Guest Author - Megan Romer

Maask is a beautiful little game from Blue Orange Games. It's a little bit like Classic Memory or concentration, but it's played with wooden elements and will reinforce your children's color-matching skills.

The game board is designed to look a bit like a crown, it's a round golden wood board. Around this board, you place colorful "jewels" (wooden pegs) and cover them with wooden "branches" (which look sort of like hollow spools). The game is played with dice. Each player rolls the two six-sided wooden dice, each side showing a color. Whatever color the dice show, the player must look for in the jewels under the branches. There are 12 jewels in all, two each of six colors.

If they lift at least one correct branch, they get to remove that branch and the jewel underneath it. They line these up in front of them. Their turn continues until they fail to find a match. If another player rolls a color that a player has already found, they may choose to try to steal a jewel away from the player who already has it. Careful, though, they must remember where the other player placed that jewel in the line in front of them.

For a simpler version of the game, play it just like memory. Lift two branches at a time, trying to come up with a match. The player who gets the most matches wins.

This is a really beautiful wooden game, and I can highly recommend this or any other games from Blue Orange Games. See my review of Gobblet for a game for slightly older kids or adults.

MAASK AT-A-GLANCE:

GAME BOX INCLUDES: Game Board (A Flat Crown), 2 Jewels each in White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple and Blue, 2 Wooden Dice With Colored Sides

YOU'LL NEED: A flat playing surface (this isn't the best game for backseat playing because the pieces won't stand up straight if you don't have a good flat surface)

SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $19.99

TRY IF YOU LIKE: Memory, Gobblet

PERFECT FOR: Kids who need some practice with their matching skills; a kid's first game; parents who don't want to buy their kids games made with cheap, destructible parts

RATING: Five Crown Jewels out of Five