Product Review - Q-bitz Solo Game

Q-bitz Solo
Visual Dexterity. Cubed.
Mind Ware
ASIN B00C6DQO0O

There are two solo editions of Q-Bitz, there are Orange and Magenta. A number of years ago I received Q-Bitz for my birthday and from the day it entered the house it has been a family favourite. But the base game only plays 4 players and we are a family of 5 and often have others over to play board games. Shortly after we received the base game we picked up Q-Bliz Exterme one and also one of the Solo versions. This is a great game for cognitive development. We have played it often. Each Solo tin game comes with:

1 game play tray

16 cubes of each color

20 Q-bitz cards

The 20 cards are different and continue counting up from the 80 in the base game. If you have the base game and both solo editions you have 120 puzzle cards the same as in the educational classroom edition.

The tin says it can used for solo play and works for brain training, dexterity, and agility. You can also add the Solo to the base game and have more puzzles and players. The game also has 3 modes of play in the rules that come with the game:

This game is designed to teach symmetry, pattern recognition, help improve visual dexterity and provide friendly competition. It also stimulates the brain by use of spatial reasoning and memory skills. It is super fun.

The difference between the Extreme and normal Q-Bitz is that this game has 4 sets of 2 dice, each with different sides. And as 2 dice from the original version. The original all 16 dice are the same. So finding the piece in this version often means swapping dice.

Overall this is an amazing game the recommendation is that players be aged 8 and up, but we have played with our youngest even when she was 5 and it still works well. It is a lot of fun for the whole family, either playing solo or with others. It can be taught in under a minute and is easy to introduce to new players or visitors to the house. We love the Q-Bits family of games!

Note: If you are local to Kitchener Waterloo you can get this and many other amazing games at J & J Super Store!

Games by Mind Ware:
Q-bitz
Q-bitz Solo Orange
Q-bitz Solo Magenta
Q-bitz Extreme
Q-bitz Classroom Set
Cool Circuits Puzzle

The Crew Mission Deep Sea - Thomas Sing - Thames & Kosmos

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

Thomas Sing

Thames & Kosmos

ASIN B08TX1GGSH

This is another game my brother and his wife introduced us to. He has an epic game collection (see photo at bottom). Every time we are at their place, or they are at ours several games get played each day. This one he picked up while in town. They had already played The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, my brother, his wife, his daughter, and myself played several rounds of this one afternoon. I instantly fell in love with the game. I believe there are two games in this collection so far and some print and play add-ons. 

The games are:

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine (2019)

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (2021)

Print and Play extra missions:

The Crew: Flight to the ISS (2020)

The Crew: The Deimos Adventure (2020)

What I love most about this is it is a cooperative game. You win together or you all lose. What you get in the box is:

40 Large Cards

     36 Playing Cards

     4 Submarine Cards

5 Large Reminder Cards

96 Small Cards

6 Tokens

     5 Sonar Tokens

     1 Distress Token

1 Captain Token

1 Rulebook

1 Logbook

The game ranks 4/5 for strategy and 5/5 for teamwork. 

3-5 Players

Ages 10 and up

Play time is 20 minutes

The logbook for the Mission Deep Sea has 32 adventures or challenges. You can mark the number of attempts it took you to complete. Or use it to track with different groups of friends. The first time we played we completed 6 Mission, some on the first try, some after a few. The 6th as a complete surprise we completed. Each round a certain number of the small objective cards are picked, based on difficulty and number of team members.

Because of the goal’s and trying to take or not take tricks depending on the objective cards I described this game as a cooperative euchre with targets each hand. The description of the game is:

“The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is the highly-anticipated follow-up to the original cooperative card game, The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine — winner of the 2020 Kennerspiel des Jahres (German for connoisseur game of the year) award. It is not necessary to have played one to play the other.

This new version of The Crew has the same innovative cooperative trick-taking mechanic as the highly lauded original game — but with some exciting new surprises!”

This game is super easy to learn, especially for anyone who has played euchre or bridge. It does require strategy, but also a little luck with the cards. It is an cooperative game. I enjoyed it so much that first time we picked up both versions.

