Smart Mom’s Toy Box: 11 Spring Brain Games 1. Anomia Anomia: [uh-NO-mee-uh] – Noun – 1) A problem with word finding or recall. 2) Chaos. 3) The game where common knowledge becomes uncommonly fun! Anomia plays off the fact that our minds are positively brimming with all sorts of random information: things to eat, pop songs, websites, etc. Sure, under normal circumstances, it’s easy enough to give an example of a frozen food or a dog breed, but you will find that your brain works a little differently under pressure! The directions are simple. Draw a card from the center pile and flip it over. Does the symbol on your card match one on another player’s card? If so, you must quickly face off with the other player by giving an example of the person, place, or thing on their card before they can do the same for yours. If you blurt a correct answer out first, you win their card and drawing continues. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. Wild cards allow unlike symbols to match, increasing the number of things you must pay attention to. Cascading face-offs can occur when you hand over a lost card revealing a new top card on your play pile. All this adds up to a high-energy, hilarious play experience where everyone is involved at all times. Easy to learn and fun to play over and over again, Anomia will have any group of friends, family, and even perfect strangers shouting and laughing out loud as they try to beat each other to the punch! Gobblet Game for Kids 2. Gobblet Gobblet brings the multiple award-winning, fun game of strategy to the whole family. Gobblet plays just like Tic-Tac-Toe except that you can gobble up your opponent and move your pieces around the board. Be the first to line up three pieces in a row and win. Fun, strategy, memory, and surprise are always part of the game. This game is for two players. 3. Mastermind Test your code-cracking prowess with Mastermind, the challenging game of logic and deduction. The code maker sets a code of four colored pegs—choosing from yellow, red, orange, blue, green, or white—and conceals it behind a flip-up shield. Your mission is to replicate the code in 10 moves or fewer. With each of the code breaker’s attempts, the code maker uses red and white key pegs to offer cryptic clues about color and position. Make the game even more difficult by using multiple pegs of the same color or by leaving one or more peg holes empty. With more than 2,000 possible code combinations, every game is guaranteed to be a brain-bender. Mastermind is for two players. 4. Reverse Charades Reverse Charades is a hilarious new twist on charades! Split into teams and go! Each team chooses a guesser and the rest of the team acts out the words. Each team has one minute to guess as many words as possible. If the acting team doesn’t like a word, they can pass, but only once per round! When you buy Reverse Charades, a portion of the price supports efforts to bring laughter to kids and their families at Children’s Hospitals. 5. Sounds Like a Plan To paraphrase the great John Lennon, “A game is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Such is the case with Sounds Like a Plan, the latest party game from the creative minds that also brought us “In a Pickle.” As so many inventors tell us, the best ideas come not when they are focused on trying to make something, but when they are busy doing other things. What’s the best plan for climbing Mt. Everest? How about the worst plan for making a million bucks? Find out in this party game that’s all about giving outrageous advice. Select a card containing a piece of advice that best fits the judge’s chosen activity. Score points if the judge takes your advice, but keep in mind that plans change with the roll of a die. You might have to give out bad advice or your grandma’s advice. Take our advice and play today. 6. Spontuneous What if a board game inspired you to burst into song? If you’ve ever heard a word that triggered you to sing a song, then Spontuneous is the game for you! This board game is fun, fast-paced, and full of laughs! Don’t take our word for it! Read the reviews for yourself. Spontuneous is a unique way to spend quality time with your family. Spontuneous (spon-TUNE-ee-us): Acting on the natural tendency or impulse to burst into song. Have you ever heard a word that triggered you to sing a song? If so, then you are Spontuneous. Players take turns trying to think of a word that will stump the other players from being able to sing a five-word portion of lyrics (from any song) that contains the given trigger word. If the 15-second timer expires and you have stumped everyone, then you must prove you know a song containing your own trigger word or else it will test your knowledge of lyrics and will forever change the way you listen to music. Once you play Spontuneous, you’ll be hooked. Let the party begin. 7. Tic-Tac-Ku If you love to play the Colorku Game, then you will love the new Tic-Tac-Ku Game! A new adaptation of the classic tic-tac-toe game, Tic-Tac-Ku Game is the durable wooden game that is full of strategy that really makes you use your marbles in every sense! The Tic-Tac-Ku Game is played on a square board where the play of one player dictates where the next player must place his or her marble. While this game play might sound easy, the Tic-Tac-Ku Game involves a lot of skill and strategy in order to win. The first player to win five or the majority of the squares is the winner! So, if you thought tic-tac-toe was an easy game, then the Tic-Tac-Ku Game is about to change your perception! This game is for two to four players. 8. Time’s Up! Title Recall Welcome to Time’s Up! with a whole new look for our smash hit game. Instead of famous people, we crammed over 800 famous things into this game. Guess titles of famous books, songs, movies, TV shows, and lots more. New for this edition are expanded rules to allow an odd number of players. Even more exciting is the addition of an all new fourth round, the freeze challenge. Time’s Up! Deluxe The 10th Anniversary Edition of our hottest party game comes with the best of the original and a huge collection of all new names! Plus it has even more added fun with the advanced play fourth round and it comes with a cool programmable electronic timer! We took the best of the original game and its expansion sets and doubled that with all new names! Comes with over 1,000 names plus an electronic timer…and has the new rules for an odd number of players as well as the hilarious new fourth round! 9. Traverse This classic strategy game has something for everyone, from beginners to advanced players to make it the perfect family game. Traverse combines the best features of chess and Chinese checkers. The four unique game pieces—circle, square, triangle, and diamond—each move in their own special way. It’s so easy to learn that players will be jumping, sliding, and maneuvering their way around the board in no time. This game is for two to four players. 10. Word on the Street On each turn, one team flips over a category card. Team members frantically brainstorm words that fit the category while the opposition tries to sidetrack them. The team must agree on a word and pull each letter of that word one lane closer to their side of the street, all before the time runs out. Word on the Street will have you in the fast lane to fun. 11. Yikerz Place your Yikerz pieces (magnets) down on the board and try to avoid attracting the other pieces already played. The object is to get rid of all your pieces. If Yikerz collapse together, those pieces are yours to add to your stack. Stand the Yikerz upright for increased magnetism and danger for your opponents next turn! But beware, that play could backfire on your next turn. It includes a convenient travel pouch for portable fun anywhere, anytime! Yikerz is a great game is because the unique pieces interchangeable game board designs that allow for many different configurations, creating a variety of challenges and suits different skill levels. It can be played solo, head-to-head, or in teams.