Discovering new ‘smart’ games with Gigamic

This is a sponsored post-all thoughts and opinions are our own.  We went to The Atlanta Women’s Expo, not to get in touch with our inner-mom, but to dig into some toys. That’s the thing about expos, the headliner might not exactly be up in your wheelhouse, but some of the folks with booths cast wide nets. That was the case with Gigamic. They’re a game company who has been producing strategy games since 1991, many of which are family and right up our alley.

Because they produce games that kids can play we took our board game ninja 8 year old to try out some of the games. “There are lots of moms here”, he said. Granted, he should be used to ‘lots of moms’ since I’m a stay at home dad, but given that this was a weekend day we’ll issue him a pass.

He found the Gigamic table and was attracted to it like a moth to a flame.  On the main table was their most popular and best-selling game Katamino. Essentially this is a 3-D table version of a flexible Rubik’s Cube. The version that people can purchase is the version on the left. The large version on the right is the one that is taken out for demonstration purposes.

The flexible aspect comes from the fact that the puzzle is directed by the bridge that tells it how many grids you want to play. The more grids you play, the more challenging the puzzles are. If the person playing the game solves the puzzles too easily, then move the bridge up a level or two.

Our son fell into that trap. He solved the first level easy enough and then requested that the bridge go up two levels.  That increased the number of puzzle pieces by less than ten, but it made the puzzle incrementally more difficult. He gave it his best and after 5 minutes we gave up the much-desired puzzle spot to someone else who wanted to play.

Next up was Quartro was slightly more complex and much more interesting. It’s chess-like in nature with sixteen wooden pieces in the game and each one having 4 different attributes. The goal is to line up 4 like pieces in a row. The bugger is that the person you’re playing against gives you the pieces that you play with. It’s a game of knowing the person that you’re playing with, tricking them into playing against themselves and lots of poker face.

These are smart games that you don’t have to be smart to play. They simply take a little practice and will build upon the logic skills that you already have. The games that we discovered from Gigamic are smart, abstract and build skills that any age can learn and master. They’re also games that make part of your brain work that otherwise might not get exercise whilst playing a game. There is no farting noise. No counter that smacks pie in your face. You don’t need those for you (or children) to have fun playing board games.

If you’re looking for fun board or dice games check out any of those in the Gigamic line of games. I know that one of them is under the tree this Christmas for the kids and us, but not necessarily at the same time.