Brain Games Publishing BGP5489 Ice Cool 2, Mixed Colours

Product Information

The ThinkFun Zingo Bingo Award Winning Preschool Game teaches matching, learning word recognition, pattern recognition, object identification, and counting skills. Ice Cool is entertaining because of the player interaction. Playing almost feels like a sport where the penguins are an extension of the players. There's a sense of achievement to difficult manoeuvres. Curving arcs through doorways, or jumping walls to catch your friends. Players come together sharing those moments, often with a cry of "Did you see that?!". Social Skills: Playing board games allows people to practice important social skills such as taking turns, working together as a team, and being respectful of other people’s opinions or strategies. Trusted by families worldwide – Over 50 million sold, ThinkFun is the world’s leading manufacturer of brain games and mind challenging puzzles.

Develops critical skills – Perfect for pre readers and early readers, builds language and matching skills in preschool kids through fun, fast paced play. What use is Maths when you could have the easy life you see the other penguins having when you watch David Attenborough on TV? Cutting class is so much more fun and there’s plenty of fish to be had in the kitchens, so long as the hall monitor doesn’t catch you! Each game includes 4 colorful penguin figures, 8 doors, 16 pieces of fish, 1 game board, 1 rule booklet and 4 colored bases. If you make a jump over a door with your color fish token on it, you do not receive the fish token. You must move through the door to receive the fish token!Ice Cool 2 is a standalone expansion, meaning you can play the expansion without needing the base game (although its way better if you do have the base game, more on that later). The components in Ice Cool 2 are nearly identical to the original. There are 4 penguins and matching fish in different colors from the original. The cards have gotten a bit of an upgrade with the addition of tasks on the 1 value cards. A player can also use two value 2 cards to move any fish to a new doorway. The box setup is also very similar, being a mirrored version of the original. Finally, the rulebook has gotten a bit of an upgrade and is much clearer now. If you want the penguin to move in a straight line, put your finger in front of it and make a push on the very center - it will move in a straight line. Brain games are an incredibly fun and engaging way to challenge your brain with activities that stimulate your cognitive skills. And there’s no better example of this than ICECOOL, a fast-paced and strategic board game featuring adorable penguins.

Finally, I thought the new race game was a clever way to give some variety to the gameplay and I think I might even like that mode more than the base gameplay. I enjoyed that you can partner up with someone and work together to collect your fish on some really big courses. The minds at Brain Games even created some clever layouts, including ones with sliding rooms. Those can definitely cause some headaches if you don’t plan ahead. But overall, teaming up in the game was a blast and I can see myself opting for race mode more often than not. Final Thoughts: If the Catcher at any point during his turn touches one or more Runners, he takes away their ID cards. In 2016, Brain Games released Ice Cool at the UK Games Expo. It was our first year at the expo and we were quite surprised that any games were being released there, let alone one of them going on to win the Kinder Spiel des Jahres (the biggest award for children’s game of the year) one year later. Ice Cool is an innovative dexterity game, with a fantastic pun in its title, about a group of penguins trying to skip class in high school. Let us tell you how it plays. Ice Cool Gameplay If the Runner completely goes through a door with a fish token of his color on it, he takes it and draws the top card from the fish card draw pile. You look at the card and put it face down partly covering your color reminder card.ICECOOL2 is an expansion – but also standalone game – to its predecessor, ICECOOL. If you say the name out loud it sounds a bit like ‘Ice School’, which is exactly where this game takes place. In a school, filled with ice. A school for penguins, that are skipping class and trying to skid around the halls to collect fish… The basic rules and win conditions are the same in a five-player game. With six to eight players there's an extra catcher. In this scenario, the hall monitors work as a team to bring their delinquent peers to account. Because catcher roles rotate, with seven players someone will play this role twice. This unevenness might ruffle the feathers of more particular players. But this game is best for light-hearted play. I encountered two problems with the combined game. On some layouts, the joins could do with a firmer hold and often there is a misalignment of doorways. The latter results in smaller openings that increase the difficulty. Neither of these are major issues. I even came to appreciate doorways of varying challenge. Equipped with a clear, high-quality instruction manual, you can start playing right away! Both parents and teachers alike may appreciate the appealing game concept – with simple, self-correcting matching tiles that hold the attention of children whether they’re playing at home or in the classroom. The rules are easy to learn but offers enough strategies and challenges to keep players engaged all game long. With a random mix of resource cards and numbers, every game is different – no two Catan games will ever be the same, offering infinite replayability. Average playtime is just 60 minutes making it the perfect game to break up a family game night. Best of all, with an age rating of 10+, everyone can join in the fun!

