One of my appointments allowed me to look at a wide variety of more lightweight mainstream titles along with a few items that started to lean closer to puzzles or activities. Vango Toys had two food-themed games present, Smack n Cheese along with Gummy Grab. Smart Games (makers of lots of those little plastic pocket puzzles) were showing off a chess-themed puzzler, Chess Peace. Finally, Ultra Pro Entertainment (maker of lots of trading card accessories) had the party game Will Get Won’t Get, the conversation starter TableTopics: Geek Pop!, an assortment of digital trivia-ish games: Turbo Trivia, Trivia Electronic Game – Disney Edition, and finally a sort of 20 question digital toy in the form of Pokemon Trainer Ultimate and Guess All Stars – Disney Edition.

Vango Toys

Smack n Cheese

Smack n Cheese is a lightweight matching game for 2 to 6 players. The game starts with a card in the middle of the table and each player holding a face-down pile of cards. Players flip over and play the top card from their stack. If the objects on that card match any of the objects on the center card, all players race to smack the rubber noodle. The fastest smack wins a card from the central pile. With more players there are actually two noodles so two possible winners.

The main selling point, in my estimation, are the squeaky-toy mac and cheese noodles on the center of the table.

The noodle in all its glory.

Matches do not have to be complete, so bacon or macaroni would match a macaroni and bacon card. The goal of the game is to be the first to claim a “set” of cards, one of each type – bowl, noodle, cheese, and utensil. I’ll note that some cards are pretty similar, the cheese being one. There’s a yellow cheese and an orange cheese, so you don’t want to play this game in poor lighting.

Gummy Grab (by Jordan Goddard)

A speed game of matching number cards, players start with a deck of cards and then simultaneously race to get rid of the deck by playing onto a central tableau of four cards. (Yes, you do tear open the game bag and it has a “Ziploc” top to keep it shut…)

Cards can be placed if they match the number or the color combo on the card. Note, the colors actually come in pairs, so you’re matching the pair of colors, not just one. The first player to get rid of all their cards grabs a gummy worm from the middle of the table. The cards are shuffled and dealt out again for the next round. After three rounds, the player with the most worms wins.

Will Get Won’t Get (by Kim Vandenbroucke)

Will Get Won’t Get is a party game where one team guesses answers within a topic while the opposing team guesses how many answers the guessers will get correct. There are seven correct answers on the card, with a couple extra deemed too obvious.

First,the non-guessing players try to guess which specific answers will be missed, indicating those numbers with “Will” or “Won’t” get tokens. As the active team guesses, the appropriate marker is removed and the active team gets 2 points per correct answer.

After the guessing finishes, the opposing team gets 1 point for every remaining “Won’t” token left on the board (they weren’t guessed.) There are bonus points if there are as many markers (or more) left than the opposing team predicted at the beginning of the round.

Ultra Pro Entertainment

Turbo Trivia

Turbo Trivia is an electronic trivia game with four colored buttons. They are primarily used as a buzz-in for each of four players. The game goes for three game rounds. The first round has a player answering a series of questions until they get one wrong or run out of time. If another player thinks the buzzed-in question is incorrect, they can quickly press their button and give a different answer.

The other players then buttons to decide who they think is correct. All the correct players score a point and if the active player is wrong, they’re out for the round. The second round removes the timer and just rotates players for each question. The final round is a push-your-luck affair where you can stop at any time but if you get a question wrong you lose all your points.

Trivia Electronic Game – Disney Edition

The newest in a long-running line of Disney-themed electronic trivia games. This one has 1,000 true or false questions in five different categories. The five available categories are Royals, Heroes & Villains, Animals & Creatures, Friends & Family, Locations & Lands. The quiz can be based around any one of these or one chosen at random. Gameplay starts with individual true/false questions, two points for a correct guess but 1 point to all other players if you’re wrong. Next, the game progresses to a first-to-answer mode. The final mode awards double points to help players/teams catch up. The solo mode has the player answering questions until they get three wrong in total.

Pokemon Trainer Ultimate & Guess All Stars – Disney Edition

Both of these titles are basically trivia games. There are a couple options available. One delivers a question and the player must pick the answer out (a pokemon or character) from a few displayed on the tiny screen. This can be played in vs mode by alternating sets of questions or a solo mode where you see how many questions you can answer before getting one wrong.

The “new” mode in this edition is a digital version of 20 questions. Pick a Pokemon/Disney Character and then the electronic device will go through a series (supposedly very few) questions. Eventually it will then decide who the pokemon/character is… surprise! In the case of the Pokemon, at least, the game tracks which pokemon have been guessed and you can peruse your “collection” to see which ones you still need to collect.

TableTopics: Geek Pop!

Table Topics: Geek Pop! is exactly what it says on the tin. This is a box of conversation starters you can use to help a group simply get to know each other. Apparently there are several varieties, this new version focuses on geek/nerdish culture. There are 135 questions in the box, some examples are: How would you rank the Star Wars films? Which wizard in fiction is the most powerful? Who would you be in an alternate reality?

Smart Games

Chess Peace

Chess Peace is one of those puzzle games where you have a handful of pieces and need to fit them all onto the game board. Typically, a few are placed for you and then you need to fill in the rest. Here, players are given chess pieces that are glued to a clear tetris-like base, roughly in the same shape as their chess-style movement. Players are asked to fill up the board with the chess pieces so that no piece is able to capture another (hah – “peace”.) And that’s it. There’s a booklet full of starting setups ranging from beginner all the way up to really hard… :)