For the last new game of the year we decided to play a nice and easy family game so we can focus on a review of the complete year. The game of choice is Gamewright’s Hisss.
HISSS (2001)
The players try to form snakes, which are as long as possible. A snake always consists of a head-section, at least one middle-section and a tail-section. The player who has formed the most and longest snakes wins.
The cards are shuffled and placed face down fan-like on the table. One card is drawn from the "fan" and is placed face-up in the middle of the table. In turn, each player draws a card from the "fan" and tries to match the color with a card in the middle of the table. The card can be turned around to match. If the colors of the two cards match, a snake is started.
If a player draws a card which cannot be placed next to a card or a snake in the middle of the table, this card is then placed on its own in the middle of the table. A card which is drawn from the "fan" can be placed next to a snake to lengthen the snake. A snake can be made longer on both sides. If a head or a tail was already added to the snake, the snake cannot be made longer on that side where the head or tail was placed. A snake without a head or a tail is an incomplete snake. Incomplete snakes remain in the middle of the table until they can be made complete and claimed.
A complete snake consists of a head-section, a tail-section and at least one middle-section. A complete snake does not need to have all colors. The player who is able to complete a snake by laying down a head or a tail with the matching color next to the "open" side of the snake may pick up the snake from the center of the table and place it directly in front of him.
The head and the tail with the rainbow colours are jokers. They may be placed next to every middle-section of a snake.
If several incomplete snakes exist in the middle of the table, a player who draws a matching card from the "fan" can combine two incomplete snakes. The player picks up the combined snake and places it directly in front of him. The player is only allowed to combine two incomplete snakes if he uses the card which he just drew from the "fan."
The game ends when the last card is drawn from the "fan." If the player with the last card is able to complete a snake, he is allowed to pick up the snake and place it directly in front of him. Now the cards in front of every player are counted. The player who has the most cards wins. If two or more players have the same number of cards the player with the longest snake wins.
Weight 1.02/5
A Little More Info
The description from BGG covers the game from start to finish. Nothing else is needed for this section.
What we like about the game
The game is nice and basic. It is slated for ages 4 and up but even younger players can get into it with some assistance from a “grown-up” (anyone older than the tot) since the main point is to draw a tile and match a color on it.
We love that this game does not take a lot of time to play at all. 15 minutes of play time is about the right time for each game even with distractions.
With only two mechanics (tile placement and pattern building) the game has the lowest learning curve of any game we have played this year.
What we don’t like about the game
Very basic game, no complaints.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Gamewright is known for publishing nice and simple and easy games geared for young and old. This game is a great introduction game for even the youngest players.
FAMILY GAMER VERDICT
This is a 6 out 10 game.
A very basic game that we would probably only play with younger kids. Good to have in collection for that purpose.
2022 YEAR IN REVIEW
This year did not necessarily go as planned at all for us. Having to move twice in the span of four months wreaked havoc with our game playing and life in general. We have had many ups and downs throughout all of this and we truly struggled with trying to keep our composure. The one thing that we focused on to keep our relationship strong in the past (playing at least one game each day) became very weak and to be honest with you, it felt like we would not be able to recover and it became a burden. Even now as I write this it feels like there is a huge chasm that will be hard to fill in the future.
Game Plays
Are we going to give up on what helped us in the past to strengthen our relationship? The answer is no. For 2023 we have vowed to take up the 365 day challenge again and play a game each day (even if it is Hisss). We are trying to get our lives back into a more “normal” mode and we will not give up.
So looking back, how many games did we play this year compared to last year? We were about 300 games less. We are going to focus on getting back up to where 2021 had us when we focused on tracking our game plays and focused on us as a married couple.
10x10 Challenge
We did have a focus on completing our 10 x 10 Challenge and we did complete it but it took us all year to do it. Yes we had some longer and heavier weighted games on it (our 2023 challenge is the same way) but I have to say that I am proud that we not only completed our challenge but also helped my mother to complete hers too (hers was done before ours).
So between our list and my mother’s list for 2023, we should be able to get our numbers up and complete the challenges once again.
52 Week Challenge
We did our 52 Week New Game/Expansion challenge which was the focus of our blog entries for this year. I am happy to report that even though we did not complete all 52 weeks, we did get 50 of them. Did we get just 50 new games/expansions? The answer is no because 12 of those weeks we had two or three new titles.
We feel that this challenge overall was a huge success for us. So much so that we will do this challenge again because we still have a bunch of games and expansions that we haven’t played from our collection.
For the 2023 Challenge we will also include new games that our friends introduce to us as well but those will be marked with an asterisk because the focus will be on our personal collection. Speaking of friends, this next section is extremely important to us….
Friends, Family, and Acquaintances
The Family Gamer Facebook Group has grown to over 100 members now and we love and appreciate everyone that is a part of it. We have members from all over the world and also from coast to coast across the United States.
For my wife and I over this past year, we have met so many great new people and have become good friends with quite a few that we consider them as family. Some of them are also pseudo-Aunts and Uncles to our daughter.
This picture is from our Christmas Eve gathering.
There are more people not pictured who are family to us
What is the origin of most of these new friendships? I can pin-point it to when we purchased some games from a seller on a local Facebook buy/sell board game group and was able to play one of the games with him before we left his place. From there, he started working at our FLGS to the north of us (Around the Table in Lynnwood) and from there have met so many other great new friends. Thank you Peter for helping us boost our “family.”
As for Around the Table, even though we are up there only a few times a month we are friends with most of the employees and the owners and it is the regular meeting place for us with some people of our gaming group. One thing for me to note is that I was grateful that the owners had approached me and offered to pick up a new game from Essen Spiel this year from my favorite game designer, Francesco Testini, and even had it signed.
The one thing I really love about the board game community is that we are really a family in the sense that you can “talk shop” and not feel bad about sharing your likes and/or dislikes of games. If there is a type of game that is not suitable for you, there are dozens of other types out that you can discuss and find common bonds with.
The bottom line is that you do not have to be blood related to be family. With having to distance ourselves from some that are blood related, we have more than made up for it with our gaming family. Again, we love and appreciate all of you and thank you all for your kindness and friendship to us and our 3 year old daughter.
What’s to come?
Besides the two dozen Kickstarter projects that are still being worked on, we are looking forward to another great year of gaming.
We have our games to play to write about for next year’s blog entries.
We have our own place with a dedicated game room so we can freely play on our big game table (our pride and joy pandemic project) as well as meeting up with friends and family at other locations.
We are looking forward to working on strengthening our relationship as a family and keeping the toxic pieces out.
We love that we can share all these things with you all and thank you for supporting us through thick and thin.
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