Thursday, March 29, 2012

SORRY! Well, not really, but it's the name of the game.

Today, we're talking about the classic game Sorry.  For those of you who don't know the game, here's a brief rundown.  Each player has 4 pawns that start in a safe start area.  You have to play a 1 or 2 to get a pawn out.  Then your goal is to get each of your pawns to your own home area, which consists of going through almost every spot on the board.

There's a lot of luck in Sorry, as you've come to expect from most mainstream games.  Sorry comes down to draw a card, play a card, so there's not much strategy for most of the game.  One change I've seen that allows for a great deal of strategy is to have players maintain a 5 card hand.  That way they can choose when to play a Sorry! card, when to pull their pawns out of start, and when to simply move.  It's not a perfect change, but it's a good one.

I still enjoy Sorry, especially when I play with the 5 card hand rule.  It's a game as written that I can play with young kids, and as they get older, I'd add in the hand element to teach them some strategy.  It's fun moving pawns over the board, and oddly satisfying to get a Sorry! card at that key moment.

Sure, Sorry isn't the most grueling mental exercise, but as a way to pass time with every player having an equal chance to win, it's a pretty good game.

While we're on the topic of Sorry, let me bring up Sorry Sliders.  Sorry Sliders is a dexterity game that happens to use the Sorry name for recognition.  Some of the rules do translate, such as having 4 pawns at start which you are trying to get home, but the game is all about sliding these cool pawns that have a ball-bearing in them to slide along the track.  Once again, it's not a complex game, but still a lot of fun to be had by players of all ages.

On a personal note, I haven't been playing many games lately, my gaming family has been fairly busy, but to that end, I'll be in Santa Barbara this weekend, and have Friday night and all day Saturday scheduled for game playing, so look for a post on that either as I'm playing or in the days following.

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