The 5 Best New-To-Us Kids Games Of 2021

The 5 Best New-To-Us Kids Games of 2021

Plus 4 Honorable Mentions

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This year my youngest son (aged 3.5 to 4.5 years old throughout 2021) really got into board games, so this is the first year I've decided to add a new list of kids games to my annual top games lists.  

He got a bunch for Christmas last year and a bunch more for his birthday over the summer (and he'll be getting more for this Christmas in a few days).  In 2020 he played mostly simple games, like Race to the Treasure (Peaceable Kingdom), The Little Firefighters (Advance Games by Foxmind), My First Stone Age (Z_Man Games), and My First Castle Panic (Fireside Games), which are still favorites.  This year though, he's really broadened his gaming experiences!  He'll join in on just about anything now, even playing on his own for games like Spelndor, Dice Forge, and Potion Explosion (though he needs quite a bit of help).  His favorites though are the games that he can play completely on his own and they're actually pretty decent games. 

In case you're wondering what else (besides what's on this list) that a four year old can play (with varying degrees of independence), here are the other games (not necessarily new to us though) that he played in 2021:  

• Captain Carcass - With some help - he actually won!
• Catan: Junior - With some help, and he loves the pirate theme.
• Dice Forge - With some help - he really enjoyed this, especially swapping out dice sides.
• Floriferous - Simple mechanics he was able to grasp fine, though the strategy was out of his reach.
• Headbanz For Kids - This is fun and he's getting better and giving (and figuring out) clues.
• Hues and Cues - Mechanically he gets it, but his life experiences make giving good clues or understanding clues given a challenge, but with some help he gets it!
• Labyrinth - He loves this, but needs help with finding good paths.
• Legends of Andor - He was able to play his character and we helped him with some of the decisions.
• Memory - A classic, and I think he's better than his old parents.
• Mole Rats in Space - He enjoys this, especially with my variant that makes it a little less predetermined.
• My First Castle Panic - This was on my top games list last year and it's still a favorite!
• My First Stone Age - This also made it on my top games list last year and we still enjoy it.  
• Mölkky - (Spoiler) This yard game makes it onto my to New To Me games list for this year.  We love it, especially since the whole family can be competitive!  It's not a kids game, otherwise it'd be in the top 5 here, too!
• Polyhedral Perils - This is one of my designs that he playtested with me.
• Potion Explosion - He needed a lot of help finding good combinations, but once he got marbles he mixed the potions on his own.
• Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time - A fun cooperative game that he enjoyed.
• Race to the Treasure! - Still a favorite of his, though he asks for it less now.
• Splendor - He understands the mechanics if not the strategy yet.
• Spot It! - He loves this and often beats us!
• Stuffed Fables - This is more about the story you experience than the mechanics, so it works well for all ages!
• Sum Swamp - This was a favorite of my older boys and now my youngest is starting to play, and learning arithmetic along the way!
• Surprise Slides - The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Mind numbingly simple.  He enjoyed it twice, but hasn't asked for it since (and it's now vanished from the house).
• Zombie Dice - Super simple press-your-luck and he's often luckier than I am.
• Zombicide: Black Plague - OK, maybe a little dark for a four year old, but the mechanics are simple enough and he loves taking out zombies.

Also, check out my top lists (mostly adult games) for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.

4 Honorable Mentions:

I'll start with four quick Honorable Mentions.  These are games he enjoys, but dont' quite make the cut for the whole family.  They do make it to the table on occasion though.

• Carcassonne Junior (2009, Z-Man Games) - Carcassonne is still one of my favorite games, and this was a nice introduction to some of the basic mechanics, particularly matching up tiles.  Unfortunately we found this super simple and more reliant on luck than any actual strategy.  There are a few choices to make, but the winner is the first player able to place all their meeples, and that's heavily reliant on drawing enough tiles with your character's colors on them before the other players.
• Connectors - Mission Space (2020, Skillmatics) - This looked promising, with similar tile-laying mechanics to Carcassonne, but it suffered from some very restrictive placement rules and some unbalanced tile colors.  I've added a custom starting tile and tweaked a few of the rules that I think will help with that, but we haven't played again since the first time.  I do want to try it again though because I think it has potential with those changes.
• The Magic Labyrinth (2009, Drei Magier Spiele) - We picked this up at a thrift store and it's become a favorite.  It's very similar to Labyrinth, but with a cool magnet and hidden maze mechanic.  This would have been number 6 on my top 5 list.
• Ugah Ugah! (2015, HABA) - This is a fun little press-your-luck dice and set collection game.  It's quick and simple, but not usually his first choice when we have time to play something.