It is a great game for a family game night or hanging with friends! And because the objective cards change every hand it is different every time you play, you can easily play through all the missions more than once.

Note: If you are local to Kitchener Waterloo you can get this and many other amazing games, puzzles and more at J & J Cards and Collectables! And you can check out my brothers game related posts via Linktree.

Games by Thomas Sing:

Miss Lupun (2011)

Tackle: Duell der Strategen (2012)

Kribbeln (2016)

Selfie Fox (2021)

Circles (2022)

...

The Key Games:

The Key: Murder at the Oakdale Club (2020)

The Key: Sabotage at Lucky Llama Land (2020)

The Key: Theft at Cliffrock Villa (2020)

...

The Crew Games:

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine (2019)

The Crew: Flight to the ISS (2020)

The Crew: The Deimos Adventure (2020)

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (2021)

...

Encore! - Inka and Markus Brand - Noch Mal!

Encore!

Noch Mal!

Inka & Markus Brand

Schhmidt

Stronghold Games

ASIN B07KMLH9CM

Mobile Version

Outline Development

This is one of our favourite games over the last few years. We play it often both on the mobile app and with dice and pens. It is another game my brother and his wife introduced us to. He has an epic game collection (see photo at bottom). Every time we are at their place, or they are at ours several games get played each day. This is another one of our favourite games they have introduced us to. We have the original game, have had the 6 additional play pads, and we have the mobile version and unlocked all 6 extra game pads. The version on the iPads were excellent while we were in the hospital after my son had spinal surgery. We have played a few of the games designed by the couple Inka and Markus Brand. And this is to date our favorite

The contents of the box:

1 Scoring Pad 

3 Color Dice

3 Number Dice

6 Pens

We ordered from Germany 2 sets of three additional scoring blocks. There is a solo version and it plays up to 6 players. Game play is easy to learn and every game is different. It is a standard Roll and Write type game. The first three rounds any play can pick from the 6 dice rolled. After that the person who rolls picks theirs first and player can pick from the 4 remaining. You do not have to play if you do not want to or cannot. Game play ends once one person has completed 2 colours. You start in the H column, and all plays must be made adjacent to mark pieces or on the H column. Each of the colour dice has 1 of the five colours and black which is while, but you only have some many wilds to play. Wilds left at end of game are worth 2 points. Likewise the number dice have 1-5 and a wild. If you us a wild the max boxes you can mark is 5. And points for columns increase the further from the centre starting column you are. First person to complete a column gets more points than any subsequent players. Same For colour completion. Any stars on the board uncovered are -2 at the end of the game.

This game is easy to learn. It does require strategy, but also a little luck on the rolls. Some games you might push to the edges and go for column points. Sometimes you might race to get colours. It really depends on the dice and where and what you can play. It is an excellent Roll & Write game. We enjoy greatly, both as a physical board game and on a tablet. You can also use the tablet or mobile version just as a score sheet. We have had all 7 score blocks, the original and 6 additional, we have wiped out two already.

It is a great game for a family game night or hanging with friends!

Note: If you are local to Kitchener Waterloo you can get this and many other amazing games, puzzles and more at J & J Cards and Collectables! And you can check out my brothers game related posts via Linktree.

Games by Inka & Markus Brand:

