Game Reviews: A Playful Trio from Goliath Games

Board games are a part of our cultural history, no matter what culture we’re talking about. History books have pictures or descriptions of them as far back as you can go. Being a sucker for historical tradition, I have always had a reasonably stacked game cabinet wherever I live and that’s no different right now. When I was offered the chance to review some games for Goliath Games, my only question was, “How fast can you get them here?”

The three games I got from Goliath Games are Pop the Pig, Gooey Louie and Don’t Panic.

Gooey Louie is already hilarious just from the sheer grossness of it. You stuff a group of ‘boogers” up inside Louie’s nose and only one or two of them are hooked around a secret lever. As the kids begin to pick the boogers out, eventually one will trigger the lever and BOOM – out goes Louie’s brain.

The first time my son played with this he giggled until he nearly passed out. It’s an incredibly simple and fun game for the kids and parents will never get tired of those squeals of laughter as Louie once again blows his top.

Pop the Pig is the next step up for the little ones. It has a similar idea to Gooey Louie, to keep playing until something pops, but here there is simple math involved as well. The players need to roll a die and find out how many burgers they have to feed to the ravenous chef pig. The person who feed him the final burger that bursts his shirt open loses.

Kids get really into this because it gives them a chance to use their math skills, which many are just beginning to work on. It’s also geared towards slightly older toddlers who have passed the stage of putting everything in their mouths (the burgers can be easily swallowed).

Rounding out the trio is Don’t Panic. The object here is to try to make it to the end of the board by giving a random number of correct answers to a chosen category. You get your category by the color of the spot you land on. The number you spin on the wheel tells you how many items you need to come up with in 60 seconds for your given category. It’s big pressure and high fun.

Now this is advertised for kids eight and up (and Goliath Games as a whole is directed towards little kids), but my wife and I gave it a run with some friends and I couldn’t see how an eight-year-old would be able to answer the questions fast enough, or possibly at all. Some of the categories were really easy for us, but on others we struggled to get even half of what we needed in that short period of time. And just as in many timed games, the buzzing of the timer just adds to the mental pressure. It stands apart from the other games as more for older kids or adults and can be great fun at a party.

If you think any of these offerings sound good, go check out the Goliath Games website and see if you like the rest of what they have to offer.