Game Review

Concept:

Place pieces into arch... but don't knock it over!

Gameplay:

Players take turns filling the arch with pieces. The number of pieces and location to place them is determined by rolling the dice -- once dice has numbers 1 through 5 the other has colors and the word "Arch Rival."

When "Arch Rival" is rolled, the player on your left chooses the specific pieces and the location that you must place them.

The game ends when one player knocks down the arch.

Winning Conditions:

• The player who knocks down the arch loses.

Our Opinion:

Sounds easy, right? Well, look closer at the pictures... the arch is sitting on a rocker. So, when one side gets too heavy, the entire structure rocks to that side. This is perhaps the best gimick hidden in this game.

I only have two minor complaints about this game: 1) out of the box, there are stickers to place on every arch piece and the dice as well! Stickers are messy and can look really bad if not placed properly. But, you only have to do this once; and 2) the hard plastic pieces are REALLY loud when they crash...if you are on another equally hard surface, it sounds like glass breaking -- great for a party, but very painful when a small group is playing. (Not to mention, my poor cats get extremely panicked when the arch crashes and entrench their claws deep into the person's lap that they are visiting!)

Again, these are minor complaints -- All of our friends love this game. It's different from Jenga in a good way -- in my opinion, it is a variant that is worth checking out.

Where to buy:

Any local toy store -- Our copy was from a Kay Bee Toys and cost about $9.