Top 5 New-To-Us Kids Games of 2021:

OK, so now on to the top 5, New-To-Us kids games of 2021!

5. Outfoxed! (2014, Gamewright) - My son loves playing this multiple times in a row!  It's a super simple deduction game where you are trying to figure out which fox stole the pot pie before the fox escapes town.  You'll choose an action (look for clues or find suspects) and then roll three dice up to three times trying to get matching symbols.  If you succeed you get to take your action, if not then the fox moves closer to escaping.  If you find suspects you'll get to reveal two suspect cards that each show one of the foxes suspected of stealing the pie.  Clues are various articles of clothing and as you move around the game board to find them you'll get to learn if the culprit is wearing various items.  Each of the sixteen suspect has three of the twelve articles of clothing.  As you play you'll get to narrow down the suspects that match the articles of clothing that the culprit has or doesn't have until you either solve the mystery or the culprit escapes.  The game has a pretty good balance between strategy and luck and my son loves the theme and the logic behind figuring out the culprit.  I only wish there were more than sixteen suspects with a bit more variety in clue combinations.  There are over 1300 combinations, so with only 16 possible suspects a lot of them are the same with just one difference, so you're either searching and searching for one specific clue or you're just waiting for the last suspect to come up.  The game doesn't need 1300 suspects, but 20-30 would have been nice.  Maybe an expansion some day?  

4. Dragon's Breath (2017, HABA) - I first saw Dragon's Breath at the HABA booth at GenCon 2018 and thought it would be great for kids, but when he was a little older.  Fast forward to Christmas 2020 and I figured he was the right age for it (3.5 years).  It was the first of his Christmas games that he wanted to play and still, a whole year later, it's still one of his favorites.  It's fast to play (about 10 minutes), has a tiny bit of strategy, but it simple and balanced enough for everyone to have a chance.  Plus it looks great with all the sparkling acrylic gems!

3. Dragomino (2020, Blue Orange Games) - This is also known as My First King Domino and uses several mechanics from the original game, but simpler with a fun twist.  In the game you're looking for dragon eggs and you get them by drafting a tile, adding the tile to your lands, and collecting dragon eggs for terrain types that match.  Then you get to check to see if the eggs you collected are empty or have baby dragons in them.  Different terrain types have different frequencies on the tiles and also have different numbers of eggs, but they all have the same number of baby dragons.  So the desert is a common terrain type and there are lots of eggs, but a higher proportion of them are empty, whereas the rarer volcanic terrain has fewer eggs, but the same number of dragons.  At the end of the game the player that saved the most baby dragons is the winner.  I absolutely love this game and it's interesting enough that I think we'll be playing it for years to come!

2. Zombie Kidz Evolution (2018, Scorpion Masqué) - Until this year I had never played a legacy game.  I generally don't have the time to play one game multiple times in a row.  I love playing new things, so usually a game will get one or two plays out of my game group before it gets set aside for months (or even years) while we play all sorts of other games once or twice.  But this summer we got my son Zombie Kidz Evolution, our first ever legacy game!  It's a super simple game about driving zombies out of a school and trying to lock the four doors to secure the school before you're overrun by zombies.  The game starts out with super simple mechanics and you have to get really unlucky dice rolls to lose.  But after each game you get to put a sticker on a game tracker and after so many games you get to open an envelope that adds a new rule or new feature to the game.  You get to add new rule stickers to the rulebook, add stickers to certain components, earn new cards, and complete mission objectives.  The changes are the kinds of things you'd expect, like new character abilities, special zombie abilities, etc. but they do a great job of slowly increasing the game's complexity.  They also add to the theme and story and keep what is otherwise a very simple game, interesting.  It's not like other legacy games where you end up with a unique version of your game since everyone will end up with the same changes in their copy of the game, but it's been fun to add new stuff to our game.  It keeps us coming back for more, excitedly waiting for the next chance to open an envelope.  And I'm genuinely curious to see where this will end up.  There are four characters and four types of zombies, but fifteen different envelopes to open.  So I wonder what other surprises the game has in store for us!

