It seems our Famous Games are gaining a reputation as great Stocking Stuffer ideas for all the game lovers and sports fans on your list. Casual Game Revolution just launched their annual Holiday Gift Guide last month and put us right at the top of their Stocking Stuffer list. And on Black Friday, Landon "Lou" Squire of the How Lou Sees It blog, launched his annual series of Stocking Stuffers video reviews - first up? You guessed it, our line of perfectly sized card games.

A big thanks to both sites for featuring us. To celebrate Cyber Monday, we thought we'd work hard over the weekend and post this transcription of Lou's excellent YouTube video for your enjoyment. Check it out below:

 

[0:00] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - Introduction

Hello everyone. Welcome to another "How Lou Sees It" review. I'm very excited tonight to start my stocking stuffers series review where I will be reviewing some very fun games that are going to be small-type games that I think would make really good stocking stuffer gifts for this holiday.

Today we're going to be reviewing a really nice fun collection of sports two-player card games that are very easy to learn, very quick playing and are just really a lot of fun. They are very easy to take anywhere that you'd really like to go. All that you need are some markers - suggested pennies and dimes and things of that nature. Nickels, a few things like that. Some of the games, as you notice, will utilize more coins or markers than others. But let's take a quick look at each of these games and tell you my thoughts on them.

The collection of games that we have here, we have... They're kind of split up into... we have two beginner, two intermediate, two advanced type games. They are all very very easy to learn, though. Some are just a little more detailed or have more steps, there are more things to keep track of than others.

So let's go ahead and start here. I mean today we're going to be looking at a tennis game, a baseball game, golf, a yacht racing game, and then we have a car racing game and then finally a football game. So all the games come in these little pouches, carriers there. I was somewhat worried that the cards and everything would kind of slide out but, once you have everything in there, it really stays in there very nicely. So nothing much to the box there but its very nice.

On the back of the box, it will have, you know, kind of a reminder to you of what the the game needs. The tennis game: 11 cards and it suggests one penny. You can easily play this without a marker, though, with how easy it is to play. And all the games come with 11 cards. There are two instructional cards in there and then a little fold-out here that will tell you a little bit about the game. And then, depending on the game, there may be some utilization to the backs of these instruction type cards.

But, yeah, so that entails the games. Let's go in and look at one of my favourites, actually, tennis.

[3:24] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - Famous Forehand tennis card game

I'm a little biased because I grew up playing tennis and I have three older brothers and we would play doubles all the time and I just really really enjoy tennis. I've been actually working on a tennis card game so there's some similarities here but this is a very, very basic game.

You have your two instruction cards here and basically what happens is you'll take turns dealing out the few cards here and players will take turns serving just like in tennis. They'll go ahead and serve from the left and then, after that point, they will go ahead and serve from the right side. They would go ahead and start with that card and then, from the dealt out cards there, the opponent would place a card.

There's a number of spots here on the board, you know five: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And you'll notice the different diagrams in the corners will show you, you know, on the court where that ball is going to end up. So here you've got the two arrows meaning it's going long into the backcourt. So he would put... This player would need to play a card where the card has a tennis ball leaving from that spot to another location. And so then this player would search through his hand, hopefully finding a card that would have the tennis ball in a proper location. And he would play that and it goes back and forth until, you know, the person in that... from their hand cannot produce a card that would be able to meet where that ball ended up.

So it's, again, a very very simple game. A simple game where you see he wouldn't be able to produce a card. I'm going to get a point and we shuffle the cards and start all over again. I really like this game - it's very very simple and yet it still has the a very fun feel to it for those who enjoy tennis. And maybe it's a little too simplistic for some but I, on one hand, really really enjoy it. So that is Famous Forehand.

[5:52] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - Famous Fastballs baseball card game

Let’s go ahead and… Famous Fastballs - You are going to need a few markers just to keep track of score. You could utilize a pen and paper if you'd rather but the eight pennies works out very very well. The baseball game is really a hand gesture game, kind of a rock paper scissors feel but it’s themed with baseball and you're able to... It utilizes the theme very well and gives a very nice feel to the game.

So, you know, one person's the batter, one person's the pitcher and to go ahead and start the game her and whoever is up to bat and the pitcher... It really just comes to the hand gestures. You keep track of, you know, who's who so you know who's going to be scoring points. And you keep track of your outs and the innings and the game length and everything that way.

But basically the concept comes down to, if you’ll notice, at the at bat card, you'll either hold out your hand flat or in a fist. And, according to the results so, if they're both open the batter will walk. You’ll move the penny or marker along the base to first base there and bring up another person at bat.

Okay so then the other option is if both people do fists and they both do fists, you get an out. So then you would go ahead and utilize the marker up here, move it down so that you have one out. And the other option is... Sorry, I misspoke there! If one person... If you do different signs, then it’s an out.

