Play your favorite app game in real life with the Angry Birds: Knock on Wood Game! The age-old battle between Angry Birds and the egg-stealing pigs continues, and the birds will have their revenge. Draw cards, build castles, and knock them down in this hands-on version of the touchscreen hit. First one to 100 points wins!

Angry Birds: Knock On Wood

• Ages: Five and up
• Requires: Ready to play

At a Glance:

• Brings the popular touchscreen app to a hands-on playing field
• Build, launch, and destroy to win!
• Three levels of cards with different building ideas and fourth-level freestyle options
• Experiment with freestyle building and launching distances

Exciting board game based on the best-selling phone app. View larger.

Launch an Angry Bird and knock the pigs down to win points. View larger.

Hands-On Version of the Touchscreen Hit

The Angry Birds: Knock on Wood Game brings all the fun of the touchscreen app to a new, tactile playing field for two to four players. This game follows the same goals as the online version: launch the Angry Birds toward the egg-stealing pigs' wooden castles to destroy them and advance to the next level. With three Angry Birds, four pigs, a variety of "wooden" pieces, and a bird launcher, you can now bring the same action to your living room.

Build, Launch, and Destroy to Win

Play consists of drawing cards from any of four levels, building a structure on the card, and then knocking it down. To play, you draw a card--the higher the card the more points possible to earn. Give it to the next player to build that card's castle. Then, use the bird launcher to shoot it down with the birds indicated on the Mission card.

Go Crazy with Wild Cards

Our testers enjoyed the challenge of playing within the game's rules, including the ways the structures can be built and the birds that can be used during particular launches. They also had fun with the special fourth-level mission cards that allow for freestyle building for more creative play. They enjoyed experimenting with the distances from which they could shoot the birds toward castles. With so many possibilities for hands-on play, this game will keep you and your family and friends occupied for hours!

What's in the Box

3 Angry Birds, 4 pigs, 1 bonus points star, 1 bonus points egg, 1 bird launcher, 14 building blocks, 40 mission cards, 16 points cards, and instructions.

An addictive strategy game in the tradition of Sequence, Scrabble, and Othello, the Qwirkle Board Game from MindWare has a simple, straightforward premise: match tiles and win points. But the real joy of the game lies in plotting and scheming your way to victory. Winner of the Parent's Choice Gold Award and a Mensa Select National Competition Winner, Qwirkle is destined to be a family game night favorite. This game is designed for ages six and up and for two to four players.

Qwirkle
Board Game

• Ages: Six and up
• Players: Two to four

At a Glance:

• A fun twist on Scrabble and matching games
• Players strategize to make matches and earn points
• Comes with 108 wooden tiles
• Winner of Parent's Choice Gold Award and Mensa National Competition
• Includes drawstring bag for tile storage and instructions

This award-winning strategy game is easy to learn. View larger.

Match colors and shapes in this enthralling strategy game. View larger.

Mix, Match, Score, and Win

Qwirkle consists of 108 wooden blocks with six different shapes in six colors. Using the blocks, players attempt to score the most points by building lines that share the same shape or color. The simple setup makes this an instant winner for younger kids, while adults will enjoy strategizing to win.

How to Play

A typical game of Qwirkle lasts about 45 minutes--longer when you're first learning how to play--and players will likely catch on to the rules in no time at all. The game can be set up anywhere, although a large tabletop is best to accommodate the generous number of tiles. The only other thing you'll need is a pencil and paper to keep track of everyone's point count.

Each tile has an illustration on the back (circle, eight-point star, four-point star, square, clover, or diamond). Each of these symbols appears in six different colors (red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple). In total, the game has three tiles each of the 36 possible color-symbol combinations. To help make sure you don't lose any tiles in between games, Qwirkle comes with a drawstring storage pouch.

Straightforward, Easy-to-Follow Rules

As in Scrabble, the game starts with players drawing their own "hand" of six tiles. The player with the most tiles that share something in common (color or symbol) plays their pieces and wins points. And so it goes until the pieces make up a giant grid. One rule adults will likely need to reiterate to little ones is that duplicate tiles don't count. For instance, if someone has three diamonds, and two of them are green, they can only count one of those diamonds for points.

As play continues and the stakes get higher, younger kids may need some help deciding where to build to maximize their points. Our testers found that the length of the game may make younger kids squirmy halfway through. To keep them engaged, parents can always distribute half the number of tiles to start. The game is over when all the tiles have been played and all the points have been tallied.