1. The Quest Kids (2021, Treasure Falls Games) - This was a last-minute gift added in for my son's 4th birthday this summer and it's been a HUGE hit in our house.  It's a simple enough game that my 4 year old knows all the rules and can even set it up on his own, but it has enough going on that even my 12 and 15 year olds enjoy playing it.  In The Quest Kids you are four adventurers (based on characters from a YouTube series apparently) that are exploring the mysterious home of the missing wizard, Tolk the Wise.  As you explore you'll find rewards (in the form of Power, Wisdom, and Magic cards as well as Treasure tokens), special Gems (worth points), and sometimes monsters (also worth points).  To defeat monsters you'll need to spend various combinations of Power, Wisdom, and Magic.  If you don't have the required cards you can ask for help.  Everyone has a chance to chip in to help you defeat the monster, and if they do they earn Kind Kid cards that give them special rewards!  There are also Quests that you can complete to earn more points.  The game ends after all the rooms have been explored and the player with the most stars wins.  Mechanically the game is super simple, and it's pretty reliant on luck at times, but I love how it rewards cooperation while still being competitive.  I even brought this to a regular game night that my son had to tag along with and the other players we played with (an adult friend and his 17 year old son) enjoyed the game, too.  This is a wonderful game for any adventurous family, perfect for kids ages 5 and up (or younger if they're big gamers).  There's an expansion for the game (The Trials of Tolk the Wise) that we plan on trying out over the holidays.  It adds a campaign mode with puzzles, more story, character abilities, some legacy elements, and more.  I'm really excited to see how that makes an already fun game even more entertaining and expansive.

Did you like this review?  Show your support: Support me on Patreon! Also, click the heart at Board Game Links , like GJJ Games on Facebook , or follow on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

GJJ Games Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some were provided by a publisher or designer for my honest feedback and evaluation.  I make every attempt to be both honest and constructively critical in my reviews, and they are all my opinions.  There are four types of reviews on GJJ Games: Full Reviews feature critical reviews based on a rubric and games receive a rating from 0 to 100.  Quick Reviews and Kickstarter Previews are either shorter reviews of published games or detailed preview reviews of crowdfunding games that will receive a rating from 0 to 10 based on my impressions of the game.  Buds, Blooms,and Thorns reviews are shorter reviews of either published or upcoming games that highlight three aspects of a game: Buds are parts of a game I look forward to exploring more, Blooms are outstanding features of a game, and Thorns are shortcomings of a game.  Each BBT review game will receive an overall rating of Thorn, Bud, or Bloom.

Top 15 Best Websites To Learn Ethical Hacking 2018

1. Offensive Security Training: Developers of Kali Linux and Exploit DB, and the creators of the Metasploit Unleashed and Penetration Testing with Kali Linux course.
2. Black Hat: The Black Hat Briefings have become the biggest and the most important security conference series in the world by sticking to our core value: serving the information security community by delivering timely, actionable security information in a friendly, vendor-neutral environment.
3. SecTools.Org: List of 75 security tools based on a 2003 vote by hackers.
4. Hacked Gadgets: A resource for DIY project documentation as well as general gadget and technology news.
5. Hakin9: E-magazine offering in-depth looks at both attack and defense techniques and concentrates on difficult technical issues.
6. NFOHump: Offers up-to-date .NFO files and reviews on the latest pirate software releases.
7. Metasploit: Find security issues, verify vulnerability mitigations & manage security assessments with Metasploit. Get the worlds best penetration testing software now.
8. Exploit DB: An archive of exploits and vulnerable software by Offensive Security. The site collects exploits from submissions and mailing lists and concentrates them in a single database.
9. Phrack Magazine: Digital hacking magazine.
10. Packet Storm: Information Security Services, News, Files, Tools, Exploits, Advisories and Whitepapers.
11. The Hacker News: The Hacker News — most trusted and widely-acknowledged online cyber security news magazine with in-depth technical coverage for cybersecurity.
12. SecurityFocus: Provides security information to all members of the security community, from end users, security hobbyists and network administrators to security consultants, IT Managers, CIOs and CSOs.
13. HackRead: HackRead is a News Platform that centers on InfoSec, Cyber Crime, Privacy, Surveillance, and Hacking News with full-scale reviews on Social Media Platforms.
14. KitPloit: Leading source of Security Tools, Hacking Tools, CyberSecurity and Network Security.
15. DEFCON: Information about the largest annual hacker convention in the US, including past speeches, video, archives, and updates on the next upcoming show as well as links and other details.

