It’s Hispanic Heritage Month from now until October 15th — so I thought I’d write something.  There are plenty of great ways to celebrate but I’m going to talk about playing Lotería — sometimes called Mexican Bingo.  Order takeout from your favorite Mexican-owned restaurant and it makes for a fun themed game night! Lotería History Lotería has been played for hundreds of years, but interestingly it started in Italy.  It traveled to Spain and in ~1700s it made its way to Mexico.  While it was initially something the upper class Spaniards played, eventually it morphed into a g ..read more

As I mentioned in my previous post highlighting Halloween games, I think games are a great way to celebrate the holidays!  If you’re looking to expand your collection to make sure you can stay merry at home or with family or friends, here are some suggestions for Christmas themed games by age: Christmas Themed Games Not It! The Crazy Christmas Edition The Good Game Company • Ages 6+ • 3-6 Players • ~10 Min, $15 on Amazon This is my top pick on this list for so many reasons! I already own a copy of Not It! and it’s a great speed dice and card game that comes packaged in a plastic dic ..read more

One minute Chicago is drowned in snow and now suddenly the daffodils are in bloom and I’ve completely spaced on my annual Easter Bunny’s Bringing Games post.  Whoops!  I was reminded by an advertisement for these adorable Play-Doh egg hunt eggs — which, I personally think is a very fun idea!  Just so we’re clear, I’m not anti-candy but I’m anti-too much candy which seems to happen pretty quickly during Easter.  Add something to the basket that’s going to last a little longer, and doesn’t give a tummy ache if overly indulged in — like a game! Littlest Kids Memory: Wild World ..read more

Dan Cassar’s game Arboretum from Renegade Games is downright lovely.  The illustrations by Beth Sobel are beautiful, the game is simple to learn but complex in a way that makes you want to play it again and again. Honestly Arboretum is not new, but there’s a reprint coming out this month if you can’t snag a copy at your local game store. How to Play Arboretum Arboretum is a card game where players are creating a grid of cards in front of them that will be their arboretum and at the end you’ll (hopefully) be scoring pathways of trees.  Everyone starts with 7 cards in their hand and th ..read more

I’ve already gone through my 2020 holiday game picks list so now it’s time for my stocking stocking stuffers list.  Normally these are smaller boxed games that are easy to cram into a stocking or are just easy to bring or ship as a gift. And again, before I go into my picks below, I am asking you kindly to not use my links but instead call up your local toy and game store and see if they have the game you’re looking for.  Local stores need us more than ever this year and we want them to be around next year. Farmini Loki • 2-4 players • ages 5+ • ~15 minutes • ~$11 on Amazon Farmini i ..read more

I realize that I’ve been posting A LOT recently about food-based games, so I’ve decided to change it up this week with a family-friendly card game from Gamewright called Hi Lo Flip.  There’s zero food theme in this game, actually no theme at all, just a nice classic colorful card game for everyone to enjoy. How to Play To play Hi Lo Flip, first you start by shuffling the 100 cards and dealing 7 to each player.  Flip the Hi Lo chip to see if the oldest player goes first or the youngest.  Once the first player has gone, you’ll follow what the chip says.  If it says “Hi ..read more

The Funko Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts game from Funko Games definitely falls into the “let’s build a game around a beloved theme” trend that we’ve seen for the last couple years.  Thankfully, many of these games actually have some thought put some into the gameplay unlike years ago when a license was slapped on a classic game.  And this Pop-Tarts game has a slight hint of one of my long time favorite games, Guillotine.  How to Play To start the Funko Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts there’s a line of seven tasty looking pop-tarts cards of different values and at one end of t ..read more

Whether you’re doing virtual, in-person, or home schooling a kindergartener or 1st grader, I highly recommend you take a look at Check The Oven from Melon Rind Games.  Check the Oven is a bluffing game all about adding to 12 — but it doesn’t FEEL like an adding educational game, and that’s key! How to Play In Check the Oven, players each start with 5 cards in their hand.  You’re aiming to make sets of cards that total exactly a dozen of the same item: rolls, heart cookies, gingerbread cookies, cupcakes, or chocolate chip cookies. On your turn you ask the group if they have ..read more

If you’re even a part time reader of The Game Aisle, I’m sure you know my deep love of the game Qwixx.  (You can read my review on the original Qwixx game and the Deluxe Version of Qwixx.) And now Gamewright has been kind enough to send me the card game version of Quixx. Efficiently titled, Quixx Card Game, it cleverly makes a dice game into a card game while adding new strategy, but still using the same score pads.  Whew! How to Play First you have to know that the cards take the place of both the white dice in Qwixx and the colored dice at the same time.  The card backs will s ..read more

If you read The Game Aisle, I’m going to bet that you probably have a deck of Bicycle cards at your home.  The company which owns Bicycle, The United States Playing Card Company, also owns brands like Bee, Aviator, Hoyle, Kem, and Congress.  They’ve been around for over 130 years and makes really nice playing cards — and you know what I mean by “nice cards” — they’re the ones that smoothly fan out and have nice thick paper.  Now before you go because I’m talking wistfully about playing cards (I’ll do more of that below), I want to tell you about the super helpful thing that Bicy ..read more