First up we entice our tireless robotic employees to gear up for thrills in Steam Park!Next we frantically race to build up our vocabulary… literally in Wordsmith!And lastly we see what the buzz is about as we lock down the answers in Oodles!

Steam Park

Designed by: Aureliano Buonfino, Lorenzo Silva, Lorenzo Tucci SorrentinoPublished by: Horrible Guild & IELLO (2013)Players: 2 – 4Ages: 8 & upPlaying time: 60 min

In Steam Park, you build gigantic, coal-powered rides to attract as many robot visitors as you can to make your steam-powered park the largest and most profitable in the region!

Each round, you’ll roll dice to determine which actions you can take on your turn. You can re-roll as often as you like, but the fastest player goes first and keeps their park cleaner!

You’ll manage your employees, and invest in advertising, to attract and please different kinds of guests visiting your park. And don’t forget, keep the dirt under strict control!

After 6 rounds, the player with the most money . . .  AFTER paying to clean up their park . . . is the winner!

Wordsmith

Designed by: Bill Eberle, Peter Olotka, Greg OlotkaPublished by: HeidelBÄR Games (2019)Players: 1 – 4Ages: 10 & upPlaying time: 20 – 30 min

In WORDSMITH, players simultaneously create letters using their letter pieces — and then, create words from those letters! Each word can only be made and scored once, so the race to discover words begins!

Rolling the die will allow you to add more letter pieces to your pile.  Try to use all your pieces; leftover pieces are discarded, and you are limited to 12 discards each round.

The round ends when a player makes six words. Each letter of every word is worth a point, and you get bonus points for limiting the number of pieces you discard.

The game ends after three rounds; the player with the most points wins!

Oodles

Designed by: Brian HerschPublished by: Milton Bradley (1992)Players: 3 – 10Playing time: ~ 20 min

In Oodles, the moderator takes the electronic timer and an Oodles card (bearing 10 questions with answers that all begin with the same letter, referred to as the “Key Letter”). Each Oodles card also has a “Silly Starter.”

The “silly” question is asked to the player holding the Oodle stick and they begin answering the questions on the card. The Moderator for the first card gives the Oodles baton to the player on their left. The Moderator then reads questions on the card and uses the Oodles Timer to monitor players’ response times.

You are allowed only one guess… so if you’re wrong, the Moderator calls an “all play” and reads the question again. (There is usually a different Moderator for each card played.) During the play of any card, the first player to guess correctly wins the right to keep answering questions on the card.

The player who answers the last question correctly gets the card; five cards wins the game.