A Word About The Brazilian Gaming Market

(NOTE: this content is a teaser from my HCI's 2019 paper and the last post of this year)

The Brazilian gaming market is full of opportunities and peculiarities. The country is well-known abroad for being an emergent field where new game ideas can be explored, andalso for its high levels of piracy, unfortunately. In a certain way, the country is a unique "ecosystem" where different business models and creative processes can be explored, given the size and the diversity of its population, of almost 220 million people.

The gaming industry in Brazil is not consolidated though, and under many aspects it is still in an initial stage. As a first step into our discussion, we can highlight some attributes of the Brazilian gaming market, using as reference the data collected in an important survey named Game Brazil Research 2018 (Pesquisa Game Brasil 2018, in Portuguese), conducted by the company Sioux Games.



In its fifth edition, the research comprised interviews with 2853 people, in an attempt to investigate some demographic, consumption and behavioral aspects of the Brazilian gaming field. The first information we need to highlight is the fact that 75.5% of the Brazilian population plays games in a wide range of platforms, like smartphones, tablets, computers, consoles, portable consoles, etc.

According to this research, the gamer audience in Brazil is mainly cross-platform,with 74% of players experiencing games on more than one device. Smartphones lead the numbers as the most popular gaming platforms in Brazil (37.6%), while consoles occupy the second place (28.8%), followed by computers, in third place (26.4%).

Another interesting piece of information from Game Brazil Research 2018 concerns the self-image of the Brazilian gamer audience: only 6.1% of the respondents considered themselves to be "hardcore" gamers. Most of the interviewed people identified themselves as casual gamers.

It was also remarkable, in the research about mobile games, that 60.7% of respondents said they played while in transit (bus, subway or car).

Finally, it is noteworthy that 53.6% of Brazilian gamers are women, and among the female audience the favorite platform is mobile (59%), in which they spend an average of one to three hours a week playing games.

From these preliminary data, it is possible to understand that Brazil is a fertile ground for mobile games and a place with high potential for new gaming business in this field.

There are no massive game publishers in Brazil yet, and mobile platforms like App Store (Apple) and Play Store (Google) constitute interesting opportunities for game designers, indie studios and small gaming companies to showcase their work, in Brazil and abroad.

#GoGamers

Podcast Episode 30 - Finishing Up Demystifying AD&D Combat

In this episode, I wrap up my attempt to demystify AD&D combat with a correction, some odds-ends and Weapons vs. AC!

Anchor Episode link: https://anchor.fm/thedungeonmastershandbook/episodes/Podcast-Episode-30---Finishing-Up-Simplifying-ADD-Combat-eb80m2

What do you think?! 

Leave me a voice message and let me know what you think or ask questions if you have them! (312) 625-8281‬ (US/Canada) You can also leave a message on Anchor: anchor.fm/thedungeonmastershandbook/message 

Find episode posts and other D&D content on my blog: chgowiz-games.blogspot.com 

Credits

Intro music: Dragonaut by Bradley The Buyer (bit.ly/2ASpAlF)
Outro music: Dream by Wild Shores (bit.ly/2jbJehK)
Stinger music by TJ Drennon - Check out his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/TJD/
Stinger music by Nightingale - https://www.looperman.com/users/profile/207475
All music used with permission.

ATTACK OF THE SAUCERMAN!

by HeroOfAvalon

Before they were absorbed by Sony, Psygnosis were responsible for publishing some interesting games. Attack of the Saucerman, the sole release from Fube Industries Ltd, was an attempt at morphing the sci-fi stylings of a 1950s B-movie with an action-heavy mascot platformer.  With Mars Attacks and Men in Black hitting cinemas, the late 90s had something of a renaissance of flying saucer schlock, the latter of which appears to be a heavy inspiration here. With its 2000 release (a year after the PlayStation original), did it miss the B-movie boat?