What's in the Box

108 wooden tiles, cloth drawstring bag, and instruction booklet.

Flip, twist, and spin your way through the Perplexus Maze Game from PlaSmart. This Perplexus Original is a bendy, trendy, can't-put-it-down challenge! With plenty of twists, turns, and barriers between start and finish, it will leave you perplexed. Once you try it, you won't be able to put it down!

Perplexus Maze Game

• Ages: Six years and up
• Requires: Ready to play

At a Glance:

• Flip, twist, and spin your way through the Perplexus Original Maze
• The maze and its obstacles are easy to play, but hard to master
• Race against yourself, your friends, and the clock
• Includes a super spiral, a tightrope, and a swing arm
• Features 3 different puzzles and 100 challenging barriers

Easy to play, but hard to master. View larger.

Clear sphere holds metal balls that wind through a maze. View larger.

Race against the clock or challenge your friends. View larger.

Easy to Play, Hard to Master

The Perplexus Original Maze Game is a clear sphere filled with multicolored pathways covering different areas of the sphere's interior. A small metal ball rolls around on the inside, and it's your job to guide that ball through the maze to its end. Once the ball is balanced in its starting position, it's easy to start rolling it around the tracks. By the time you've learned the different passageways, you'll realize that even though it's easy to play, all the different ways of moving around are hard to master!

Flip, Twist, and Spin Your Way through the Maze

Moving through the different pathways is a wacky exercise in spatial reasoning and stimulates your cognitive reasoning. As you move the ball along one track, you find that it's never long before you reach a different colored track that requires you to flip, twist, and spin the sphere 90 degrees one way or another to keep the ball rolling. Twist around corners, flip from the yellow to the orange ramp, spin around the various curves--if you fall off the track, just get back on and try again!

Race Yourself, Your Friends, and the Clock

If you work hard enough and make it to the end of the maze, congratulate yourself, and then turn it into a racetrack! Keep track of your personal best times and race against the clock. You can also race against your friends' times, or stage races with multiple Perplexus Mazes!

3 Races and 100 Challenging Barriers to Master

The Perplexus Maze Game includes a super spiral, a tightrope, and a swing arm to form 3 different puzzles and 100 challenging barriers to discover and overcome. Share it with your friends and family as you try to uncover all the patterns and obstacles, but be careful--Perplexus Original is so addicting that once you let it go, you might not get it back!

What's in the Box

Perplexus maze and stand.

Put your visual perception skills to the test with Spot It, a fun, fast-paced, and simple card game that everyone aged 7 years and up can enjoy. In a group of two to eight players, you'll draw cards and match symbols, like light bulbs, snowmen, or puppies, but with one catch--only one matching symbol exists between any two cards. The first person to spot the matching symbol and call it out wins.

Spot It

• Ages: Seven years and up
• Requires: 2 to 8 players

At a Glance:

• Challenges visual perception, mental processing, and matching skills
• Includes five individual mini-game options
• Travel-size tin for convenient on-the-go game play

Spot the matching symbol between any two cards. View larger.

Fast-Paced Observation Game for the Whole Family

The Spot It game consists of 55 circular cards, each decorated with eight symbols. There are more than 50 symbols in all, including images of hearts, snowflakes, dragons, and lightning bolts, as well as words such as Stop, Art, and OK. The symbols are universal in nature, allowing everyone, including young children, to participate in the family fun.

Because the game requires quick mental processing, it moves fast, challenging your visual perception, memory, and matching skills. Your group of two to eight players will delight in spotting the matching symbols and agonize over getting beat to the punch by a faster player.

Spot the Matching Symbol to Win

Playing this card game is easy. Simply draw two cards at random and place them face up on the table so that everyone can see. Find the matching symbol between the two cards. The first player to call out the name of the matching symbol wins. The winning player then draws two new cards, places them on the table, and repeats the process.

If two players are tied for first at the end of the game, the winner is settled by having a duel. Each player draws one card and places it face up on the table at the same time. The first player to spot the matching symbol between the cards and call it out wins the duel.

Play Five Individual Mini-Games

In addition to regular game play, this game lets players choose from five individual mini-games with separate rules and objectives. Choose such contests as The Tower, The Well, Hot Potato, The Poisoned Gift, or Triplet and play them in any order. The player who wins the most mini-games becomes the champion.

This card game comes with everything you'll need to play, including a convenient travel-size tin container so you can take this card game to parties or on trips.

What's in the Box

Spot It tin travel container, illustrated rule sheet, and 55 cards.