It’s that time of year again, you know; the time where you have to come up with gift ideas for your partner or friends and really; what do you get the person who has everything?
This year I’m going to be your gift guru and we’re going retro for some low cost and fun….
I’ve delved through the memory banks and come up with a few old faves that I think I would enjoy playing as a slightly older kid.
Realising that we can actually categorise them in to groups I’m starting with one of my absolute favourites in the “strategy” group:
Another game which is certainly worthy of a mention in this group is the old family favourite:
MONOPOLY
Originally created as an educational tool in 1906 there were two versions; one, the “anti- monopolist” where everyone benefited from the creation of wealth and the other the “monopolist” where you created your own wealth, kept it and crushed everyone else.
It wasn’t until 1935 when Parker Brothers in the USA bought the the patent for $500 and in turn sent a copy to Waddingtons in the UK to test, that we got the version we know today.
Now dads everywhere attempt to deprive the rest of their family of property and cash and indeed crush them to prove they are indeed a true Capitalist.
CLUEDO
Dating way back to 1949 and, although it’s had several re-launches over the years, remains basically the same murder mystery game where up to six players must use their powers of deduction to name the murderer, murder weapon and location to win.
Cards are secretly drawn and hidden in an envelope which determine the crime details. Players move around the mansion and can use secret passages to get to a room where they make a suggestion of the crime details. There are 324 possibilities and it’s up to the other players to disprove their opponents theories by secretly showing cards they have to one other player.
Now; if either of those two games is way too much exercise your grey matter then we’ll move on to the next group of games. I’m not sure what this category should be called but I’m going for the “suspense” group. Games that are designed to make you jump when something kind of unexpected happens and my first one in this group is:
BUCKAROO
Dating back to 1970 this game very simply consists of a spring loaded mule which you take turns to load up with items like a crate, pan, shovel and the like. If the mule “bucks” when you put your piece on then you’re knocked out, the mule is reset and the remaining players start to load the mule again, the last player remaining is the winner. No matter how many time us kids played we all squealed when the mule BUCKAROO’D….!
KER-PLUNK
A large clear plastic tube with rods crisscrossing through the holes in the middle of it was loaded with marbles which sat amongst and on top of the plastic rods. The idea of this game, which dates back to 1967, was to remove the plastic rods without any marbles falling in to your tray at the bottom of the tube. The player with the fewest number of marbles was the winner. You touch a rod you have to remove it – that was about the only rule….! Simple uncomplicated fun.
Other great family games to try are: Jenga, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Risk, Yahztee, and The Game of Life and unlike the PS5 you’ll probably be able to buy them on Main Street…
Have a game filled Merry Christmas
