Ever since I was a kid, I had an unusual fondness of board games. More specifically, games that I was really good at playing. I kid you not when I say that I am too competitive for my own good. Yes, I played to win, baby! My favourite games included elements of skill, memory, speed, and strategy. Many of these classic games available from Hasbro have now been redesigned with modern themes and creative twists.

One such game includes the new Battleship Live, which comes with an hourglass-shaped Live tower that, using the voice of a naval commander, directs game play and keeps track of each move. I recall playing the older version of Battleship but the one game I remember most was Connect 4. Especially when my older cousins would stop by for a visit and I would show them who's boss. Whether or not they let me win was beside the point. It was just plain fun. This is why I was so excited to try the brand new Connect 4 Launchers. Instead of connecting four chips in a row on a vertical plane, the challenge in this new version is to connect four chips on a horizontal plane, times two. Check out this cool yet simple setup:

Connect 4 Launchers comes with two launchers, one for each colour chip. You place the chip on the launcher and catapult them on to one of the tiers. There are different ways you can play and I'm sure you can find any number of adaptations that you can make. The fun is all in launching away! I had the pleasure of trying this game in the classroom and I decided to use it during review in my grade 7 class. I divided the class into two teams and alternate between teams, asking questions that were relevant to the grammar concepts we were reviewing. For example, I might have given a subject pronoun and an irregular verb that they were required to conjugate accordingly in the affirmative, the negative and the interrogative. The number of correct conjugations determined how many chips they could launch. At the end of class, if neither team was able to score four in a row, the number of coloured chips showing on each level would thus determine the winner. Let me tell you how happy I was over how engaged the students were. There were some students who never, ever participate, but because they wanted so desperately to try the game, they kept waving their hand so frantically to be picked, I thought their it would fall off. Needless to say, Connect 4 Launchers has since made multiple appearances in this and other classes.


Another game that I love, and had played over and over, was called Simon.You know, the electronic game with the four quadrants that would light up and you would be required to correctly repeat the sequence of coloured lights. It would get harder and harder the longer the sequence became. A definite challenge. Now, Hasbro has a new version called Simon Flash. It comes with four lighted cubes that use the Wonder-Link technology which allows you to shuffle the cubes around. There are four games you can play. The yellow game is SIMON Lights Off: Quickly line up the cubes in just the right order to turn off all the lights. The red game is SIMON Shuffle: When the cube colors scramble, you need to line them up in their original order. The blue game is SIMON Secret Color: There’s only one order that will show the same color on all four cubes and you need to unlock the code. The green game is SIMON Classic: You need to remember and repeat a longer and longer sequence of colors. This one is my favourite and can be left in the case that it comes with so it's great for traveling. I love the concept behind this game that I think I may have to get Scrabble Flash, next!

Also, I wanted to share my experience using the Game of Life iPad game that I had purchased a couple of months ago. In our house, it has been played so many times since you can play a quick version against the computer. And it is much easier for my 3-year-old to play since he is still learning the concept of money. It is interactive and easy to use, and my kids love it. Speaking of which, I have a few other Hasbro favourites that my kids have had a chance to try. But I'll be sharing those in another post.

In the meantime, if you love board games, then you should definitely check out the Hasbro Annual Fun & Game Event. Lots of prizes to be won!

Disclosure: I received samples from Hasbro to help facilitate this review. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.