If you both do fists then that is a hit. And the hit, what happens there is you go to the next phase and each player chooses either to put out 0, 1, 2, or 3 fingers. And then you add up whatever comes out from that and you’ll notice that it goes to six. So if each player holds out a fist, the batter would get a triple, scoring the runs accordingly. So he’d be able to score this and then he would put that many there like so. And then you would go ahead and mark a square up there on the board, there. Or if you had a zero and a 1, you would have a double play where the pitching team would be able to go ahead and remove up to two pennies from the board if there were two pennies, etc.

So that’s really the game and it is a very, again a simple game and I was very surprised when I pulled it out. I guess I wasn't expecting the hand gestures to be, you know, the entire game and, at times, it could be, I feel, a little silly, I guess, to keep, you know, for the entire game using these hand gestures.

But I... It is a really really fun concept. Again in this one the cards are basically to keep track of score. I don’t know, I kind of thought, you know, with the different options here you can utilize, maybe even make up rules for dice, too, if you're interested. You can, instead of using hand gestures, that gets a little tiring or something like that, you can actually substitute, you know, some dice in there and customize it that way so that you each rolled die instead of doing the hand gestures and you can come up with different ways to utilized this in that concept.

So I really really like the baseball, too. I mean I really enjoy all of these little games but that was a really fun one.

[10:12] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - Famous Fairways golf card game

Okay, what's up next? We’re going over and we're going to talk about Famous Fairways, which is a wonderful golf game. This one, it does need again a few markers, you know, to keep track of everything. This one here, on the back of the instruction fold-out card here, it suggests some different golf courses here. Because basically what's going to happen is you’re going to determine beforehand how many holes you guys want to play and just keeping track of par. And it gives you some suggestions to vary the games somewhat on this card.

So, for a few of these, again, you’ll need, you know, your old trusty pad of paper and a pen to write those down. But over here, the... for each hole, you’ll shuffle up the different cards available here and, for a par-3, you'll deal out three cards and, for a par-5, you'll deal out five cards. And you’ll shuffle those up each time so the holes can be different or you can actually go ahead and establish certain holes and keep track of that and kind of design your own golf course, if you will, which would be kinda cool. You can, you know, maybe utilize it and try to make it as close or similar to, you know, a nearby local golf course. I don't know exactly how, you know, realistic or impossible that would be but its an idea that would be fun.

I’d suggest having a quarter down here to keep track the hole but it’s not really that necessary. But one player will go ahead and take some pennies and the other person could take dimes or you can use different markers in that regard.

And you’ll take turns basically choosing a club. And you can't utilize a club that's already taken, so you'll take turns picking which club that you would want to play and try and get down the hole in the number, you know, fewest number of strokes. Which are represented by how you utilize your markers in the game.

So, for example, in this par-3 the woods are not available. As you can see on par-5 you can use this and on par-5 and 4 you can utilize this one. So, as we're in a par-3, we won’t be able to use those woods so, as the first player, I’m going to go ahead and use that iron here, the 5-7. And then you can look here and each of these cards has four spaces but you'll note a lot... you’ll notice the hazards here. So we have water hazards, two in a row, which is a one-stroke penalty to fish your ball out of the water. And you would have to pay one of your tokens and you’d, you know, you can place it by the card there and that's going to count as one of your strokes.

So, I don’t really want to utilize my... the iron that I chose to its full potential and go to a seven and a water hazard. I'm actually gonna go... you can choose any number between 5 and 7. I’m going to go ahead and move my dime down to here in the first open location.

Now, my friend, who has the penny here, he can choose an iron 4-6 but he can't land in the same location as me unless there’s no other option. So, hmmm, he’s going to either try to get ahead of me if he wanted and take the water hazard there or he may want to just take the next iron available, 4-6, but he would just utilize it... Oh, see he may not want to do that. He may do the iron 3-5, maybe he’d go to three. Ah, but then, you know, that leaves the iron open, 4-6, so maybe you'd wanna take the water stroke. [Rule clarification: As in the sport of golf, turn order can vary. The next player is always the one furthest from the hole.]

So there’s a lot of different strategies involved in that as you go down the hole. And they have different hazards as well, so if you're in the rough, you have to use the minimum distance shown. You can't go any more than that. We've already done the water. The bunker over there is a one-stroke... sorry, over there... sorry it's not focusing very well but... Max of 4, and no hole out. So you know it can only go four, no matter what club you choose. And, even if I get to the hole from there and I can do that, I still have to pay one to tap it in because they have no hole out. And you go ahead and you just do that for each turn and add up, you know from here, how many tokens you have here or spent to get out of hazards.

And that is Famous Fairways. It is... has a lot more... As I first started, I know, I’d just play here, you know. It's basically every time, you know, do the highest one and get as far as I can without going into the hazards... But, when it came down to it, after analyzing it a little more, thinking more strategically about it, taking the largest, you know, link and everything wasn't always the best option. So there was some good strategy that came out of it. Now that is Famous Fairways.

