game night Archives

Family Game Night: Utter Nonsense Family Card Game

November 14, 2017 by Momstart Leave a Comment

We received a sample for review.

What we received:

UTTER NONSENSE

The game contains 50 Accent Cards and 450 Phrase Cards which players combine and act out.

500 Cards Chock-full of Family Fun

Made in USA

Age Range: 8 + Years

MSRP: $24.99

This hilarious accent game began with a few friends who love to laugh. After playing this game for years at parties and family gatherings, the creators decided to share it with the world. Utter Nonsense is now making its way around the globe, or at least into your home.

What we thought of the game:

We played this game one night as part of our family game night. We had a blast doing different voices and deciding who won each time. I love how the kids were able to pick just on if they liked it or not and not necessarily because someone was the best. For some of them they had no idea what the accent was supposed to be. It was fun and very interactive. I think it’s important for families to play games like this to keep up creativity and courageousness. It’s good for kids to be able to think on their feet and to not be afraid to try. Just try, that’s what we say in our family. I think we played for a few hours the first time we played.

Watch our Video here, you can also find Utter Nonsense on our Video Guide.

Cars 3 Risky Raceway By Spin Master #Cars3Event #CarsGames #SpinMasterGames #Cars3 #AD

June 16, 2017 by Momstart 19 Comments

This is a sponsored post with Spin Master.

Today Cars 3 raced into theaters and into the hearts of little kids everywhere. I’m sure you’ve seen some of our coverage already. We interviewed part of the cast, we attended the Cars 3 red carpet premiere, and we wrote out review of Cars 3. We also made a list of toys that your kids are going to want to take home so they can continue enjoying the movie characters at home. We have one more game to add to that list, Cars 3 Risky Raceway.

In Cars 3 we have three major characters, Storm, Lightening McQueen and Cruz.

You can see the red car of course is Lightening, the yellow car is Cruiz and the black car is storm. In Cars 3 Risky Raceway your kids can play any of those three characters.

Bring home the racing fun and excitement of Cars 3 with the Spin Master Games Cars 3 Risky Raceway Board Game. Join Lightning McQueen, Cruz Ramirez, and Jackson Storm as they train for the big race! Use Training Tokens to avoid hazards. Reach the checkered flag first to win. Race over bridges and avoid hazards on the Risky Raceway!

The game was really easy to put together. All the game pieces came pre-cut and popped right out.

The game board is made of puzzle pieces making it fun to put together for younger kids.

Zoe put the entire game together for me and we sat down to play.

As you play the game you can make choices on which direction you want to go, do you take that shortcut or do you go the long way. It’s hard to say which is the right way to go. But either way the first person to the checkered flag is the one that wins.

One of the things that makes this game really fun is that some of the shortcuts or paths in the game are 3D. I really like how they stand up and just add another dimension to the game.

And to make it even more fun you have to try to avoid the hazards and obstacles. You can earn training cards and if you meet a hazard without a training card you are stuck until you earn a training card. Better get one quickly before someone else wins the game.

Spin Master Games – Cars 3 toys are available now at Walmart and Toys”R”Us

Monopoly Madness Token Contenders (50 New Monopoly Token Images) #MonopolyVote

January 19, 2017 by Momstart 1 Comment

These are the Monopoly Tokens you can vote on

Monopoly Madness

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

• Scottie Dog • Thimble • Car • Cat • Battleship • Hat • Wheelbarrow • Boot • Horse • Rooster • Goldfish • Tortoise • Penguin • Rabbit • T-Rex • Telephone • Typewriter • Bathtub • Television • Key • Gramophone • Trumpet • Sports Car • Race Car • Motorcycle • Helicopter • Private Jet • Monster Truck • Scooter • Smiley Face • Kissy Face • Wink • Laughter • MR. MONOPOLY Emoji • Hashtag • Thumbs Up • Surfboard • Sailboat • Life Preserver • Jetski • Beach Ball • Speed Boat • Rubber Duck • Sunglasses • Cowboy Hat
• Bowtie • Pocket Watch • Cufflinks • Money Clip • Watch • Campfire • Wheel • Computer • Bicycle • Camera • Sliced Bread • Wireless Phone • Cowboy Boot • Bunny Slipper • Sneaker • Roller-skate • Flip Flop • Dress Shoe • Rain Boot

Sadly, Blue Orange Games’ Puzzle Battle is a Fail

December 7, 2014 by Beeb 2 Comments

Written By Summer:

Sample provided.

