Board Games Appeal Grows With New And Classic Parlor Games

Following a healthy 2003, the popularity of board games continues with several new parlor games, including all-new titles as well as new twists on old friends. At next month’s American International Toy Fair, Winning Moves Games, known for bringing back some of the most popular classic card and board games ever created, will launch a new rendition of Pente and introduce Coda, an addictive game of strategy and deduction that is currently one of the best-selling games in Japan. Other new games for the entire family include Domino Squares, Super Scrabble, Deluxe Pass the Pigs, Rubik’s 4x4, Rubik’s Checkers, Instant Insanity and a special 100th anniversary edition of the commodity-trading card game Pit.

The international code-breaking sensation is making its way from Japan and Europe to North America. In this quick-playing game, you use your detective skills – and intuition – to crack your opponents' secret codes. Each player starts with a concealed hand of black and white numbered panels. On your turn, you attack a number in an opponent's hidden code. Make an incorrect guess and you must reveal a number in your code. Guess correctly and you not only expose the opponent's number, you add a hidden number to your own code! You win if your opponents' codes are completely revealed and at least one number in your own code remains hidden.

The long-time favorite game of dominoes is now twice the fun! Unlike traditional dominoes, Domino Squares have four playable quadrants. As an added twist, some tiles have command words to spice-up game play and make you re-think your strategy. Players score points by adding the numbers on the open side of the Domino just played. The winner of the round is the first person to play all of his dominos. The winner of the game is the player with the highest score after three rounds.

Just when you thought you had mastered the Cube, Rubik’s is now bigger – with four cubes per side instead of the original three. Super-size your fun with more twists and turns in Rubik’s 4x4!

The time-honored game of checkers has been given the official Rubik’s treatment! But unlike traditional checkers, each of the 16 Rubik’s Checkers starts off as a king and has the ability to move forward and backward. If your opponent jumps your king, you get demoted to a man, which means you can only move backward. If your man is jumped, it’s captured and removed from the board. If your own king jumps your man, you can re-king your man. The winner is the first to remove all of his opponent’s pieces.

Proving great things come in small packages, the pocket-sized, made-to-travel Instant Insanity challenges kids for hours (or at least long enough to get to grandma’s house). Players try to position the four blocks so that the same color is facing on all sides – forming sides of red, blue, green and yellow. Millions of this 3D puzzle were sold in the 1960s and it’s back to challenge a whole new generation of kids and parents.

In this classic game of skill from the 1980s, players place gem-like stones on the board trying to surround their opponent’s stones, two at a time, ultimately capturing 10 stones to win. Alternatively, players can win by being the first to place five stones in a straight or diagonal line. Pente is popular all over the world – Google Pente and you’ll find pages and pages of links to Pente game sites.

First introduced in 1904, the original Pit game is based on the commodity market. Players try to corner the market by trading for Wheat, Barley, Oats, Corn and other commodities. Winning Moves’ 100th anniversary edition of Pit features a reproduction of the original commodity cards plus a deck of new commodity cards – gas, cattle, platinum and other items that weren’t traded a century ago. This special version of one of the most popular card games in history comes in a gift box – great for giving and also for storing in your family room or wherever you play games.

For the first time, the best-loved word game has been updated to feature quadruple-point squares, twice the number of letter-tiles and a larger playing board, making it possible to play words you could only dream of before. Get ready to rack-up the points with Super Scrabble!

Pass the Pigs is on a roll, having just marked its 25th anniversary and counting high-profile stars like Jeff Bridges and Tobey Maguire among its fans. Everyone who’s played Pass the Pigs loves to roll the pink pig-dice, known as Jack and Hugh Pigfellow. Now, Winning Moves takes this fun party game to the next level with double the dice and a game board for head-to-head play. Players roll a pair of pig dice and place chips on the board for each scoring roll. If a player pigs-out he must place 2 of his 6 chips in the pigpen AND pass his pigs to his opponent for a bonus roll of all 4 pigs! The points and the laughs add up faster than ever in Deluxe Pass the Pigs.

Also see: hilarium game.

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Nelly Ashton is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-games.com. Great games for the entire family for hours of fun or competition. We feature all your favorites.

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Board Games Appeal Grows With New And Classic Parlor Games