Gigamons
Overall Rating: 10/10
Age: 6+
GLAM Age Range: 4-8
Number of Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 15 min
Publisher: Blue Orange Games
Complexity: Medium
Available At: Amazon.com
Quick Take: Memory game plus super powers. All three of my kids adore this game, but my 5 year old daughter is the most obsessed of the bunch, which is fantastic because she's the most difficult to find games for. She begs to play it on repeat and it's hard to say no when it's a quick game with minimal set-up and clean up that everyone can play together. This has been a favorite game in our house for a few years now. By the way, it's pronounced "Jigamons."
How to Play: Your goal is to be the first to collect 3 Gigamons. This is accomplished by collecting 3 Elomons of a specific type, which are then traded in for a large Gigamon. Gigamons can be stolen by other players who collect 3 Elomons of the same type, so beware! The basic game operates like a standard memory game, there is a grid of 3x3 tiles and if you turn up a match you get to keep the tiles you've uncovered. The empty spots are then filled in with the draw pile for the next player's turn. However, what makes this game exceptional is that once you have a pair of Elemon tiles, you can choose to trigger their special power! They have a wide variety of powers - one lets you swap a tile with another player, another lets your draw an extra card, another gives you an extra turn, and so on. You may use each power once. Once a player has collected 3 Gigamons the game is over! It also can end if the draw pile is empty, in that case you play until there are no more matches and whoever has the most Gigamons wins.
Variations: Technically the game is supposed to be over once you run out of tiles in the draw pile but we always shuffle up the tiles that have been discarded and put them back in the draw pile if this happens. Also, if you want to play a crazy version of the game you can do what we did the first few times we played the game and have the elemon's powers work for every turn the player has a pair of those elemons. So you wouldn't just be able to see the future once if you have two of the hydromons, you would get to do this on every turn. It makes it so sometimes you have four different powers you're using at once which is both chaotic and a lot of fun.
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