Week 14 (game night) Scattergories Categories

 Another game night! (I grew up in a game playing family- so I really enjoy playing games) I played Scattergories. So when I was researching games Scattergories Categories caught my eye.  I only had so much money budgeted for my 52 stay-at-home date nights. So I crossed it off my list as there were other games that I wanted to buy instead. I ended up finding this game practically brand new at the through the used Amazon section for a couple of bucks! Yay!

For those who are familiar with Scattergories it is similar but has a different twist that I really liked. Instead of sticking with one letter to answer all of the topics (S- Street Names, Girl Names, Type of Clothing) you get one category but have different letters to use. (MARRIAGE M-minister, A-aisle R- Rice, R- Ring,etc.). The first one to 25 points wins. It is a good game for 2 people, but more would make it harder as if you have the same response on the same line it does not count. 

After the 4th round, Jadae and I both ended up with 25 points! So we played one more, which he ended up with my points than I did. It was fun and a shorter game. We could have played more rounds but we both were tired. I enjoyed not having to think of so many different topics using the same letter. It was great just having one topic at a time. Jadae and I had lots of laughs over some of our responses. And some of then definitely were stretching it.

One downside to this is the timer. Because it was sand type someone would have to keep looking up to check to see if time was up. But you can easily use your phone to set a timer or just have a set amount of rounds to go through and the one with the most points wins!

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh
13. Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations

Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert

I invited my sister to join us for our stay-at-home date night this time. We decided to play a game and with having an extra brain we figured we would be able to understand the instructions better. Jadae opened up "Forbidden Desert". It is a co-operative game, where you work together to win. About half-way through the game we really started to discuss what our next moves should be before we took our turn instead of just taking our turn independently. Once we started to do that we started to win! You really have to work together or you all will lose and die. I really like the concept of these kinds of games. You are not just looking at your own best interests or what would benefit you but everyone around you.

(this post contains an affiliate link)

I have not played any of the co-op games yet but I have heard high praises about them. The premise of "Forbidden Desert"" is your team's helicopter has crushed in the desert, which happens to be an ancient city that is buried under sand. This city has pieces to an solar-powered flying machine that are buried under the sand. 

The board of the game is made up of tiles. The tiles are constantly being moved around due to sand storms. Once one digs up all the sand and excavates the tile it gets flipped over to the city side. In order to win you have to find all the pieces of the flying machine and everyone has to get to the landing dock. You find the flying pieces by clearing the sand and flipping over the cards, hoping that they will revel where the pieces are buried. One you have collected all 4 pieces and everyone gets to the landing dock your team wins!

There are a total of 6 different characters. Each character has a special power that helps with the game. Some of the characters include an Archaeologist can remove two sand tiles at a time, while everyone else can only do one. The other characters are climber, explorer, meteorologist, navigator, and water carrier.

All the players are racing against time. After each turn you have to draw from the sand deck. There are several different cards in this deck. Most often a sand storm happens, which buries the tiles more in sand. The sun can beat down and deplete your water supply- which means you can die of thirst, or the severity sand storm can pick up so badly that you cannot get off the island and you end up being buried alive!

It wasn't until half-way through the game when we realized that we were making it more difficult on ourselves. During your turn you are allowed up to 4 actions. We originally thought that it meant you had to play the actions each only once per turn and you had to play in a certain order. The actions can actually be played in any order or more than once. But you are only allowed 4 actions per turn. The actions are very easy to understand and perform. The player can perform any combination of the following actions:

1) move to another tile (you just can't move diagonally
2) removing sand (from your own tile or one adjacent to your tile)
3) if there is no sand on the tile you are on you can excavate it by flipping it from it's desert side to the city side. The city side has several different actions; gears (which are very helpful and can be played at any time), water!, or a clue to where a piece of the flying machine is
4) Pick up a part- if the tile is not under sand and you have both clues to a part of the flying machine, and are on the matching tile you can pick up a part
This game also plays really well with only 2 players! 

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.  Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.  Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.  Week Three- Art Night!
4.  Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.  Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.  Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.  Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.  Cruise!
9.  Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10.Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island

Week 9 (Game) Star Fluxx

My baby brother is staying with us while he is on spring break this week and next. So we invited him to join us in our weekly stay-at-home date night.

Jadae is a big sc-fi geek! He loves Star Wards, Star Trek, etc. So I got Star Fluxx from Amazon knowing that he would enjoy it. (We already own Family Fluxx and Wizard of Oz Fluxx). Fluxx is a game where the rules always change and how to win the game (by achieving the goal) changes also. I like certain sci-fi movies (such as Back to the Future) but I really am not into Star Trek. I did enjoy this game though and know enough about a lot of the sci-fi genre that I got the cards and they made me smile!



Because of copyright infringements Looney Labs (the creators of Fluxx) had to be creative with some of their cards. For example, in Star Trek the men who wear red shirts always end up dying- in this game that is a keeper card and the card is called "The Expendable Crewmen".  The cards make reference to  references to Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, A Space Odyssey, Stargate, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and probably some others.

This version of Fluxx has some awesome extra abilities on some of the keepers. These make the game more interesting and fun! I will say that this version is not the best to introduce someone to Fluxx as there are more complex cards that the other versions do not have unless there are people playing that are familiar with the game.

Even though my brother joined us we still had fun! We ended up playing several rounds.  I can't remember who won. I know I didn't win any rounds though. But that is not what mattered.


52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1. Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2. Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3. Week Three- Art Night!
4. Week four- Deal or No Deal

5. Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6. Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7. Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8. Cruise!

Week 6- (Wii Night) Super Mario Maker

            This week we had a more laid back date night. We played Super Mario Maker for the Wii U.  I had originally planned on us making levels prior to play but that did not happen. Instead we decided to take turns playing the 100 Mario challenge to help unlock a new costume for Jadae. We each were allowed 3 lives or passing one level before we had to turn the controller over to the other person.
          We fun just playing something that reminded us of our childhood. It was very relaxing, not mind draining, but yet challenging. And a little confession on my part I still scream like when I was younger when I play video games. I scream when a bad guy gets too close or you almost get hit my a fire stick or fall in a hole :)
         For those who are not familiar with this game I will give a brief synopsis. There are several different ways to play. One way is to make your own Mario levels that you can upload for others to play. You are able to use the Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U platforms to make the levels along with creating tunnels, sub-levels, etc. in the outside world, the ship, the castle, etc. Or you can play levels of your choosing that others have loaded. And you also can play 100 or 10 Mario challenge. Where you get that many lives to try and beat so many levels (depending on difficulty) once you do you get to unlock a costume that allows you to change what Mario becomes when he levels up (getting bigger or a special power). The costumes have all kinds of outfits, like being a gomba, Link, Lugio, Donkey Kong  etc. My whole family loves this game. Jadae tries to design levels that Monkey boy can play. Monkey Boy enjoys making levels filling them with as many bad guys as possible!




52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1. Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2. Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3. Week Three- Art Night!
4. Week four- Deal or No Deal

5. Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)