Fuse
Overall Rating: 9/10
Age: 13+
GLAM Age Range: 10-Adult
Number of Players: 1-5
Playing Time: 10 min
Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Complexity: High
Available At: Amazon.com
Quick Take: Cooperative game where you race the clock and work as a team to defuse bombs by using dice rolls to fulfill the qualifications of a number of cards. It's challenging, it's intense, and it only takes 10 minutes to play. We've been using the cards with our 7 year old because he loves dice games and while he's not ready for the full version of this, he enjoys rolling to "solve" a card or two. The cards are all great simple logic problems that you have to solve quickly in order to defuse the bombs in time!
How to Play: This game is fairly simple once you have played it once but it takes a bit to decipher what the cards mean and get going for your first round of play. I highly recommend watching a how to play video on youtube. Generally, your goal is to roll dice to the varying specifications of your bomb cards placed in front of you. You must do this before the time runs out. If one of the dice is unable to be used by any player, it is rerolled and the new number that is rolled must be removed from everyone's bomb cards. Similarly, there are fuse cards in the deck that when turned up cause the same thing to take place, you get set back whichever dice on your cards are the color or the number of the die pictured on the fuse card. The game has a scoring system so even if you defuse all the bombs, you can aim for a high score by completing in a faster time (worth bonus points) as well as for defusing bomb cards that are worth a higher point value.
Variations: They have variations in play for different numbers of people you can play with, the game works just as well with one person as it does with five. Also, I highly recommend not running against the clock for your first round of play and just setting a timer to see how long it takes you to finish. Our first round as a four player game was 17 minutes, we were still figuring out some of the cards and rules and intricacies of the game as we played. But it felt much more satisfying to actually get to finish. The game's official recommended age is 13+, only if you're playing with all players over that age would I recommend actually attempting to take on the 10 minute challenge aspect of the game.
Similar Games To Check Out: 5 Minute Dungeon, Magic Maze, Pandemic Rapid Response