Game Night Rules

With so many of today’s youth gravitating to electronics, the power of games that can be enjoyed face to face has never been more appreciated. Studies show that interconnectedness between people — an approach that cannot be reproduced in the online world — improves social skills and just plain makes people of all ages happy. Family game nights are seeing a resurgence in popularity and shoppers are on the lookout for clever, well-designed, high quality games. Get your customers on a roll with the latest and greatest games from Clued In Kids, Endless Games, Blue Orange Games, and Family Games America.

Do You Have a Clue?

Smart retailers can appeal to their customers’ desire to get kids away from game screens . “It’s tough to pry kids from a screen, but try telling them you’ve set up a treasure hunt. Like Roadrunner, a little puff will appear over the couch where they once sat, and they’ll be ready to learn and have fun,” says Clued In Kids Founder and President, Helen Whiteley Bertelli.

These hunts use a sequence of hidden clues leading to treasure with a novelty factor: the hunts teach useful skills like math, history, teamwork, reading and Spanish among others. With clues developed by teachers and moms and designs by a children’s book illustrator, each Clued In Kids hunt can be played by 1-10 kids aged 4 and up. Adult set- up takes only a few minutes and then kids can hunt with relative independence.

Printable hunts are purchased via the company website and include those with Thanksgiving and Winter themes. Halloween and Christmas treasure hunts inside greeting cards are new, as are variety boxes with different themed treasure hunts inside treasure chests. It takes kids an hour or more to complete a treasure hunt with some clues harder than others to accommodate kids of different ages hunting together.

Bertelli grew up in England where treasure hunts are popular. In the U.S, unable to find any educational hunts available, she started creating them. Voila! Fun and learning in one package.

A valuable find: www.cluedinkids.com

Get Your Game On

The principle of Endless Games is developing high quality board games and puzzles that are easy to learn and offer endless play value. The company offers classics like Kismet, Spill & Spell, and the Tickle Bee as well as home versions of iconic TV game shows like Password and Family Feud, new games such as X-Ceter-O (a more complex version of tic-tac-toe that goes on longer), Dueling Dice, and party games such as Name 5 and Flippin’ Out!

New offerings include Crazy Legs, for ages 4 and up, a game that gets kids up and moving as they jump, twist and shake to move to victory. The Cupcake Race, also for 4 and up, inspires players to be the first to mix, bake, frost and top by visiting corners of the board, collecting sprinkles along the way. Korner’D is aimed at kids eight plus and puzzles while it entertains as players match colored tiles to the pattern shown on the board. Let customers try their hand and see how much fun the game provides.

Sharp minds will enjoy Follow the Letter, a classic parlor game turned into a board game and great for keeping older children amused in the car. Endless Games comes from Matawan, NJ and was founded in 1996 by veteran gamemeisters Mike Gasser, Kevin McNulty and game inventor Brian Turtle. The games the company offers are good fun and high in entertainment value. Many of the games have won awards, attesting to their lasting value in family play time.

These games encourage youngsters to unplug from electronics and spend quality time with each other, with friends and with family members. Playing games relieves stress while offering time to laugh and let go, very welcome in today’s frazzled households.

Get game: www.endlessgames.com

What’s Blue, Orange and a Ton of Fun?

Blue Orange Games are sold in fifteen countries around the world, attesting to the success of their forty-plus games with more developed all the time. Smart retailers should consider game nights or afternoon events for shoppers who become fascinated and translate this into sales. One of the fave offerings for kids aged 6 and up is Doodle Quest that can be enjoyed by one to four players. The drawing game has a deep sea adventure theme and captivates young minds.

Enter the wacky world of WuzzIts and watch to see what monster players will morph into next as matching skills are rewarded in this charismatic card game. The WuzzIt population is divided into five families, but the mischievous WuzzIts like to combine with each other to create a confusing cast of characters. The game is suited for two to four players.

Spot it! Splash uses plastic cards that are stored in a waterproof travel bag, easy to transport and pull out by the pool or on the beach. Ages 7 right up through adults love the game, making it a great answer for finding family fun.

Rival sheep herds go head to head in Battle Sheep, a strategy game with the goal of having your sheep in the most pastures. A different playing board is assembled before every game, so Battle Sheep is full of new challenges every time the game is played.

Blue Orange Games has won numerous awards including ones from Learning Express, Toy Collection and the Astra Excellence award. The company name was inspired by a surrealist poem by Paul Éluard, “The Earth is Blue Like an Orange”, that helped company founders, Julien Mayot and Thierry Denoual view things from a different perspective. Based in San Francisco, CA, the company aims to spread the pleasure of family connections on a face to face level, knitted together by the power of great games.

Fun for all ages: www.blueorangegames.com

Every Old Game Is New Again

For activity kits, puzzles, stocking stuffers, board games and more, look no further than Family Games America. For a serious challenge, have shoppers work on one of the eight small bamboo puzzles that will show them firsthand how intense the experience is. Frustrating yes, but lots of fun for kids 8 and up.

Our puzzlers are the Big City Puzzles that have players position sixteen tiles to create a puzzle so that touching sides match the same icon whether the city is London, Sydney or New York.

Cooler weather means time for indoor activities like i–Do Artz™ — Porcelain Paint Kits that let youngsters paint their own banks. A great incentive to save, each kit, available in Car, Piggy and Scooter, includes everything necessary to make a work of art. With minimal adult help, youngsters can paint the bank and pop it in the oven, then start saving those nickels and dimes.

Tantrix, winner of numerous awards, boasts that three million products have sold worldwide. The Discovery Puzzle has ten hexagonal tiles so players can create continuous loops of colors that change as the game goes on.

The original magnetic Darts game has been wowing families and continues to provide hours of un. Hang the dart board, take a few steps back and let the darts fly. Darts will not damage walls, furniture or pets, so play on.

Tabletop Puzzles for Kids. a question-and-answer game with cards, has three levels of difficulty to test minds at different ages and stages while Spot the Differences has twenty-five pair of black-and-white graphics that players must figure out how to match.

All together now: www.familygamesamerica.com