I’m not much of a banana person. I don’t like bananas au natural. I don’t like banana bread - not even when my friend Dustin makes it, though it is reportedly amazing. I don’t like banana in my smoothies. I don’t like slices of banana in my cereal. Elvis’s preferred combination of peanut butter and [...]
Archive for the ‘Games’ Category
National Family Game Night tonight
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009Forget those TV premiers that you’ve been enjoying all week. Tonight is the first official National Family Game Night, and that sounds like fun. Hasbro is sponsoring the event and challenging families to take a deep breath, turn off the iPhones, the iPods, the iMacs and any other iThingies that distract you from your kids. [...]
Balance, build, and strategize with games from Foxmind
Friday, April 24th, 2009Not since Blue Orange have I found a company with a suite of games that are all fresh, smart, fun, and great for all ages. Foxmind makes a group of solitaire, thinking, and spatial logic games. I opened 3 of the games at our Magic Beans store in Hingham today: Equilibrio, Zoologic, and Meta-Forms - [...]
Going on a Bear Hunt
Saturday, June 14th, 2008On a recent family trip, I was looking for some new travel games to test out with my kids, who are finally old enough to enjoy playing games together (sometimes). I discovered a new line of games from Melissa & Doug, the venerable toy company known for their colorful and interactive wooden toys and puzzles, [...]
Building a Better Mousetrap
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008Some days have unexpected themes. My daughter received the game, “Mouse Trap” for her birthday this year. Remembering the sheer volume of pieces from playing this game as a kid, I’d been a little hesitant to get it open. Finally today, we had some quiet time together, and we decided to give it a whirl. [...]
A Good Gag
Monday, March 31st, 2008When someone from Daily Candy contacted me last week to ask about my new favorite toy for Spring, I didn’t hesitate. We just received a shipment of one of the best things I found at Toy Fair - a new game called Capture the Gag.
Capture the Gag is a hide-and-seek game that comes with two [...]
Swinxs Set
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008If you’re wondering what the founder of Bugaboo is up to these days, the answer may surprise you. I bumped into Eduard Zanen at Toy Fair this year, where he was promoting a new toy concept that he is developing in the Netherlands. Swinxs aims to be an unvideo game - an interactive gaming console [...]
A whole new dimension for Set
Monday, February 25th, 2008I became a fan of the game Set during my senior year of high school when our college guidance counselors kept it on hand for distracting stressed-out students during free periods. Long after our letters had come, we still hung out in their basement office, playing that addictive game.
If you’ve never played, Set is a [...]
How Mao? Try Quao.
Sunday, August 19th, 2007Fourteen summers ago, I came home from a teen tour obsessed with a card game I had learned — Mao. If you aren’t familiar with this diabolically fun game, Mao has no rules. Or at least, none that can be explained. But in this day and age, you can find everything on the internet, including [...]
Automatic Pile It
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007One of the first games I ever reviewed on Spillingthebeans was Ruckus. This card game has since become a success, thanks to the exceedingly simple and exceptionally fun concept. Dan Levy is the founder of Funstreet Games, and the brain behind Ruckus. Until now, he’s been a one-trick pony, but he’s just released a new [...]
