Blokus!

For her birthday, I gave the lovely Miss P a board game. As previously mentioned, she broke her arm earlier this summer which cut short the usual family weekend activities of summertime like bike riding, swimming at the community outdoor pool, rollercoaster riding, and such in favour of a heck of a lot of sitting around. While she could, if left to her own devices, watch hours upon hours of Sponge Bob or Buffy episodes, it seems a shame to spend our entire visit with her with eyes glued to the set. And, I'll admit, I do have some uptighted-ness when it comes to kids watching too many hours of non-stop tv. But, with a broken arm one can't really blame her for gravitating towards low impact activities. And so it was that we found ourselves playing an awful lot of The Sponge Bob Square Pants Game of Life (TM). Which, while relatively fast and with a low mental commitment, gets tired fairly fast. And yet, playing fairly straightforward, quick boardgames is something that we seem to enjoy as a threesome -- Martin, her and I -- so I decided to try to pick up a new one for her birthday.

While I was visiting in Victoria with Kate, she and I went to the most excellent games store on Fort Street to see if we could find something suitable. My requirements were the following:

• Fairly quick games, anywhere from 20 - 45 minutes. We have Monopoly, but rarely do we have the time to crack out a game.
• Challenging for adults but straightforward enough that a 10 year old will both enjoy it and be just as likely to win.
• Easily played by 2 to 4 players.

I presented these requirements to the very helpful guy at the shop and the first thing he suggested was Blokus. Kate in turn lit up with excitement and proceeded to send forth many accolades of the joys of Blokus. Not able to resist the urgings of a trusted friend and a game expert it ended up as the birthday winner.

Now, it was certianly not received with anywhere near the same number of squeals as the digital camera Martin got her (and can you blame her?), but as soon as breakfast was finished the next morning we cracked out the game for a first try. And she beat us. We then called up a friend for her and took Blokus to the beach for the day. She and her friend then beat Martin and I in a two way tie. Over the course of the day the victors rotated amongst us all, but I can definitely agree that while is certainly a game requiring a fair degree of abstract thought and strategy a 10 year old has just as good a chance at winning as an adult. And while it may seem silly to focus on that, if you want a game to be a hit with kids they need to have a chance to win. Each game lasts anywhere from about 20 minutes to half an hour, which is just perfect.

It's really a pretty fun game, and sadly fairly addictive. Sadly only because she took it back to her moms with her now and we here at the domicile are left in Blokus withdrawl for at least a week until she brings it back. We may have to go buy our own set, maybe travel Blokus for the plane?