Weekend Games

This weekend included Fathers Day in Australia, and both of my children came over to see their old dad. We went out for a meal on Saturday (the day before actual Fathers Day, so we missed the rush), then had some family time on Sunday. And we played games.

First up was 'Murder Most Fowl', by Invincible Ink. This is a card game of bird-watching, with each player laying cards to create a 'path' which shows off a particular family of birds to its best advantage.

As the paths develop, players can sabotage each other's efforts, and eventually this may lead to ... Murder!

The game is inspired by Agatha Christie-type mysteries where rivalries within a harmless and innocuous hobby lead to death.

The game was fairly interesting, but we found several bits of the rules were unclear. It turns out that my daughter's copy is an older edition, and that there are updated rules, which clear up a couple of points, but we've had to raise questions with the designers over other areas.

Problems aside, the game occupied us happily for a chunk of Saturday afternoon, and that's really what you want out of a game.

On Sunday I was presented with this as a gift:

The Cat Game is basically a cat-themed variant on Pictionary. Players have to draw film-titles, people, activities and so forth for the other players, who have to guess what it is. The only real twist is that there are a pile of cut-out cat images included with the game, and these have to form part of the picture being drawn. That's it.

It's a stupid game with a stupid gimmick. We loved it. I can't say it'll see much time on our table, but it was ridiculous fun. A party game.