Read more »

Rescue And Recovery

I own a hobby game store but one of my other hobbies, the one that takes all my meager disposable income, is overlanding and off roading. I have been stuck many times in my Jeep. For a while, it seemed like that's what you did, drive until you got stuck. I learned a lot during this time, both about preparation and technique as well as wisdom in avoiding mistakes.

Once I tried to get up a muddy hill and slid back down sideways, nearly over an embankment. I tried several more times and slid into the exact same nook on the hill, a little closer to the edge each time. Eventually I got half way up, avoided the slide, and winched my way over the top. My friend who didn't get stuck was focused on getting me to learn how to navigate the vehicle up the hill. I just wanted to get to the top. My installer thought I was foolish to buy a winch, "I've been off-roading for 20 years and never used my winch." Well, he never went with us. I ended up using the winch several more times that year. There are some fundamentals to off-roading that apply to business.

Be prepared. In my Jeep sliding situation, I had the original, street tires on the vehicle. I had no business being in mud. A wiser me would have looked at that hill and said "Nope! We go around." In business this means having some form of reserve. A cash reserve is the most obvious. Before we had our large construction project, with tremendous debt, I had cash reserves. We would look around and try to solve problems with money, rather than seeing problems and putting them on my white board of shame, a list to be solved another day.

Being prepared also means having a plan. What would you do if you were forced to shut down for a long period of time? Would you continue the business at all? That's the first question. Is it worth it? If so, how? Having checked your resolve ahead of time means you are acting on your plan while others are searching their hearts. This is a discussion I've had with friends and family many times, and the weekend before I was shut down, we revisited this. Is it worth continuing if they shut you down?

Self rescue. Rule zero of survival is nobody is coming. Be self reliant. With rule zero in mind, how are you going to self rescue in a time of crisis? You should certainly call for help, but remember, nobody is coming. Hope they come, expect they won't. My solution was to set up an online store and do no-contact home delivery. The best time to have set up an online store was a year ago, but you do what you can in the time of crisis. In coming days, I will change that to far less profitable, but safer, shipping of all orders. Nobody is coming. I'll believe there is an outside solution when the money hits my bank account.

Call for help. Nobody is coming, but they might. I've got a ham in the Jeep, but I really want a satellite communicator. The price tag and subscription throws me off, but before every big trip, I consider it again. How remote is this trip? Who am I going with?

In the case of the business, I'm refinancing my house to acquire cash out and tapping investors for a "cash call." This alone is probably enough to self-rescue, assuming things go back to normal. They'll never be normal again. When I went to initiate a refinance, the first several days the banks were swamped and stopped publishing rates. The next week, my mortgage broker added me to her schedule. It has been three weeks and she hasn't called me back. I'm half way through a refinance with a second broker. Is it possible this falls through? Absolutely. Should I have relied on the first broker? Nobody is coming.

I'm also applying for an SBA economic injury disaster loan, and was recently approved for one. Next is the PPP payroll protection plan, which really will employ my staff for more hours than I would give them otherwise, probably building a new online store I should have created a year ago.

One of these things needs to happen. I need the mortgage refi or the SBA loan and gravy if I get both. Let's turn failure into an embarrassment of riches. Since nobody is coming, sending out a request for help on every frequency might increase my chances somebody comes. If nobody comes, the online store becomes an even hotter priority. Everyone is screwed. It is to everyones interest to be patient and allow self recovery. It's the best option since nobody is coming.

The time to be prepared with a strong resolve and resources in place, was before this happened. The time to begin the self rescue and call for help was last week. The time to accept nobody is coming and figure this out on your own is now.

Kickstarter Ending Soon - Dreamforge Games Grav-StuG Tank

Take me to the Kickstarter...


What does this project include?


The project was created to fund the tooling and production of a polystyrene plastic model kit. The Eisenken Grav StuG.

We also offer 3d printable building terrain sets, modular, stackable and and loaded with details.

The icing on the cake... Two lucky backers will receive an extra free kit, painted by the extremely talented David Woods! Each StuG you back will provide an entry into the raffle!

Good luck to all of you! now lets get this Kickstarter across the finish line!