Developmental Benefits: By playing board games, children can increase their problem solving skills, communication skills, and hand-eye coordination. The different levels of difficulty vary based on the type of activity or task being performed. Generally speaking, there are five levels of difficulty: easy, medium, hard, very hard, and extreme. Easy tasks are those that require little to no effort and do not take much time to complete. Medium difficulty tasks require some effort and may take some time to complete. Hard tasks are those that require significant effort and are time-consuming to complete. Very hard tasks are those that require a lot of effort and are very time-consuming to complete. Extreme tasks are those that require an incredibly high level of effort and take a very long time to complete. Does the game have any replay value? Each player, starting with the Catcher, draws 1 card from the fish card draw pile for each ID card they have. The Catcher will always get 1 fish card for his own ID card, plus an additional fish card for each ID he captured. A Runner will only get a fish card if he wasn't caught. The ThinkFun Zingo Bingo Award Winning Preschool Game includes 6 double-sided Zingo! Cards, 72 double-sided tiles, and a Zinger device. The ThinkFun Zingo Bingo Award Winning Preschool Game is suitable for pre-readers and early readers aged 4 and up.Family Time: Spending time together as a family playing board games helps to create lasting memories and strengthens relationships between family members. It depends on the game, but generally speaking, many popular video games are designed to be easy to learn and play. Most games have tutorials and other help features that make it easier to jump right into the game. For more complex games, there may be a learning curve, but with some practice, most people are able to learn the game and start playing. What are the different levels of difficulty? Players win the game by either capturing the enemy base or by destroying all of their opponent’s pieces.

The game won the title of “Kinderspiel des Jahres” in 2017 – a very prestigious award, selecting the best children’s game of the year. Its popularity isn’t confined to just kids either – adults of all ages are raving about it, thanks to its clever mechanics, beautiful design, and alluring theme. The Catcher has to catch the Runner twice before the round ends. When the Catcher touches the Runner for the first time, he takes away his ID card as usual. Then the Runner is moved to the Classroom and the Runner immediately takes a turn starting from the red circle like in the beginning of the game. The Catcher's turn completely ends and he cannot play two fish cards with value 1 to take an extra turn before this immediate turn of the Runner. The game is over when every player has been the Catcher once. The player with the most victory points is declared the winner! It’s always good to have different games to the people you often play with, so Amy suggested that we buy a copy of Ice Cool and it has hit the table a few times in the last couple of weeks and sits happily among our heavy games like Terraforming Mars and A Feast for Odin.

Each Runner attaches one of their fish tokens on each of the three doors marked with the fish symbol. This isn’t just a game – it’s an educational and entertaining tool that has been trusted by millions of families worldwide and has the awards to prove it. Winner of an Oppenheim Gold, Parent’s Choice Award, and ASTRA Best Toy for Kids Award, Zingo is also a three-time Toy of the Year nominee, making it a great gift idea for kids and parents as well! It depends on the game. Some games are designed to be played multiple times, and can offer a different experience each time. Other games may not have much replay value, and are only meant to be played once. Are there any strategy elements involved in the game? Final Score: 4.5 Stars – A fantastic dexterity game that’s both unique and an absolute blast to play.