Scott’s Toy Box: Cooking Up a Game

Hasty Baker

In this card game, players are trying to use ingredients to cook up their recipes and get to 5 points before their opponents. Each player has his own recipe card that he is trying to complete by playing four-ingredient cards. Each turn players can take these actions: they can either play an ingredient card, play a strategy card, or discard a card and get a new one from the deck (or do one of those actions twice). All the strategy cards are explained in the instructions, but they can force players to discard their entire hand to get a new one or steal one of the ingredients in play from another player and put it in their recipe. The game is very fun and comes with two cards you can use to create your own recipes. 

$18 | Amazon

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​Burping Bobby

In this game of gas, Burping Bobby is a Hippo with one large appetite. There are several tokens with food and a number on one of the sides. The tokens are placed face down. Each player announces what food he intends to pick up and chooses a token to turn over. If he correctly guesses the food on the token, this player gets to keep that token. If he is wrong the food gets fed to Bobby. You open his mouth, place the food on his tongue and then turn the crank the number of times on the token. At any turn Bobby might let out a large burp, ending the game. The player whose turn Bobby burps on, loses the one food token with the highest number on it and then all players add up the numbers on their tokens. The player with the highest total wins. Bobby makes eating sounds when the crank is being turned and when you add water, a little bit of steam comes out when he burps.

$20 | Target

Hocus Pocus

In this game based on the Halloween classic Hocus Pocus, players work together to ruin the potion the Sanderson Sisters are cooking up without being able to fully communicate with one another. On each turn players get to ask one question to determine cards the other players hand, then they add a card to the cauldron that matches either the color or the type below it. At any point when the top cards match in color or type, one of the witches is stunned and the round ends, moving the sun closer to rising. The witches have spells they can cast when a card has a spell book icon on it or if a player can’t play a card, that messes with the players plans. The players have tricks they can use to trick the witches but those can only be used once per game. Players also have the help of Binx who can help them communicate better by showing one of the player’s hands. If the players get the sun to rise fully, they win, but if they run out of cards in the draw deck and they are forced to draw a card, they lose. This is a great game for fans of Hocus Pocus and fun for a Halloween game night.

$20 | Amazon

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Wonder Woman

With Wonder Woman 1984 coming out in theaters this month, I wanted to tell yall about the game Wonder Woman Challenge of the Amazons. In this cooperative game, players play as Amazons trying to protect the island of Themyscira. An enemy has appeared on the island and means to take it over. Players attempt to retrieve relics on the island that help defeat the enemy. The game comes with three different enemies that each offer their own challenge. This is a fun game for older fans of Wonder Woman and those who love strategy games.

$35 | Target