2006 The Great Dinosaur Game ( Kosmos )

2006 Summertime (Kosmos)

2006 Desire for Ometepe (Ometepe Project Nicaragua)

2007 Guatemala Café ( Eggertspiele )

2007 The Golden Compass (Kosmos)

2007 The three ??? - The secret of the ghost island (cosmos)

2008 Star Tail - Magical Metamorphosis (Kosmos)

2008 River of Dragons (Cosmos)

2008 Under the protection of the castle (Eggertspiele)

2008 Brain Acrobats ( Spielbox )

2009 The Palace of Esnapur ( Amigo )

2009 Shaun the Sheep - Vegetable Football (Kosmos)

2009 Shaun the Sheep - The Race of the Lambs (Kosmos)

2009 Shaun the Sheep - The Big Eating (Kosmos)

2009 Witch Lili - Witch Lilli's great secret (Kosmos)

2009 Castle of 1000 Mirrors (Kosmos)

2009 Würfel-Ligretto ( Schmidt Spiele )

2009 Laura's star - Laura's big trip to China ( Amigo )

2009 Winx Club - The Magic Tournament (Kosmos)

2009 Winx Club - The Stolen Crystals (Kosmos)

2010 Hui Buh - The Cursed Secret Passage (Kosmos)

2010 Hasenjagd ( HABA )

2011 Hui Buh - The darned ghost hunt (Kosmos)

2011 Geolino - Journey into the Animal Kingdom - The Bringing Game (Kosmos)

2011 Geolino - Journey into the animal kingdom - The exciting discovery game (Kosmos)

2011 Tohuwabohu together with Matthias Prinz (Kosmos)

2011 Monster trap (Kosmos)

2011 Princess Lillifee - A festival for the unicorn ( Die Spiegelburg )

2011 Race on the pasture (Die Spiegelburg)

2011 A herd of wild horses (Die Spiegelburg)

2011 What are you pounding? ( HUCH! & Friends )

2011 Village (Eggertspiele/Pegasus)

2012 The little dragon coconut and the secret of the mummy (Kosmos)

2012 Würfelwurst (Kosmos)

2012 T-Rex attacks (Kosmos)

2012 seat! Space! Out! (Cosmos)

2012 The Hidden Key (HABA)

2012 Saint Malo ( alea )

2013 La Boca (Kosmos)

2014 Burgenland ( Ravensburger )

2016 Again!

2016 Word Slam

2016 Noch Mal! - Encore!

2016 Exit - Das Spiel (Kosmos; game series)

2017 Scotland Yard The Card Game (Ravensburger)

2017 Rajas of the Ganges

2018 The rise of Queensdale (Alea / Ravensburger)

2019 Bravo!

2020 Andor The Family Fantasy Game 

…

Sagrada - Daryl Andrews and Adrian Adamescu - Floodgate Games

Sagrada

Daryl Andrews

Adrian Adamescu

Floodgate Games

ASIN B01MTG2QY2

Mobile Sagrada

Dire Wolf

 

 This has been a favourite game for a few years now. My brother has an epic game collection (see photo at bottom), and he introduced us to this game and the mobile app version of the game. My brother bought us the base game and the three expansions. And we have a nearly continuous game on the go on the mobile app.

The expansion packs are: 

Sagrada: Life Expansion (Hardships and Helps)

Sagrada: Passion Expansion

Sagrada: 5&6 Player Expansion

Sagrada: 2020 Promo Pack (Window Cards)

Sagrada: 2022 Promo Pack (Window Cards)

Various other Promo Packs and Special Edition Window Cards

The base game is a draft and place dice game. So both a drafting and puzzle element to the game. You are attempting to build a stained glass window. The word Sagrada actually means sacred. As a family of 5 both my brothers family and ours love the expansion for up to 6 players. The base game contains:

• 90 Translucent Dice 

• 4 Player Boards 

• 12 Window Pattern Cards 

• 12 Tool Cards

• 15 Objective Cards 

• 1 Dice Bag 

• 1 Round Track 

• 4 Score Markers 

• 24 Favor Tokens 

• Rule Book

Game play begins with each play being dealt a person objective card. Then they are given to Window Pattern Cards that are double sided, and they pick one. Based on the difficult you receive between 3 and 6 favour tokens. After each play has chosen their window three communal objective cards are picked and three tool cards. The Tool cards are used for modifications, moving placed dice, swapping dice, changing their value … Each round 1 more dice than the number of plays is selected from the bag, rolled, and selected. You must not match colour or number to any adjacent dice. You have to play adjacent or diagonal to any placed dice. The 20 spots on your play board are either free spaces, colour specific or value specific. You draft dice around the table and back, and any dice left over go to the top. 

The game is easy to learn and very fun to play. You can be cutthroat and try and block other players, or more laid back and just focus on your own. We have taught a few other couples the game and it is always a hit.

