, built up over time, whereby the players must uncover the mystery of the festival. While nothing is consumed, due to the nature of the game, a player can only go through it once but there’s nothing stopping you from passing the game on to a friend when you’re done.

Fast Factory

Fast Factory is a speed dexterity game for 2 players or teams. Players start with a set of items in front of them – a green disc, a pink cylinder, a blue ring, and a wooden cylinder that is hollow on one side. They interact in interesting ways – the blue ring goes around the wooden cylinder but matches the green disc while the pink cylinder will fit exactly into the hole side of the wooden cylinder. These are each placed onto a playmat covered with four colored squares, matching the four pieces.

When the competition starts, players race through the instruction sheet in order, placing the shown object onto the square that matches the background of the instruction. As pieces move around (and flip, in the case of the wooden cylinder), if you have to move a piece that is supporting other pieces, they all get moved. Once a player has completed the instruction set, they can flip over the instruction card to see if they did everything correctly. If their objects are in the same formation as the image on the card, they win.

Dancing Eggs

OK, I know Dancing Eggs was available in the US a long time ago, but I”m glad to see it available again. (My research shows a slightly different version was available from Asmodee as Crazy Eggs for a time.) In the game, a player rolls two dice. The red die is an action that should occur, generally awarding the winner an egg. The white die determines where the winner needs to tuck that egg. This is important as whoever has the most eggs at the end, wins. As the game evolves, players are stuck playing while tucking eggs under their chin, on their shoulder, in their armpit, between their knees, etc.. While many of the actions are simple to achieve, like calling out something or possibly grabbing the red die, there are others that are quite challenging if one is already holding some eggs. Grabbing a bouncing rubber egg while one is held between your head and shoulder? How about running around the table with an egg tucked between your knees. It’s a silly game that is fun for kids, but I suspect the right mix of adults will enjoy it even more.

Forest Festival

Another memory game, Forest Festival has 2-4 players glancing at a card and then trying to recall the twelve animals displayed there.

Players get to look at a single, master card that displays 12 out of 20ish different forest creatures in various poses, some of which are partially hidden as well. The card is flipped face down again and players take turns picking up cards from the tableau that display creatures that were on the master card.

All is not just fun and games, as some of the creatures are very similar and differ only in slight ways. There’s a beaver and a platypus both jumping rope. There’s also an orange snake and an orange lizard, both wearing a slice of pizza?

Players earn points for correct guesses. After 12 rounds/master cards, a winner is declared.