Everywhere we go, we bring games. When the kids and I leave the house, I get an arm full of things like this:

If we’re waiting anywhere the kids ask, “What can we play?” I’ve reviewed Blue Orange’s Battle Sheep and Niya, and now they’ve offered me Puzzle Battle which comes in three different varieties – Jungle, Dragon and Princess, and the sample I received for this review was Pirates.

Puzzle battle is designed for players age 6+ and can only have two players. The game time is approximated at 15 minutes. Each Puzzle Battle includes a model for each player (so 2 models), and two puzzles have 30 pieces each. The concept is easy: mix up the pieces, then players simultaneously take pieces to “battle” by completing their own puzzle. The first player to assemble their puzzle is the winner.

Unfortunately, I have to be very honest. I worried about taking this game when the chance to review Puzzle Battle was offered to me, but I’m a huge Blue Orange fan, so I thought I’d give Puzzle Battle a try. And so I began my research.

Test Game (1) me vs. my younger child, (2) me vs. my older child (3) older vs. younger child, (4) older child vs. friend, (5) older vs. his BFF. And the verdict all around – FAIL! So sorry Blue Orange because I do love your games, but Puzzle Battle is not one I’d recommend.

(1) When I played my younger son, I could’ve given him a 15 minute head start and it wouldn’t have mattered. I was going slowly. To his credit it stressed him out, and he kept wanting to see my progress. I couldn’t go slow enough!

(2) I don’t let my kids win when we play games. I may give them the illusion they could win, but I don’t let them win. If they win, they earn it. I was surprised, though, how slow my older son was compared to me. I gave him a bit of a head start, and then started. For every 3-4 pieces I got in, he got one. I had to slow down significantly to my already snail-like pace, BUT then it wasn’t fun for either of us. My older doesn’t like to feel that he has the handicap in a game.

(3) My older son also tried to give his brother the advantage. Older noticed he would win and was intentionally going slow. In the end, my older finished his puzzle and then helped younger. Mix-matched age games don’t seem to work. Older and younger are 2½ year apart in age.

(4) With the previous “mix-matched age” statement out there … A family friend’s daughter, 1½ years younger than my older, came over to play. I thought they might be a better match for playing Puzzle Battle. They both hit the game hard, but she quickly fell behind. She ended up giving up as older began to smoke her. Older, age 7, was playing Puzzle Battle for the third time and he already had the game down and “memorized” the puzzle (even though there are two different puzzle styles – there is one puzzle and the other is the inverted picture with some minor color differences).

(5) Older played his BFF, despite my previous memorization discovery. BFF is from another big gaming family, so I thought the game would be a little closer between the winner and the loser, but it wasn’t. BFF had the same problem as situation #4. Older has the puzzle down.

Older and I could now play Puzzle Battle, but repeating a 30 piece puzzle over and over again doesn’t appeal to him. He would rather play a different game OR build a larger piece puzzle. With the sample provided for this review, I’m going to ask my younger’s Kindergarten teacher if she would like it. My thought is it could be a puzzle (not a battle) for kids to complete. My children are beyond 30 pieces (even younger at 5yo), but not everyone in younger’s class are beyond puzzles this size.

One other thing I don’t really like about Puzzle Battle is all the pieces; 64 in total. If you lose one, you’re out of luck. Other games, for example Blue Orange’s Spot It has a bunch of cards, but if you miss one, no big deal as you can still “Spot It” on every card as they all match up. Another example is Blue Orange’s Yamslam, which has coins you collect and dice; if you lose a dice you can get another easily from another game or dice don’t cost much at any gaming store. Also in Yamslam, if you’re missing a points coin it’s no big deal as it’s just points and doesn’t set any player off as all players can collect any coin. If you’re missing a puzzle piece from Puzzle Battle, then you really have an incomplete game.