The mobile version from Dire Wolf does not yet have an expansions available. But it does have a great solo play version and daily challenge. You can play against the AI, friends, or open games in the community.

Note: If you are local to Kitchener Waterloo you can get this and many other amazing games at J & J Super Store! And you can check out my brothers game related posts via Linktree.

Games by Daryl Andrews:

2014 The Walled City (Mercury Games)

2015 Caffeine Rush (R&R Games)

2016 Back to the Future: Outatime (IDW Games)

2017 Sagrada (Floodgate Games)

2017 Artifact Stack (R&R Games)

2017 Mine All Mines (IDW Games)

2017 Jungle Joust (IDW Games)

2017 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Showdown (IDW Games)

2017 Tower of London (WizKids)

2017 Outpost: Siberia (IDW Games)

2017 Space Invaders Dice! (TurnOne)

2017 Orphan Black: Clone Club (IDW Games)

2017 Shop N' Time (Mercury Games)

2017 Ink Monsters (Albino Dragon)

2018 Roar: King of the Pride (IDW Games)

2018 Before the Earth Explodes (Green Couch Games)

2018 Outpost: Amazon (IDW Games)

2018 Speakeasy Blues (Artana Games)

2018 City of Gears (Grey Fox Games)

2018 The Oregon Trail Game: Journey to Willamette Valley (Pressman Toy Corp)

2018 Ghostbusters: The Card Game (Albino Dragon / Renegade Games)

2019 Creatures and Cupcakes (Social Sloth Games)

2019 Bosk (Floodgate Games)

2019 Sinister Six (SpinMaster)

2019 Kodama 3D (Indie Boards & Cards)

2020 The Quick and the Undead (Inside Up Games)

2020 Titanic: The Board Game (SpinMaster)

2021 Gangster's Dilemma (Eagle-Gryphon Games)

2021 7 Summits (Deep Water Games)

2021 Dice Theme Park (Alleycat)

2021 Dark Knight Returns (Cryptozoic Entertainment)

2022 LeyLines (Arcane Wonders)

2022 Sagrada: Legacy (Floodgate Games)

2022 Beaver Game (Elk Creek)

2022 Lighthouse (First Fish Games)

2022 St Augustine (25th Century Games)

…

Games by Adrian Adamescu:

2016 Rival Kings

2017 Artifact Stack

2017 Emblems

2017 Emblems NHL

2017 Jungle Joust

2017 Mine All Mines

2017 Sagrada 

2017 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Showdown

2018 Before the Earth Explodes

2018 Sagrada 5-6 Player Expansion

2018 Speakeasy Blues

2019 Creatures and Cupcakes 

2019 Sagrada: Horizontal Symmetry

2019 Sagrada: The Great Facades – Passion

2019 Sinister Six

2020 Gangsters Dilemma

2020 Sagrada: The Great Facades – Life

2020 The Quick and the Undead

2020 Titanic

2021 7 Summits

2022 Dice Theme Park

2022 Dice Theme Park Deluxe Add-ons

2022 Sagrada: The Great Facades – Glory

2023 Mistwind

…

Cool Circuits Brain Game - Harry L. Nelson and Hiroshi Yamamoto

Cool Circuits Brain Game

Harry L. Nelson

Hiroshi Yamamoto

ScienceWiz

We picked up this game several years ago for our son. Not only did he love it, but our daughters and I enjoyed it as well. It is a solo play game, but also a game that gets progressively harder. The description of the game is:

“Electrify your brain with this challenging puzzler! The object is to place all of the pieces on the board to successfully complete the circuit; do so, and the entire board lights up! Cool Circuits emphasizes spatial reasoning and abstract thinking with over 40 different challenges ranging from student to expert. Can you solve them all?”

The game contains:

1 light up board

8 fluorescent 3-D puzzle pieces 

40 challenge cards

The cards are double sided for a total of 80 puzzles. And they fit in a draw under the playing area. Thus making it a great game for road trips or for travel. The game won game of the year in 2013 in the category of puzzle games. 

I am uncertain if any of us has completed all the puzzles. But we have done many. And circle back to it every now and again and knock out a number. The cards are numbered, on a little tab. My only complaint is the cards or just glossy magazine style paper. And they can become crumpled and torn easily. Especially when the kids were younger. A great game for all ages.

