SUGAR HEIST

Anyone who has ever hoarded Halloween candy as a kid will love a new card game created by cartoonist Alex Clark. Studio71 Games ( the producer of Half Truth, Shady Agents, Pet Evil and Tape Worm ) sent us a prototype deck to try out of their newest game SUGAR HEIST which they've launched on Kickstarter. If you want to be one of the first people to get your hands on this game don't delay in making a pledge on Kickstarter as the campaign wraps up on July 1, 2020! A madcap game of childish hijinks this game provides a sugar rush of excitement as you battle friends and family to be the "kid" who has the most candy.

SUGAR HEIST utilizes the artistic and comedic talents that have made Alex Clark a YouTube sensation to craft an energetic family-friendly game which will get players acting like sugar-hyped babies in a battle royal over candy. It can get ultra competitive but also provides a rush of goofy fun so you are sure to have a sweet time playing it!

Players are trying to stash away 5 types of candy (Fruity Booty, Power Sours, Lucky Sucky, Nutty Butty, and Gum Yum) into vaults. You can put candy into a vault once you've obtained a matching pair of the same type of cards and once you've achieved the lock number on a particular type of sweet it is secured from being stolen from other players. Until then though other players can steal your candy from you!

The game ends when all 5 flavors of candy have been locked away in vaults. Then players count who has hoarded the most candy to see who the winner is. Plus you can earn some love from Grandma to get some extra bonus points. That just might make the difference if you win or lose in SUGAR HEIST.

Candy Cards can be obtained in a variety of ways. You pull two cards each round from the Candy Card deck so that you can have up to six pieces of candy in your hand. If you get a pair put them in a vault. You can only put one flavor of candy though in a vault though with each player starting off with two vaults. If you need more vaults players can buy another vault by discarding one piece of candy into a discard deck.

You can also sell candy cards by discarding them to purchase Battle Cards. There are a variety of battle card options you may randomly pull from this deck. The main one is the Attack move. This allows a player to either STEAL 2 candy cards from an opponent's vaults or pull a HEIST to take 6 cards away from someone else's vaults. An attack card can be used right when it is pulled or players can hold onto it to use in a later round of the game.

In heist mode, two players randomly pull a card from the battle card deck one at a time. The first person to obtain 2 attack cards win. If it is the person who started the battle that player gets six cards from the person they targeted the heist against. But if the person who is defending their candy wins, then they don't lose anything.

Battle Card decks in addition to Attack Cards also include Action Cards, Defense Cards, and Event Cards. The most powerful defense is the Mom Card. Players can stash this away and if someone tries to swipe or heist their candy can have Mom step in to stop the other kid. Another defense is the Grandma Card. This gives you bonus points at the end of the game so that you can makeup for candy that may have been swiped or heisted from you during the game.

Action cards are meant to create chaos in the game. For example a "Night Raid" card allows someone to steal an entire unlocked vault with all the candy inside it. This can be used immediately when someone purchases a battle card and pulls it from a deck or it can be held onto and used at a more strategic time later in the game.

Event cards can also be randomly pulled from the Battle Card deck. These are like action cards but MUST be used immediately. For example, if you pull the "Bad Dog" event card from the battle deck it goes into play right away. When it comes to this card, a bad dog steals everyone's candy! The player declares a type of candy and anyone who has that type in their hand must place it in the central discard stack which is where people also put the candy they use to buy vaults and battle cards. Candy that is in locked or unlocked vaults though is safe from a bad dog.

Plus you can also play nice with other players from time to time and swap candy from each others hands trading for what each other needs. So you can find candy cards by pulling them from a main deck each round, trade with other players from what they have in their hands, or steal, swipe or heist candy from other players hands or vaults. Lock up as much candy as you can as quickly as possible any way you can to ultimately win the game.

Looking for a game that is out of the ordinary which will be fun for all ages to play together? SUGAR HEIST is something new and different to play that is sure to provide a fun time. This dad blogger and his family have had a good time playing it around the house. It can be played with 2 - 4 players. So we've had the whole family play with my wife and I having a family game night with our kids. Plus my son and daughter have battled it out against one another on the living room floor and out on the backyard patio table. This game absolutely gets a Geek Daddy nod of approval!



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HALF TRUTH GAME

How are you staying in touch with extended family during the coronavirus quarantine? We recently had a family game night over Zoom. We brought together my parents along with some siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins to spend an evening playing HALF TRUTH the new party trivia competition from game designer Richard Garfield (creator of Magic: The Gathering) and one of the Jeopardy game show's most successful contestants Ken Jennings. Thanks to Studio71 Games for sending this dad blogger HALF TRUTH to try out.

The game is called HALF TRUTH because players must answer questions from trivia cards that provide six answers. Three are correct and three are wrong. You place bets to see how many answers you provide are right. Can you get 1, 2 or 3 answers correct?

Betting you can get all 3 answers correct can earn a lot of points but also presents risks that can cost you the game if you don't guess right. Being too conservative though can let risk takers leapfrog over you to gain insurmountable leads. Plus the risks and rewards change for each question!

There are 500 trivia cards with categories ranging from " Stars who never won an Oscar " to " Star Wars characters who say they 'have a bad feeling about this'. " The questions aren't all about movies though. You might be asked to name super-hot peppers, identify colognes for men or identify weird things that appear on national flags.

The types of questions vary so that this is an all ages can play for a family game night. We played in teams and I had to rely on my kids when faced with the question  "Creatures in Harry Potter books."  My dad and uncle had an edge on some questions like "Top 10 Billboard Hits of 1972" … hey most of us playing including myself weren't even born yet! I redeemed myself though helping us ultimately get the win by being able to answer "Comic characters who ran for President." There really questions that appealed to all the generations of our family in this all ages party game.

This tabletop game has a nice layout making it easy to set up and have people see over video connections like Zoom. You just need to designate a game master to move tokens about the board, roll dice, and read trivia cards but it worked out fairly well playing remotely. Especially since the focus of the game is on answering trivia rather than doing tasks or moving pieces around a board. A game lasts about 30 minutes making it just the right time for a Zoom session.

HALF TRUTH is for 2 to 6 players or teams with a recommended age of 12+. We had a really great time playing it while having fun and connecting with family haven't been able to see in person for awhile. Though it will be fun to play it together sooner or later in the same room when the pandemic  doesn't prevent get togethers. Until then we're planning on a few more HALF TRUTH rematches via Zoom.

If you are looking for a game that is both entertaining and educational for some family fun, pick up HALF TRUTH for yourself. Based upon the good time we had, I give it a Geek Daddy nod of approval. It is available from a number of retailers or you can purchase it straight from Studio71 Games.