Our pal Nate Heasley is popping around at Toy Fair finding the stuff we missed, when instead he should be manning his booth to promote his award-winning board game, Wits And Wagers.
I spent quite a bit of time roaming around the show looking for puzzles. A couple years ago, it seemed like the entire “Game Zone” was filled with Sudoku variants, which are nowhere to be seen these days (thank god). These days puzzles seem to be out of vogue, but I did run across this clever little game from ToySmart called Path. The game comes with dozens of tiles, each with a unique pattern of differently colored dots and a “path” that runs through the middle. The game is simple enough to explain; simply lay down all the tiles and create a path from your side of the board to the other before your opponant does the same
But despite how simple it sounds it’s a very complex game with some good strategy, even if it is aimed for kids 8+. The nice part is that not only is it a very good two-player game, but it’s also a sort-of tangram puzzle set for solo play too, so it’s something your kids can do on their own or with a friend. Price is around $25 if I remember correctly, though at this point it looks like it doesn’t have any distribution in the US. Fat lot of good that does you! – Nate
I looked for Nate and Rob, since I heard he was there too. Never found either of them. I did play Wits and Wagers game. Seems very fun, and the people in the booth were very nice and fun.