Holiday Fun with Looney Labs

December 6, 2014 by Jessie 1 Comment

Samples provided.

I love board games. I love card games.
I wish I had more friends to play with. I have to say, when I go to my favorite brick and mortar Pacific Northwest bookstore, the first place I stop is the comics and games section. I love browsing the different titles and options. More than once Fluxx has caught my eye. Often I stopped to look at it, but noticing all the different titles, I automatically assumed that it was a “Magic” type game where you just kept buying add-ons and expanding. Much to my surprise, it turns out there are just many different variations of the game, and you could start with any one of them. Pick your favorite!

I received Holiday Fluxx and Cartoon Network Fluxx in the mail and I opened them up. I have to admit the rules are a bit intimidating but once you get the hang of it, it’s not so bad. The most difficult part for me was having rules that weren’t absolutely cut and dry, but after watching a couple rounds on youtube, I started to get the hang of it. I began with Holiday Fluxx simply because I wasn’t familiar with the Adventure Time characters on the Cartoon Network version, but familiarity isn’t necessary to play the game. Once you start, the different cards lead you to understand how to pair and play different characters and actions. And you have to admit, a Mojo Jojo card totally makes up for not intimately knowing all the newer Cartoon Network characters. Both of these games would make great holiday party activities especially if paired with a little bit of wine, dare I say.

The other game I received was Loonacy. I loved the simplicity of Loonacy and also the speed required. I thought that Loonacy, while a nice game for a couple or a party, would also be a nice game to keep in my classroom. It requires concentration, memory recall and quick hand-eye coordination. Unlike similar games it doesn’t require reading skills, making it good for the early childhood and early elementary classroom. It could be used as a warm-up game or even an early finisher activity. The best part of it is the ease of learning. The directions are straightforward and easily understood for a beginner or child.

Soooo….
Who wants to come over and play with me?!

Check out Lunacy and Fluxx on LooneyLabs.com!

Rotten Apples: A Great “Pick” For Game Night!

November 13, 2014 by Beeb Leave a Comment

Sample provided.

One of my favorite girls’ night traditions is playing cards and board games. So when I saw a blurb for Rotten Apples, I was immediately intrigued: It looked like a combination of “Apples to Apples” and “Cards Against Humanity”, two of my favorites to play with my BFF, so I thought this would be a really fun one to try out!

Rotten Apples has the same kind of gameplay as the other games in this genre: One person serves as “Apple Picker” and selects a card from the “Prompt card” pile. The players then choose from one of the 10 “Answer cards” in their hand which they think gives the best/funniest answer to the question, and the Apple Picker selects their favorite, who snags the answer card as proof that they won the round. The winner becomes the new Apple Picker, and the game continues until one person wins three cards.

I received this card right before throwing a Halloween-themed bachelorette party, and since this is “The tasteless adult party game”, I thought it would be pretty fitting! All the guests thought it looked like a blast, but we all spent so much time chit-chatting and enjoying the buffet that we got too tired and had to call it a night before we had a chance to try it out.

So, the following weekend I asked Jai if he would play a round with me. One of the things that really appealed to me about this game is that the box says it can be played with between 2 and 10 players. Jai loves video games but loathes board games – go figure – but he humored me and agreed to play a round so I could test it out. 😉

One of the issues that my bestie and I run into is that we’re usually the only ones who want to play, so I thought a 2-player game would be perfect for our game nights! However, I don’t think Rotten Apples works very well with two people, because the Apple Picker has to vote for either their own card or their opponent’s. Neither Jai or I are competitive, so it worked OK for us because we did just vote for the card we thought was the most genuinely funny – for example, the photo above is one of Jai’s selections that I voted for over mine because it was funnier than my cards! However, this wouldn’t work for everybody, and I definitely think it would be way more fun with more players.

