JENGA

"Gravity is a harsh mistress" -- The Tick

Jenga, the classic removing-and-stacking game, requires steady hands and a sense of balance for victory. It's simple to learn, challenging in execution, and almost perfectly packaged.

Jenga begins with a tower, composed of 18 rows of rectangular wooden pieces, with each row consisting of three pieces next to each other and the pieces of each row at a right angle to the row above and below it. On each player's turn, they have to (using only one hand) remove a piece from anywhere but the top row, then place it on the top to start or continue the top row, without the whole thing falling over. The last player to put a piece on top without it falling over wins.

Those are all the rules to Jenga. It's an amazingly easy game to learn and teach, quick to set up, and quick to play. While it's fun, it is the same formula over and over for each game. Also, while some versions apparently come with a hard plastic sleeve to keep the pieces in the tower, mine came with a paper sleeve that doesn't do much.

Jenga isn't a game for playing all day long, but it's a good filler for playing in-between games or while waiting for everyone to show up.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch