Well, the new SimplyFun games (and other products) have been released and are now available. I had been told earlier in the year that I would be pleased with the releases, so I must admit that I'm totally punctured to see what they announced. (First, a warning. All the official SimplyFun pages have music with no volume control or 'audio off' button. You may want to mute the volume before you click.)

First up is Treasure Trot. This has a tie-in to Bella Sara horse collectible/trading card series (game?) which is targeted at younger girls. This matches the age target for TT, which is 5+. The game is a roll and move game, i.e there are little or no decisions to make, picking up a matching color card from the middle. If there are no matching color cards, then that player doesn't get to pick one up. First player to collect 3 sets of same colored cards wins. No control at all. Instead of using a die for movement, the players can use their Bella Sara cards, which have 1-6 horseshoes in the corner, to regulate movement. Would probably appeal to younger girls, but would leave boys and adults wanting to run a mile, and certainly not a game I'd add to my collection.

Next is Cahoots, which is a Charades style game for individuals or teams of 3 or more. Each player takes a turn, and rolls the die which indicates which category card to draw. These categories have the player mimic the noise, make the facial expression, or draw (with their 'wrong' hand) the sound, item, phrase or whatever is listed on the card. Great if you like Charades.

The only game that looks at all interesting is Quartile. This is a tile placing game, with each tile having a central number, and a varying number of pips on each edge. Each player picks a tile to play from their hand of 4, with the player who picked the tile with the lowest central number deciding who places first that round. Tiles must be placed adjacent to one or more tiles such that the total of the pips on the adjacent tiles total the central number of the tile being placed. If it's adjacent to more than one tile, then all edges must total up correctly. The Designer of the game, Steve De Chellis, has a blog page about Quartile, where he details some of the production history and expands on the rules. I think this could be an entertaining game along the lines of Carey's/Sunriver Games' 24/7 (BGG entry), which I quite like. Not a deep, main course type game, but a pleasant filler or occasional family game.

Other than that, we have the old 3D wood models reappear with paints to color them up, and the Halloween bags from last year. Overall, a very disappointing haul, and not anything like I was led to expect. I'm especially disappointed with Treasure Trot, as it's very much in the same lines as most tie-in games - all tie-in and no game, and no better than most of the games in Toys-R-Us. I'm now in the position where I really have to consider whether I want to continue as a SimplyFun consultant. It's hard to raise enthusiasm to present a lot of the more recent products. I'll probably continue until my next renewal date (November), and see where we are then.