As for the gameplay itself, my initial impression that it was somewhere between “Cards Against Humanity” and “Apples to Apples” was dead on. The cards are most certainly very risque, but not as extreme as Cards Against Humanity. It’s also not as clever, but it’s still definitely fun! If you’re a fan of these type of games, I think it’s absolutely worth adding to your collection, because you’ll get a lot of fun out of it! Because the game comes complete with 455 answer cards and each one of the 65 prompt card is double-sided, you have a lot of options to play with before it would become stale.

Rotten Apples is sold exclusively at Toys ‘R Us for $22.99 – learn more at PlayRottenApples.com!

Is It a Game? Or is it Chocolate? The Answer is Yes!

November 5, 2014 by Heather Heyer 1 Comment

I received Candy Land, Guess Who, Scrabble and Monopoly Hasbro Games as samples from Gamesformotion. The opinion stated is my own.

Those long loved classic games of your youth are now available in Chocolate! Say What? Oh Yeah!

Remember that classic game of Candy Land? Remember getting lost in thought with wanting the candy that so sweetly decorated the game board? Gamesformotion has taken the board games of our youth and added a little bit of sweetness with chocolate edition games like Monopoly, Battle Ship, Candy Land, and Scrabble. I think the wildest dreams of my youth just came true. Sa-weet!

The Netherlands-based company Gamesformotion is well known and respected for tailor made marketing and advertising products as well as educational products. “Most of us are able to say that our happiness and sentimental moments revolve around playing our favorite board games with our family and friends,” says Gamesformations CEO Arnoud Super. I can say that for me, that is true.

Here’s what you should know:

The quality and flavor of the chocolate is average. There really is no such thing as bad chocolate in my opinion but this is not finest quality gourmet chocolate either.
The quality of the game board and pieces is, well, disposable. The board and player pieces are not meant to be played with time and time again. It looks good and is fun to play but not a lifer game.
The quality of the “Wow!” factor is through the roof! It’s a game made out of chocolate….Come on!It is a unique game and a unique gift. Gamesformotion games as gift are unique enough that people really enjoy giving and receiving them. After all it is the thought that counts. I will be using one of them for a gift exchange at my husbands work. They always try to “out do” each other with unique gifts and this is a winner for sure.

Would I buy this product: I would if I had an occasion to do so, then yep I would, especially if it were even more personalized.

Hasbro Chocolate Edition Games will be available starting in November at major retail stores such as Target, CVS, Kmart and more. Retail price is $9.99 – a price well worth the fun.

Family Game Night: Blue Orange’s, Niya: Two Thumbs Up

October 15, 2014 by Momstart Leave a Comment

By Summer

We’re a gaming family; you might remember my post on Blue Orange’s Battle Sheep. We keep a deck of cards in our car; well, really the kids keep a deck of cards in the car, so we can breakout in random-acts-of-gaming anytime. I do have to admit though, I wish there were more, smaller-sized games, more than just cards. Sure there’s Uno or Phase 10 or Blue Oranges’s Spot it or Blue Orange’s Tell Tale, in addition to a normal deck of cards from which a catalog of games can be played — Old Maid, Go Fish, Rummy, Hearts, and our current kid fav, War. I want a small portable game with a quick end. If we’re out to eat we can break this out between being seated and ordering, or before the meal comes. Or even at home on those family game nights when time has escaped us between dinner and bedtime. Now Blue Orange has come out with a new game that’s fun, quick, easy, fun, esthetically beautiful, creatively deigned, and fun. It’s a mix of tic-tac-toe, Connect 4, and Hwa-tu called Niya.

This is a simple 2 player game and on the tin box they claim it only takes about 10 minutes per game, and they’re right depending upon factors like teaching children strategies or player thinking time. Blue Orange says Niya is appropriate for 8+ years, but our young 5 year old has played it with us and won; so depending on skill level, I think your child can be younger than their recommended playing age of 8 years old to play and enjoy Niya.

