Family Game Night; Skip-Bo anyone?

5/2/07 -- OKC, OK - Today's 'modern' family has replaced the 'family night' with takeout in front of the TV and individuals retreating to their room of choice in the house with little or no family interaction and reflection of the day's events.

In many ways my family is no different. Between work, school (all 3 of us are in school) and the never ending to-do lists, there seems to be less and less down time - let alone family time.

However, as I like to show in this blog, we make every attempt to make a family retreat out of simple things, like a visit to the zoo or a night out to dinner.

Another fun family tradition is 'game night.'

Game night for us can be duking it out blasting each other in rounds of Halo or Call of Duty (XBOX 360), or, more preferably a classic board or card game. Our favorite board games are Risk, Clue, and Monopoly. On casino nights we breakout the Roulette Wheel and/or go through several hands of Texas Hold'em.

The other night ,while enjoying steaks and great conversation at my uncle's home in Edmond, we were exposed to the apparently popular card game Skip-Bo.

Skip-Bo is by the same people who brought us Uno.

Skip-Bo quickly had me hooked (maybe that is because I won the first hand!).

The other day I bought a deck of Skip-Bo cards at Target to add to our growing collection of board and card games.

Last night we decided to play a round (about an hour with 3-players, 30-cards each).

It was close with Vickie leading most of the game. However, in the final stretch it was Vickie and I with one card left (Devin was still sitting on about 9 cards).

That's when I decided to play dirty and offered Devin $10 to set me up to win (I had a 7 card left and I needed him to play his 6 and stop there). Devin, being a teenager and perpetually on the search for money, gladly sold out his mother.

The most memorable parts of the game where the friendly jabs back and forth and a tussle that erupted when Vickie rescinded a placed card and we invoked the "a card laid is a card played" chant. To no avail though, as mom bullied her way. The best part though is that the tirade was caught on tape! Possibly to be posted in the near future.

If you know of any other must play games, let us know in the comments section.

FYI, you can find Skip-Bo cards at most any toy retailer or on Amazon for about $7.

Well, since I seem to like to post reviews, here goes it...

Skip-Bo
Price: 5/5 $6.99 - $16.00 (depending on where you buy and if you go for the board game or card only version - no difference in play)
Age Suitability: 5/5 Game says 7yrs and up. That may be true, but I'd say 10 and up.
Playing Time: 5/5 Takes us an hour for 3-players with 30-cards each.
Learning Curve: 4/5 Easier to understand if someone explains it. I found the included instructions confusing. A person can explain it in about 5 minutes.
Fun Level: 4/5 As far as card games go it has a good mix of luck and strategy without having to put too much brain power into it.
Recommendation: I highly recommend this card game for families with wide age ranges that want an easy to setup and play game that can go from shuffle to victory in an hour's time. Perfect game to take on vacation or trips to the lake!