That’s Pretty Clever! - Wolfgang Warsch - Ganz Schön Clever

That’s Pretty Clever!

Ganz Schön Clever

Wolfgang Warsch

Schhmidt

Stronghold Games

ASIN B07KMLH9CM

This is another game my brother and his wife introduced us to. He has an epic game collection (see photo at bottom). Every time we are at their place, or they are at ours several games get played each day. This is another one of our favourite games they have introduced us to. We have several iterations of this game both as physical games and on iPads. The versions on the iPads were excellent while we were in the hospital after my son had spinal surgery. My brother loves the games by Wolfgang so much they bought a German edition of the third in this series and used google translate to figure out the rules. We love all of the Clever games that we have played. Each new iteration gets more complicated. And some have extra packs or cards or cards with different layouts but I have yet to be able to track them down in Canada.

The contents of the box:

1 Scoring Pad 

6 Dice

4 Felt Tip Pens

1 Rule Sheet

5 Pack of Coloured Pencils

The set up and game play is easy. But there is a lot of options, and with completing different things in different coloured sections, you earn rewards. The rewards can be a reroll, an extra dice at the end of a round, a few dice of specific colours, or mark spots in zones. You have all 6 dice to  start your turn roll and pick. If you leave any lower than you pick they go to the silver platter. All remaining go to the silver platter. Opponents get to pick one from the platter.

This game is easy to learn. It does require strategy, but also a little luck on the rolls. It is an excellent Roll & Write game. We enjoy it and the others we have in the Clever series, both as a physical board game and on a tablet. You can also use the tablet as a score sheet.

A great game for a family game night or hanging with friends!

Note: If you are local to Kitchener Waterloo you can get this and many other amazing games, puzzles and more at J & J Cards and Collectables! And you can check out my brothers game related posts via Linktree.

Games by Wolfgang Warsch:

Clever Games:

That’s Pretty Clever! (2018)

Twice as Clever! (2019)

Clever Cubed (2020)

Clever 4Ever (2022)

Auch schon clever (2022)

…

Quacks of Quedlinburg Games:

The Quacks of Quedlinburg (2018)

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: Wolfgang's Exchange Office (2018)

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Herb Witches (2019)

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Alchemists (2020)

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: Big Box (2020)

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: MegaBox (2021)

Quacks & Co.: Quedlinburg Dash (2022)

…

Other Games:

Blue Banana (2019)

Brikks (2018)

Dream Team (2015)

Fuji (2018)

The Fuzzies (2021)

Illusion (2018)

The Mind (2018)

The Mind: Level 13 (2018)

The Mind Extreme (2019)

On a Scale of One to T-Rex (2019)

Shadow Master (2016)

Subtext (2019)

The Taverns of Tiefenthal (2019)

The Taverns of Tiefenthal: Open Doors (2021)

Wavelength (2019)

…

Product Review - Second Change Game

Second Chance

Uwe Rosenberg

Stronghold Games

ASIN B082PKSHKD

My brother has an epic game collection (see photo at bottom). Every time we are at their place, or they are at ours several games get played each day. This is one of our favourite games they have introduced us to. We actually picked up a copy from them because they had both versions of the game. The Beige cover is the original edition and the black cover is the current version of this game. We enjoy this game so much we have purchased 4 or 5 copies and given them to friends and family. And we have an excellent set of Mont Marte Premium Woodless Watercolour Pencils (which we have given to a few friends with the game) we use when playing this game. 

The contents of the box:

56 Cards

1 Pad of Grid Sheets

1 Rule Sheet

5 Pack of Coloured Pencils

The set up and game play is easy. There are 13 Starting cards each with 8 squares, each player is dealt one and must place it so it is covering the centre dot on the grid playing board. There are 3 Overview cards that show you all the possible pieces from the 40 Puzzle Cards. The puzzle cards are shuffled and split into 2 piles, one at a time is flipped over from each pile. You must play one of the 2 cards. If you cannot play you call ‘second change’ and after everyone else has gone, you flip one more. If you can play you keep going. If you cannot then you are out. You count the uncovered squared after one of the three game ending options:

1. All players have dropped out.

2. The Deck runs out of cards.

3. Someone completed the whole grid.

Game play is quick and easy. You can also easily visit or chat while playing. The game takes minutes to learn. But every time you play it will be different. Because we use a wider variety of coloured pencils the sheets often look like stained glad after the game is done. 

