� It Ain't Microsoft | Main | Sixoseven on Mperia �
January 23, 2005
Cranium Cadoo & Zigity
It has been staring at me from the shelves of toystores for a long time. And it caught my attention several times. It looked cool. In fact, it was on the Christmas list for 2004, and we almost got it. This weekend we gave in, and got Zigity for good measure.
Wow.
I've been telling my kids about the multi-mind theory for a while now. And I've started to integrate meditation into their routines. Meditation is for them the mental equivalent of ginger on a sushi plate. Clear the palate of what you were doing, and load up another part of the brain. It makes sense to me that different parts of our thinking and cognitive abilities evolved at different times, and thus that different parts of our brains are acting alone for particular tasks. As well, I've been considering the implications of multiple intelligences since Minksy '88.
Sure enough, Cranium integrates multiple forms of intelligence in its games. It's a real treat to play these. I recommend them highly.
Zigity is a card game that's a combination of Uno and Rummy. The object is to get rid of all your cards. First player to do so wins. You get rid of your cards by making spreads. But the cards are encoded so that you spread 4 different ways, instead of just 2 ways as in Rummy. Your spreads go into the discard pile so it doesn't matter how many spreads you get, you just want to get out.
You can spread based on playing the top discard which is one of four types {Spelling, Math, Puzzle, Matching}. Each of the Zigity cards has an attribute in each of those four dimensions, whereas an Uno deck only has two dimensions, number and color. So each card has a puzzle value (one of three puzzle pieces), a Matching value (one of 4 or 5 musical instruments), a Math value (a number) and a Spelling Value (a letter). There are also action cards, like in Uno which you can play anytime to make an opponent draw more cards, reverse play direction, etc.
Anyway, Zigity is a great game, it plays quickly and the cards are very unique looking. Cool!
Cadoo is a bit more involved but also uses the multiple intelligences idea. It involves the best elements of Tic Tac Toe, Treasure Hunt, Charades, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary and a whole new thing which is making sculptures with grape scented purple clay. A 3D Pictionary with clay. This game is a ball. Both games are great to play with kids. Games go quickly. There's always a winner.
We used to like playing Break the Safe, but it's really frustrating and exciting before you get good enough to win. After you've beaten Break the Safe, it's not so much fun any longer.
Posted by mbowen at January 23, 2005 12:57 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.visioncircle.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3164