The concept is simple, the first to get 4 in a row or a 2×2 square wins. You can also win by forcing the other playing into a turn with no options. You can have a cat’s game, and my family thought it would happen more often than it has happened. In fact, we’ve been playing regularly with each other and friends, and we’ve only had ONE cat’s game. It’s no wonder Niya has won prestigious awards such as the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, Mom’s Choice Awards Gold, Tillywig – Brain Child, and the Major Fun Award. It’s a brilliantly fun family pleaser.

Here’s Brandon from Blue Orange to give you a 2 minute brief on playing Niya:

AND since it’s small, like I mentioned, that is a great game for Christmas stocking stuffers, and the price is right at under $15 on Amazon. You should also check with your local gaming store who is sure to have it in stock, or with your local chain store that are now stocking up for the Christmas season.

Blue Orange has MANY other creative games If you want to stay in touch with Blue Orange and be the first in the know on that’s going on by checking back with us here at Mom Start. You can also follow Blue Orange on Facebook and Twitter, or check out their website.

Happy gaming!

Monkey Pod Games: High Quality Wooden Games, Brain Teasers & Puzzles

March 19, 2014 by Momstart Leave a Comment

Samples received

Monkey Pod Games, creates eco-friendly, educational puzzles and brainteasers for children and adults. Their games, which include a Parent Choice Award winner, delivers an imaginative and fun hands on experience. Their wooden puzzles help develop the mind and improve valuable skills such as analytical thinking and problem solving.These are perfect for group or individual play.

Their games are all hand made by craftsmen using natural materials mainly from the Monkey Pod wood. They also take great care in respecting the eco-system that their materials come from. At Monkey Games you will find a huge variety of wooden brainteasers, puzzles, and family games. You can expect to discover beautiful hand made puzzles many which were designed and developed specifically by Monkey Pod Games for their customers. The games are both fun and educational! On the fun side they have created games that can be used for a great family night and they have developed brainteasers which can be solved by oneself or as a team. Many of the puzzles are also educational which build mathematical awareness as well as social and analytical skills. We like the quality very much.

About the Tumble Tower:

Based on the old African building block game, this classic game will be a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Put your architectural skills to the test by building a tower out of the wooden blocks. Break the ice but don’t break the tower. A great recreational and learning tool that is simple to learn and easy to play, but don’t get your hopes up or your tower may come toppling down!

Fire up The Grill With Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods

October 7, 2013 by Beeb 2 Comments

Complimentary veggie burgers received for taste testing!

I don’t know much of anything about sports, but I do know that this time of year means a lot of Football parties and, in turn, grilling. Now hosting a party with a grill is something I do know a little more about! I quite honestly love using a grill for big gatherings, because it makes food prep so easy and you can customize each plate to whatever your guests would like. When I host a party like this, I always make sure I pick up several boxes of veggie burgers so that there are options for every diet and taste.

Over the summer, I was introduced to my new favorite vegetarian patty line from Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods. So when they offered to send over a few new flavors to consider for grilling season, I was all ears! I received 4 flavors: Tex Mex, Thai, and familiar-to-me favorites Asian and California. Out of all of them, I’d still have to say that the Asian Veggie Burger is the favorite in our household. Jai had a few favorites, but as he said, “I liked all of them – none of them were bad!”.

I’d say the Thai Veggie Burger was my second favorite; Jai thought that one and the California burger were OK, but enjoyed the TexMex more. I wasn’t keen on the TexMex, primarily because I was starting to get a flu bug when I first tasted it and it didn’t appeal because as I realized later, I was feeling “Off”. I tried it again when I was feeling better and still didn’t like it because of the association – that happened to me once with shrimp, but I get over it after a little period of time so I’m sure I can enjoy the TexMex in the future. 😉

Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burgers are perfect for grilling and can also be prepared in the microwave and conventional oven. I prepared the burger in the photo above by sticking a Thai patty in the oven for 9 minutes at 450 degrees and serving on two toasted sliced of homemade bread covered in honey mustard and red onion. Mmmm!

For more information on these burgers including where to buy, visit DrPraegers.com!