Last Game I Played

NaBloPoMo asks :

“What was the last game you played?”

     The last game I played was just last night.  I played a quick game of Creationary with my kids.  It is a wonderful game that combines LEGOS, creativity, a LEGO die you create, and a stack of playing cards that include four distinctive building categories: nature, vehicles, buildings, and things.  With a roll of the die, the category is set, a card is drawn, and it is game on!  Once everyone has completed their creation, each person shows their creation to the others, and the guessing begins. 

       I personally love LEGO games for their flexibility.  Each game includes a rule book with suggestions on game play.  The fun is making your own version.  In my family’s version, we simply are challenged to build what is on the card and then everyone gets a guess.  We are all winners, and the fun comes in the creating and the guessing.

       My kids begged to play three jerks before bedtime last night and I obliged, because that is the kind of mom I am.  What can I say?  I love to play games.  I love the interaction with my kids, and in the case of this game, I love to try to figure out the best way to make my LEGO bricks come to life and magically represent the colorful picture on the card.  All too soon, our beds beckoned.  If only summer vacation was here, the game could have gone on. Unfortunately, there are a couple more weeks of school to endure.  A couple more weeks of waking up at the butt crack of dawn, planners to sign, and papers to Oooo and Ahhh over before we are all granted a reprieve.  What was the last game you played?  Inquiring minds want to know until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.
       

Creationary Review

     The GBE2 challenge to review something this week had me drawing a blank. I wrote a great review about Eggies and then discovered my friend Jo had already written a brilliant review about the amazing product that allows you to make hard boiled eggs without the shell. Check it out! She did an amazing job? What to write about?? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks…as in LEGO bricks!

     I play a lot of games with my kids and this Christmas I got another one called “Creationary”. Creationary is a LEGO game and is fun and engaging for the whole family. The best thing about LEGO games is that the rules are more guidelines or actual suggestions. You and your family can play the game the way the instructions suggest or modify it to make it your own.

  

   According to the game rules the object of the game is to be the first player to score 5 points by building creations and guessing other players creations. The game comes with a special LEGO dice that you get to assemble, 338 LEGOS in assorted sizes and colors, and 96 cards divided into 3 levels of difficulty: basic, advanced, and expert.

    

        On your turn you roll the dice and carry out the action rolled. The dice has 6 sides which include the building categories nature, vehicles, buildings, things, “X2“, and “?”. If you roll the “X2” you choose the category you would like to build before you pick up a card, tell everyone what category you are building, and then proceed as normal. If an opponent guesses what you are creating you both get double the points. The person who builds gets points and the person who guesses correctly gets points. If you roll a “?”, you get to choose the category to build too. You can keep score by counting the number of “?” on the back of the cards. Building or guessing a creation from a card with 3 “?” earns you 3 points.

     I have found while playing with my kids that the fun part of this game is the building and guessing. Instead of waiting around for each person to have a turn, one person rolls the dice to select the category and then we all take a card and build. When our creation is done, we all guess at what was built. We have abandoned the scoring and the rules regarding the “X2” and “?”.

     I like having the cards to challenge me to build to the best of my ability what is pictured. I like how this game forces you to think, problem solve, and be creative. In my opinion it is a great game to play with the whole family as you build and celebrate each other’s creations.

      As you play, you learn from everyone else on ways to build different things. We may have did away with the rules using the “?” and “X2” spaces and have went off on a tangent on how we play, but the beauty of LEGO games is the freedom it gives you to make the game your own. It forces you to think outside the box and forces you to be creative. After you play it a while, your building and guessing skills get a lot better and your imagination grows by leaps and bounds. You begin to know what blocks to use and how to get the desired look you want. Since we don’t play for points, we are all winners which keep both my kids happy and me sane. That is precisely what my family loves the most about it until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.