Vikings

By Smart Toys and Games, Inc.
Price $19.99
Age 6+

Vikings is a puzzle game that gets your mind working in a variety of new and exciting ways. It's so engaging that once you start playing, it can be very hard to stop. One or more ships with different colored sails are placed on a playing board that contains 9 rotating puzzle pieces. The placement and orientation of those ships and pieces are dictated by a challenge the player has chosen from a booklet. The goal is to then move the ships from their starting points to the designated end points. The only way to do this is by gently rotating the boats, (and through indirect contact, the puzzle pieces they snuggle against) by hand, easing them through a succession of positions on the board. The catch is that one puzzle piece often blocks the movement of others. As a result, the path to where you want to go may be quite circuitous. In order to avoid unnecessary detours (like retracing your steps), a bit of forethought and a sense of how the pieces move can yield very gratifying results. There are 60 different challenges, from easy to expert. Vikings builds logical thinking skills, strategic planning, problem solving, and visual and spatial perception. For one or more players.