Animals

Go Teddy Go!

From the Ravensburger Catalog:

The bears love to play hide and seek! Roll the colored die, move along the path, and hide your three bears first to win. A sliding panel reveals caves for the bears to disappear into as their laughter sounds from a hidden voice chip!

Involves color recognition, association, simple strategy.

Ages 4 and up.

Kittens in a Blender

From the Designers:
You are twisted. I can’t believe you actually want to put these adorable kittens in a blender! I guess that’s none of my business. Maybe you’re more of a dog person. Sure, kittens are curious by nature, but when they get in a kitchen full of dangerous appliances, it is up to you to save them.

This fast-paced card game has players working to save all of their own kittens before the unthinkable happens. But sometimes the only way to save your precious litter of kittens is to let those curious little cats learn the lesson of why you should never play in a Blender!

According to the box: A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a no kill cat shelter.

Objective:
Save your kittens and send your opponents' kittens to The Blender.

Setup & Play:
Put the game box top on the table, open-side up and place the oversized Blender card inside, face-up: that's The Blender. Place the oversized Box card face up in the base of the box: that's The Box. Leave a little space between The Blender and The Box: that's The Counter. Assign each player a Kitten color (red, green, blue or yellow), shuffle the deck, deal each player 6 cards and it's time to start saving adventurous kittens.

On each turn, players play two cards and then draw back up to 6. Kitten cards may be played into The Blender, The Counter or The Box. All other cards are played face up in front of the player so that all players can see which cards have been played.

Players can play Kitties on the Move to move kittens to or from The Blender, The Counter or The Box; the number on the card specifies the number of kittens that can each be moved 1 space. Playing a Blend card will destroy the kittens currently in The Blender, save the kittens in The Box, and move the kittens on The Counter into The Blender unless countered by another player's Blend "Pulse" card.

Players can move kittens around with other cards as well. Kittens in the Blender moves all of the kittens on The Counter or in The Box to The Blender. With These Cats in the Blender a player can move all cats of a chosen color from The Counter and The Box to The Blender. Kittens in the Box moves all kittens in The Blender or on The Counter to The Box, while Cats on the Counter moves all the kittens in The Blender or The Box to The Counter.

Total chaos reigns when the Dog's in the Kitchen as each player gives her hand to the player in the direction indicated on the card.

The game ends when all 16 of the Blend cards have been played. Saved kittens are worth 2 points each, blended kitties cost 1 point each. Highest score wins.

Contents: 1 oversized Blender card, 1 oversized Box card, 110 playing cards (64 Kittens: 16 in each of 4 colors - red, green, blue and yellow; 18 Kitties on the Move: 6 of each number; 16 Blends: 8 Regular Blend & 8 Blend Black; 4 Dogs in the Kitchen: 2 left & 2 right; 2 Kittens in the Blender; 2 Your Cats in the Blender; 2 Cats on the Counter; 2 Kittens in the Box), rules.

Evolution

In Evolution, players adapt their species in a dynamic ecosystem where food is scarce and predators lurk. Traits like Hard Shell and Horns will protect your species from Carnivores, while a Long Neck will help them get food that others cannot reach. With over 4,000 ways to evolve your species, every game becomes a different adventure.

Evolution packs a surprising amount of variety for a game with simple rules. The variety comes from the synergies between the trait cards and from the different personalities at the table. Some players thrive on creating Carnivores to wreak havoc on their fellow players. Others prefer to stay protected and mind their own business. Evolution encourages both play styles by giving each of them multiple paths to victory. And it is the mix of play styles at the table that ultimately determines the eco-system in which the player are adapting. So gather your friends and see who can best adapt to the changing world around them.

Set-up
1) Give every player a food bag.
2) Randomly choose the start player.
3) Shuffle the cards and start playing! (easy peasy)

Turn Sequence for Each Round
1) Drawing cards: 3 cards + 1 card per species

2) Playing cards:
• Play one face-down card to determine the amount of plant food available this round.
• Play cards to create new species and modify existing species.

3) Feeding phase:
• Reveal the food cards and put that number of food on the Watering Hole.
• Feed your species plant food - or -
• Attack another species if you have a carnivore

4) Clean up phase:
• Species that received no food go extinct.
• Reduce the population of species that were not fully fed
• Place the food in your score bag.

End of Game
When the deck runs out, play one final round and then score points.

End of Game Scoring:
• 1 point for each food in your bag
• 1 point for each population of your existing species
• 1 point for each trait on your existing species

Pickomino

Two to seven players, ages 8 and up try to obtain fried worms for their chickens, so that they don't go hungry. Of course, anyone who doesn't manage to grab a worm off of the grill can help himself to those of his opponents. This fast-paced game by Reiner Knizia is, like Hick Hack im Gackelwack, a gambling game in the finest chicken tradition."

Each turn players roll their dice and set aside all those matching any single value. The remaining dice are rolled and any value is set aside again until the player stops and takes a tile or busts and puts their last tile back. When a player busts and fails to take a tile they must also turn the highest tile face-down.

Interestingly, the German edition from Zoch has English rules in the box.

The Dutch edition is part of the Jakkie & Bak Collection
The German edition is part of The Chicken Family of Zoch.

Tales & Games: The Grasshopper & the Ant

The Grasshopper & the Ant is the fourth title in Purple Brain Games' "Tales & Games" series, each of which comes packaged in a book-shaped box. In this game, players take turns playing the part of the industrious ants and the grasshopper content to sponge off the labor of the ants.

The Grasshopper & the Ant includes two ways to play, but the heart of both is the same. At the start of the game, lay out 16 (of the 48) path cards in a 4x4 grid; each path card shows one of four types of landscapes. The ant player places six ants on these cards, one ant per card, with the ants forming a chain (as in real life), then secretly chooses one type of terrain on which at least one ant stands. The grasshopper player then stands with one of the ants, and if the grasshopper chose the same landscape as the ant player, the grasshopper takes all the path cards of this type on which an ant stands; if the grasshopper chose incorrectly, then the ant player takes these path cards. Either way, you then refill the 4x4 grid. The ant player keeps playing until she finally wins path cards, then the next player in clockwise order controls the ants. (In winter mode, the third and fourth players control red ants and receive a random path card if they match the choice of the ant player.)

In autumn mode, players score path cards immediately, with each type being tracked independently; path cards that feature insects are saved for a endgame bonus. As soon as a player maxes out two scoring tracks, the game ends and whoever has the most points wins.

In winter mode, players keep the path cards they collect in order to buy provision cards (worth one victory point), which cost particular combinations of path types. In this mode, when you win a path card that features an insect, you can claim another card in the grid that features the same insect. Collect both provision cards of the same type, and you score a bonus VP. The first player to collect 4 VPs wins.