Brain Teasers


I love games of all types and I try to make it a point never to judge a game until I've tried it. In recent years I have been introduced to a number of what I like to call 'Brain Teaser' games, often refered to as Abstract games. Generaly I have always stayed away from these types of games as I find that I enjoy a game far more if it has a story behind it then just some of the wall puzzle game. Still there are a couple of games that I have tried that I really loved and I thought they deserved a place on the blog.

Khet

Khet is a very interesting game played on a chess like board with a variety of pieces that have angled mirrors. On each side of the board is a simple red laser which when activated bounces off the various mirrored pieces until the laser 'hits' something. The object of the game is to move the pieces around and position them in such a way that they hit your opponents 'King' piece. Each player makes a single move each round and presses the lazer to see if it hits any pieces, if it hits a piece, regardless of who's it is, it is removed. Its a simple yet clever design that is extremly addictive while being incredibly complex. An easy game to learn, but very very difficult to master. Khet is a two player game, but I think it would be great to see this game adapted to have more then one player.

Ricochet Robots

This game I can only describe as painful yet exciting. The premise is quite simple, each round a random location token is drawn with a certain color. A timer is started and players must find the fastest route for that robot to take to that location on a game board with a variety of wall obsticles. You shout out your best guess how many 'bounces' it will take to get to the location, the player with the shortest route, that can prove it by moving the pieces gets the tab hence a point. The robots can only move in straight lines and must always move until they hit something before changing direction. You can move and use any of the other robots in play as well so it isn't just about finding how many bounces in the most logical way it would take, but creating new routes by using the other robots as walls to bounce off of. The hardest part of it all is that you can't touch any of the pieces, meaning you have to do it in your head. Once you shout out a number your stuck with it so if you made a mistake you can't change your mind. Its an easy game to learn and fun to play. I think I like it because its one of those games that it doesn t really matter how many players you have. It can be 2 or it can be 6, its fun either way. Its a great mental challenge as well, great way to warm up your strategic part of your brain before getting into your board gaming evening, although be warned that you might not play any other games once you start with this one.