Summary: <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Did you know that 2020 is the year of the rat (or the mouse) in the Chinese 12-year zodiac cycle?<br> <br> <br> <br> We decide on our top 5 games featuring these rodents. Play a few with your kids to celebrate!<br> <br> <br> <br> What We’ve Been Playing<br> <br> <br> <br> We “gamed our faces off”:<br> <br> <br> <br> Quacks of Quedlinburg – a reminder that there’s a lot of luck involved in drawing from the bag. We really want the expansion to allow for a fifth player.<br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/snap-review-filler-game/">Filler</a> – barely fits on an airplane tray table.<br> <br> <br> <br> Handsome – a word-building game from Button Shy that feels a little bit like Texas Hold ‘Em. Your goal: Build a word that holds the majority in 3 different “suits” (all represented by neckwear). No vowels provided!<br> <br> <br> <br> Kingdomino Duel – a two player roll-and-write. Draft dice to create your “domino” and then write it in on your player sheet, following the usual <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/kingdomino/">Kingdomino</a> style.<br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/draftosaurus-review/">Draftosaurus</a> – cute dinosaur meeples win over (nearly) everybody!<br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers.com/similo-card-game/">Similo</a> – a huge hit. On this trip, we played a lot of the History set.<br> <br> <br> <br> PARKS – beautiful and very enjoyable.<br> <br> <br> <br> Ecos – we’re really enjoying it. To get the most out of this game, accept that you’re not going to know everything that is going on and efficiently min/max. Focus on your own abilities and how to best use them. Also, the hippos might be overpowered.<br> <br> <br> <br> LOTS – it took a while to get to us, but we have it, and we’re really enjoying it. Both LOTS and Ecos have the players build a common structure while competing against each other for points.<br> <br> <br> <br> The Game of Wolf – a trivia game for 4-12 people. Get a topic, then decide if you want to be a “lone wolf” or team up with a “pack”, before getting the questions. The rest of the players also answer the questions: they don’t get points, but they want to get more answers correct than the Wolf/pack.<br> <br> <br> <br> Just One – we figured out how to play this with a kid who’s not quite reading yet. Made for a fun family time at a restaurant.<br> <br> <br> <br> Century: Golem edition – because it’s a “grown-up” game that our 5-year-old can play.<br> <br> <br> <br> Chicken Cha Cha Cha<br> <br> <br> <br> Circle the Wagons – a fun entry from Button Shy. The same terrain-laying style and variable scoring as Sprawlopolis (which came later), but in a competitive 2-player drafting game.<br> <br> <br> <br> Boom Bang Gold – throw “dynamite” into the box and watch the pieces bounce. Grab the gold!<br> <br> <br> <br> Skulk Hollow – a fun asymmetric game for 2 players. We recommend that the “weaker” player (usually the younger player) take on the role of the Foxen. The guardians are the more difficult role to play.<br> <br> <br> <br> Wavelength – a big hit at game nights. Play it on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/WavelengthDaily">@WavelengthDaily</a><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> SNAP Review – Kenny G: Keepin’ It Saxy<br> <br> <br> <br> We review this cooperative game for 2-5 players. Get Kenny G to the end of his day without losing all of his groove. Read the transcript and see the pictures in <a href="http://www.thefamilygamers."></a>