We have played a number of games by Uwe Rosenberg and enjoyed them all. But either this or Patchwork is my favourite. I can easily recommend this game for family game night or friends hanging out and visiting. And it's an excellent game!

Note: If you are local to Kitchener Waterloo you can get this and many other amazing games at J & J Super Store! And you can check out my brothers game related posts via Linktree.

Games by Uwe Rosenberg:

Bohnanza (1997)

Mamma mia (1998)

Babel (2000)

Bali (2001)

Agricola (2007)

Le Havre (2008)

At the Gates of Loyang (2009)

Merkator (2010)

Ora et Labora (2011)

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small (2012)

Le Havre: The Inland Port (2012)

Caverna (2013)

Glass Road (2013)

Patchwork (2014)

Fields of Arle (2014)

Hengist (2015)

A Feast for Odin (2016)

Cottage Garden (2016)

Caverna: Cave vs. Cave (2017)

Indian Summer (2017)

Nusfjord (2017)

Reykholt (2018)

Spring Meadow (2018)

Caverna: Cave vs. Cave - Era II (2018)

Robin Von Locksley (2019)

Nova Luna (2019)

Second Chance (2019)

Hallertau (2020)

New York Zoo (2020)

…

Product Review - Q-bitz Extreme Game

Q-bitz Extreme
Visual Dexterity. Cubed.
Mind Ware
ASIN B009AEV89O

A number of years ago I received Q-bitz for my birthday and from the day it entered the house it has been a family favourite. Shortly after that we picked up this one and also one of the Solo versions. This is a great game for cognitive development. We have played it often. This game comes with:

4 game play trays

16 cubes of each color

80 Q-bitz cards

The box says it can be played with 2-4 players but you can play solo. The game also has 3 modes of play in the rules that come with the game:

Round one of this game is all about speed as players race to manipulate their cubes to copy the pattern on the Q-bitz pattern card.

Round two players roll all of their cubes on the table like dice. Then using the cubes as rolled players place as many cubes as possible in the tray to recreate the pattern shown on the card. And then it is a race to see who can complete the pattern card rerolling as many times as needed.

Round three really tests memory skills, players study the pattern card for ten seconds, flip it face down and then create the pattern from memory.

But the new Q-bitz Extreme has a fourth way to play and our family has a fifth which is most often used with our youngest.

Round four players race to do the reverse or negative image of the card.

Round five one player at a time creates a pattern, then the others race to copy the pattern.

This game is designed to teaches symmetry, help improve visual dexterity and provide friendly competition. It also stimulates the brain by use of spatial reasoning and memory skills. And it is super fun.

The difference between the Extreme and normal Q-Bitz is that this game has 4 sets of 2 dice, each with different sides. And Has 2 dice from the original version. The original all 16 dice are the same. So finding the piece in this version often means swapping dice.

I picked this up when looking for an expansion pack of cards for this Q-Bitz yet. When I went searching I found Q-bitz Solo Orange and Q-bitz Solo Magenta both of which come with an additional 20 unique cards that can be used for solo play or added into the base game back. But that is for another review!

Overall this is an amazing game the recommendation is that players be aged 8 and up, but we have played with our youngest even when she was 5 and it still works well. It is a lot of fun for the whole family. Can be taught in under a minute and is easy to introduce to new players or visitors to the house. We love this game even if it is much more challenging than the original!

Note: If you are local to Kitchener Waterloo you can get this and many other amazing games at J & J Super Store!

Games by Mind Ware:
Q-bitz
Q-bitz Solo Orange
Q-bitz Solo Magenta
Q-bitz Extreme
Q-bitz Classroom Set

Cool Circuits Puzzle