Summary: <br> Nick Martinelli went to the <a href="https://www.chitag.com/">Chicago Toy and Game Fair</a> before Thanksgiving, and came back with a gaggle of interviews! We’ll share those with you after the break. <br> <br> <br> <br> What We’ve Been Playing<br> <br> <br> <br> Keeping it Saxxy: The Kenny G Game – a nice entry-level cooperative game from Big G Creative.<br> <br> <br> <br> Fire Tower – Anitra won for her first time ever!<br> <br> <br> <br> Barenpark with the Bad News Bears expansion – the expansion has two separate parts; we tried the monorail expansion, which encourages you to take lots of green park areas and arrange them in particular ways. It changes the trade-offs you have to consider!<br> <br> <br> <br> Brave Rats (from Blue Orange) – a cute, fast card game for two players. Play a higher number to win the hand, but every card has a special power.<br> <br> <br> <br> Adventure Games: The Dungeon (from KOSMOS) – we played the first chapter of this in October, and finished it up this week. A much more powerful narrative than an EXIT box. There are puzzles, but in service of moving forward in the story, and you might not hit every puzzle (and some have multiple ways to solve them).<br> <br> <br> <br> Drop It (also from KOSMOS – we <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/drop-it-review/">reviewed</a> this last year) – it’s such a great gateway game and it works for any age or ability level.<br> <br> <br> <br> Draftosaurus – always fun.<br> <br> <br> <br> Quacks of Quedlinburg<br> <br> <br> <br> Echidna Shuffle<br> <br> <br> <br> HEIST (One Team, One Mission) – sent to us from University Games. A puzzle/dexterity game that feels like a toy (it’s an electronic, talking box). Our kids cannot get enough of it, it’s really clever!<br> <br> <br> <br> Interviews<br> <br> <br> <br> Big G Creative<br> <br> <br> <br> Shannon Swindle has nothing but good to say about the <a href="https://www.chitag.com/yic">Young Inventor Challenge</a> at ChiTAG.<br> <br> <br> <br> Big G brought back <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/snap-review-home-alone-game/">Home Alone</a> for the holidays again. Look for it at Target!<br> <br> <br> <br> They’re also pushing Trapper Keeper Game, <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/snap-review-carpool-karaoke/">Carpool Karaoke</a>, Keeping it Saxxy (Kenny G), and <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/snap-review-happy-little-accidents/">Happy Little Accidents</a>.<br> <br> <br> <br> Follow Big G Creative on social media @BigGCreativellc (<a href="https://twitter.com/biggcreativellc/">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/biggcreativellc/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/biggcreativellc/">Instagram</a>)<br> <br> <br> <br> Dark Unicorn Games<br> <br> <br> <br> Recently released their first game Super Powered Smash Masters, a family game. A collectible card game with no math. You have a team of heroes and are “smashing each other back and forth”. It’s not limited to only two players; as long as you have a deck, you can play.<br> <br> <br> <br> Find them at <a href="https://darkunicorngames.com/">DarkUnicornGames.com</a>, or on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/darkunicorngames/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/darkunigames">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/darkunicorngames/">Instagram</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7BT5tKhcTWsbxPJV6wup5w">Youtube</a>.<br> <br> <br> <br> Gray Matters Games<br> <br> <br> <br> Introducing two of their party games to lots of families, WOLF and You-Bet-Cha.<br> <br> <br> <br> WOLF – “choose your pack wisely”. Strategic trivia game; pick your “pack members” based on the category.
