Puzzle

The aMAZEing Labyrinth has spawned a whole line of Labyrinth games. The game board has a set of tiles fixed solidly onto it; the remaining tiles that make up the labyrinth slide in and out of the rows created by the tiles that are locked in place. One tile always remains outside the labyrinth, and players take turns taking this extra tile and sliding it into a row of the labyrinth, moving all those tiles and pushing one out the other side of the board; this newly removed tile becomes the piece for the next player to add to the maze.

Players move around the shifting paths of the labyrinth in a race to collect various treasures. Whoever collects all of his treasures first and returns to his home space wins!

The aMAZEing Labyrinth is simple at first glance and an excellent puzzle-solving game for children; it can also be played by adults using more strategy and more of a cutthroat approach.

In Pack & Stack the players try to fill their trucks as perfectly as possible.

Players start each round with a random selection of different-sized goods, determine by the roll of several dice. Then each player takes one or two trucks from the supply face-down (numbers depend on the number of players) The trucks are revealed simultaneously and each player tries to make a quick assessment to get the truck that is most useful for his or her supply of goods. Players stack the goods in the space of their selected truck defined by the boundaries on the truck-bed and the height restriction noted on the truck. Players get negative scores if the truck they picked was too large (a lot of unused space at 1 point per unused space) or too small (a lot of goods don't fit at 2 points per space of goods that would not fit). The player who gets the lowest negative score in a round gains 10 points. Players "pay" points for their negative values, and rounds continue until at least one player no longer has any points; the player with the most points wins.

It's really difficult to succinctly describe this game -- so take a look at the pictures! Take It Easy is a true multi-player solitaire in which each player individually completes a hexagon-shaped board with spots for 19 hexagon tiles. There's no limit to number of players if you've got enough sets on hand. One person (the caller) draws a tile randomly and tells the others which of the 27 tiles featuring colored/numbered lines crossing in three directions, with numbers from 1 to 9, it is. "The 9-8-7," for example. Each player then chooses which empty spot on his own board he'll play the 9-8-7. This is repeated until the boards are filled.

The idea is to complete same-numbered lines across your board. Scoring is calculated by multiplying the number on the tile with the number of tiles in the completed line. A complete column of three 9s is worth 27, for example... but a lot of players will hope for five 9s to fill the big column down the middle.

Take It Easy is often compared to Bingo because of the familiar pattern of a number being called and then everybody looking at their cards to play it, and then scoring if a line is completed. But that's as far as the comparison goes. Bingo is sheer luck; Take It Easy is a game of skill.

The board of this game consists of six rows. On each row, twelve gems (of several colors) are arranged. Each player places his pawn in front of one of those rows.

Each player receives a playing card on which a shape consisting of several squares is depicted. Each player also gets 12 tiles consisting of 2, 3, 4, or 5 squares in some shape. By means of a dice roll, each player is assigned three or four tiles that he has to use to fill the shape on his card.

The players try to solve their own "puzzle." The race is timed by a sand glass. The outcome of this race determines the play on the main playing board.

The player who was the first to solve his puzzle in time gets to move his pawn up to three rows, the player who came second may move two rows, and the player in third may move a single row. The players may collect two gems from the front of the row their pawn is on, so the more rows you can move, the more control you have on what color gems you can collect.

After collecting gems, each player receives a new playing card with a new puzzle to solve, and a new round starts. In total, nine rounds are played.

In the end, the player who has collected the most gems in a single color wins the game.

Re-implemented as:

Ubongo BMM
Ubongo extrem
Ubongo - Das Duell
Ubongo - 3D (2009)

Cluzzle is the game where you try to sculpt poorly! It is a deduction game like 20 questions. At the beginning of the game, everyone makes an ambiguous clay sculpture called a Cluzzle. For the rest of the game, players ask “Yes or No” questions to figure out the other clay puzzles.

You don’t have to be an artist to play. In fact, the longer it takes others to figure out your clay sculpture, the more points you get. However, you only get points if at least one person figures out your Cluzzle before the end of the game. This means you’ll want your sculpture to be a little ambiguous, but not too ambiguous.

And this is exactly where the humor lies! The result is a hilarious game for all ages, where anyone can win and everyone will have fun. So grab your friends and family. Your ridiculously poor sculptures will inspire laughter that will be remembered for years to come!

Did you know that Alanis Morissette, Alan Moon, Stephen Glenn, Tom Vasel, and others created personalized Cluzzle Cards for the game? You can learn why the objects they chose are personal to them on the North Star Games website.

Cluzzle was modeled after a 1988 Klaus Teuber game called Barbarossa. You can learn about the history of Cluzzle on the North Star Games website.