Tag: games

Education, Reviews, Toy Reviews

EXIT The Game brings the escape room experience to your home (ages 10+)

Erin Sluka

Comment: I was sent these games. Thank you to Thames & Kosmos for collaborating with Parenting Healthy

EXIT: The Game brings the escape room experience to your home

Have you ever experienced an escape room event? If you have teens and need a party gathering idea, I challenge you to try an actual escape room. Its puzzles and riddles that get you out of the rooms and the faster you solve them the faster you move to the Exit. EXIT The Game are games for ages 10+ (depending on the version as some are 12+ and 16+). These bring the escape room to your home!

EXIT The Game

Anthony is 12 and we first learned about EXIT The Game from Thames and Kosmos when we visited Sweet Suite Toy Fair in NYC a few years back. Anthony was a tad young, had never experienced an escape room but I thought these looked so fun. Now he is a few years older and I finally got my hands on a few to try.

Once we realized how to solve page 1 riddle we began to make more sense and moved through the rest – yes, we had to use all 3 hint cards but this was our first attempt. We played House of Riddles rated for his age and it was challenging, a good thing! See how hard he is contemplating below…

escape room game

I have not dug into The Catacombs of Horror as that is an expert level ages 16+ but we will graduate to that soon enough. The riddles are fun and perhaps there is a bit of a theme to the set of riddles as you turn each page.

The instruction booklet worked well for us, but the best way to learn to play EXIT The Game is to download the Kosmos Helper App. In the app, you can find animated explanations of the instructions and other helpful features for a selection of Kosmos games. Available on iOS and Android devices,

EXIT game rules

This is such a great sleepover game for tweens and teens. If you like challenging games and to witness your older child’s level of problem solving the family game nights will surely be fun and challenged with any of the EXIT The Game sets. Available from Thames & Kosmos as well as retailers such as Amazon.

2019 Holidays, Toy Reviews

Name 5 and Everybody Knows! – 2 Games from Endless Games

Erin Sluka

Comment: I was sent product. Opinions are 100% my own

Name 5 and Everybody Knows! - 2 Games from Endless Games

Name 5 sports in the Winter Olympics – Go! You have 30 seconds. 30 seconds is not a long time when the answers don’t just come to you. Don’t get tongue tied because that will cost you time. Name 5 is a fun, rapid card game that is great for travel, camping or fun game nights when you don’t want to drag out a bunch of game pieces.

Name 5 has 108 Name 5 Cards (540 New Challenges!) and Instructions. That’s it! It is ready to play right from the box and just keep the card if you win to keep track of rounds. You can play as many rounds as you like. We have fun playing without keeping track of a winner so we can use the rest of the cards categories for the game. This is new from Endless Games and available on Amazon.

Wait! Did you actually want a board game? Name 5 has a board game too! My Amazon link above gets you both versions.

Don’t be such a know-it-all! In Everybody Knows! you may know it all, but know 10 questions in 60 seconds? That’s the challenge. This is another rapid game where you have to answer as many random questions in a row – how many can you get without answering wrong? That number is your score.

CONTENTS

  • 500 Playing Cards
  • 1 Sand Timer
  • 1 Dry Erase Marker
  • 1 Scorecard
  • Instructions

Play as a point system or as an all or nothing score. You can choose how to play this game. Either way it is serious brain exercise! Everybody Knows! is also available on Amazon. Visit Endless Games for more great gift ideas!

Home, Kids, Reviews, Toy Reviews

Summer Fun Yard Games: Ladder Ball and Cornhole

Erin Sluka

Summer is here and now to get the kids outside! Can you believe that is even an issue? Summer for me in the 80’s to 90’s was outside from the end of morning cartoons until dark. The best way to encourage outside play is to model it. So, get outside this summer and play with the kids. Bolaball has some great yard games to get you started.

Cornhole has always been my favorite yard game. Anytime I pass a cornhole game set up on a beach or city park, I can’t resist the urge to grab a bean bag and take some throws.

Bolaball has this red, white and blue board with a sturdy with scratch-resistant surface (perfect for the Fourth of July fun). The boards have sturdy legs and a woven handle. They store away in the included heavy-duty storage bag.

Available on Amazon

Another favorite of my entire family is Ladder Ball. Once you start a round it becomes addicting and you will find yourself playing several rounds. We first discovered this game years ago when friends brought it to a camping trip. The tweens and teens couldn’t leave it alone. It was the perfect game to occupy them.

Bolaball’s Ladder Ball is made with solid premium wood and colorful dowels for point keeping. The object of the game is to hang or wrap the Bola-Balls around the colored dowels attached to the target. The first person to 21 points WINS!!! Contents:

  • 6 Bolas in 2 team colors
  • 4 Vertical Poles
  • 6 Colored Dowels
  • Complete Game Instructions/Rules
  • Durable Bag
Available on Amazon
2019 Valentine's, Home, Reviews

Front Porch Classics Tabletop Shuffleboard

Erin Sluka

A few months ago we went to a relatives birthday party at a local gathering spot that was an old school turned hotel and restaurant row. In the main pub we ate at there were table games of darts and shuffleboard. It was where everyone gathered. First the kids gravitated to it as it was in the family dining area and then everyone was taking turns with rounds of Shuffleboard.

At home here we keep our shuffleboard as the “centerpiece” of the game room coffee table and it always gets played with. Neighbor kids gravitate to it all the time. How fun to see 10 year olds taking on a game of shuffleboard with heir video game remotes tossed aside?!

Anthony wanted to share a video with you that we titled, How to Score a Game of Shuffleboard. This will let you see a full round and how to score that round.

With this shuffleboard, Front Porch Classics brings pub-style shuffleboard home with this realistic, high quality, wooden table top version. It is a 2-piece board that fits well together and has adjustable legs to get the board nice and even on your surface for an even game.

This game ends when the first person reaches 15 points to be the champion. If you are a skilled shuffleboard player a full game can end in as little as 2-3 rounds, but the average I would imagine is about 5-6 rounds. A round is each of the 2 players sliding their 4 colored pucks as far down as possible without falling into the gutter of the board.

You can get your own Front Porch Classics Shuffleboard at Amazon!