I’m continuing my slow walk through the alphabet and sharing a few favorite game from each letter. Next up is “J” … though, I don’t have many games that I’ve played that start with that letter, so here are just a couple that I enjoy from time to time.
Jenga
This is an oldie but a goodie. Jenga is the classic block-stacking game where players are faced with pulling a block from the carefully stacked tower and moving it to the top row of the tower. Whoever causes the tower to tumble loses the game.
I have a fondness for Jenga even though I doesn’t come out very often. I have memories of playing this with my family when it was first released in the early 80s. In fact, I still have that very copy that my family played! I’m not as good as I used to be, but I used to be able to extract the most stubborn block to the amazement of my older brothers and parents (though … they may remember it differently!).
Junk Art
Junk Art is another dexterity-style game where players are building up odd and irregular shapes to please different artistic audiences across the country. The game is played over a few rounds, and each round the goal of the build is different. In some rounds, each player is building their own stack, but in others they’re building on a shared one. The method for getting pieces also changes, as do the criteria for scoring. But in the end, whoever has pleased the audiences the most will win.
I really enjoy how Junk Art plays around with its own rules throughout the game. Sometimes you’re trying to build the highest structure, while other times you want the same color pieces to touch each other. When you’re building a shared structure, you need to decide if you want it stable enough for when it gets back to your turn, or make it a little unstable to try and mess with your opponents. There’s so much variety that I enjoy coming back to this one again and again.
What are your favorite games that start with the letter “J”? Or is there one from my list that you love or are hoping to try? Let me know in the comments!