[16:06] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - Famous Flagships yacht racing card game

Okay, so let's go ahead and talk about our next one which is Famous Flagships. I’ve been on a sailboat once. It was a really great experience for me. I know a few people who really really enjoy sailing, a brother and a coworker. And so this is kind of an interesting concept over here.

So this one is going to utilize 15 pennies or markers. And this one, I will say pennies are a very good marker or token to use as... Really, it's nice just to have something that stacks very well in this one because you’re going to be stacking things as you play.

So this one has kind of a reference card for each player. It gives the setup on one side and then each round, a turn summary. Basically each person represents one of those two ships, chosen at the beginning of the game. You'll notice here that there are pennies set at the different compass points as established in the setup phase here.

You’ll notice there’s six pennies in the middle and, going around: 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. You’ll also notice that there's little pip marks or little dots around those. And those really, with the dots and the pennies in this instance, represents the amount of points you will receive by moving your boat to that, which is really represented by wind. You score wind points. So think of it as speed and it’s kind of fun, you know. You’re utilizing the different areas of the compass so it, again, very well matches the theme of sailing, in this instance yacht racing.

So each player is dealt three cards and the... there's 1 through 3 and one of those cards goes clockwise and the other goes counter-clockwise. So there’s only the three cards but you deal those out and, as we... each turn, each kind of round here, you know the person will play a card that allows them to move either clockwise or counterclockwise around there and score the number dots plus the number of stacked points on that compass point.

So I’d be able to score four points. I would go ahead and move all of the pennies from there and stack them back in the center. And I would move one of these from the center back to either side of my boat. Now depending on, you know, what other cards I have, that would change or utilize... that may change my decision of where I want to put that token. [Rule clarification: players actually displace wind to both sides of their yacht, not just one.]

Then the other player would go ahead and play their card. And, after that, you would go and switch, after the other person's moved and scored, cards and in... back into your hand. And so the game progresses and you’ll have pennies going back in here. You may go to a spot without any penny because it's still three points if you move there.

It was actually very very enjoyable as we played this. I thought it played really really well. I couldn’t really think of anything like it so it is, I felt, very original to me. But really pretty fun. So that’s Famous Flagships.

[20:04] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - Famous 500 car racing card game

And let’s go down here. We’ve got the car racing game. Okay, I really like this one because of the very starting aspect of the game. Each player gets to customize their own race car and you will also... the game included, as you’ll see here on the back, a racing track - Monaco - worth 18 points. You can actually go to their website, FamousGames.co website, to download other maps, race tracks that you can utilize. You can make up your own race tracks. So, I mean, very very nice replayability with this game as far as kind of making it your own and keeping it fresh, so...

But each track here, you'll notice this one is 18 points. So at the very beginning of the game, what will happen is that each player will go ahead and, in the four different areas of their car that is utilized in the game, here's an example from one of the cards here: You have tires, you have fuel, you have engine, and then you have the flags there which represent the score - basically victory points, if you will. And from those 18 points, each player can distribute those 18 points however he wants.

So look at right in here, you know, 18 points varied somewhat here, you know. I want to start with 3 victory points all ready to go but my car isn’t going to be as, you know, beefy. And so my wife, here, starts with no points but her car is going to last a little bit better than mine will and she may not need to make a pit stop as I will.

So you have this board here that represents, you know, you have kind of the clear, grey and dark which represents, you know, the turn, straightaways and maybe not as aggressive. You start on the track here. The dotted lines represent a pit stop available. This is the first time around, you won't do that but, once you pass around again, when you go to, you know, the second lap, you may want to make a pit stop. And we'll talk about that in a second.

So basically the game again is made up from, like the yacht racing game, it’s made up of three cards. Now there's more than three cards available, there’s a few others, but each person is dealt a hand here and you'll see 60, 100, 140 miles per hour. So on each segment, we're starting on a gray segment here, I can go 60 miles per hour, even in the dark segments, and I would only have to subtract 1 tires. On the other ones I wouldn’t have to subtract anything. If I chose to play this one you'll see I, again, I would lose on this segment 1 fuel. Or, if I wanted to really go fast and go 140, I’d have to lose 1 tire and 2 fuel.

And each person would secretly choose one of their cards that they have and place it face down and then reveal them at the same time. The person with the highest speed would go ahead and get 2 points here and add that up and subtract any others. And the other person would also subtract any damage to their car but they would also score 1 point. So you’d... and then you would switch cards that you played. They would get the 140, I would get the 100 that they played and you go back and forth. So then we go to the next segment.

If anything goes below zero then you are out of the game and the other person wins. And, as you go around, again, these are going to go decrease and these will increase as you go around the track. If you go in for a pit stop you can turn in 1 of your points for 3 tires or 2 fuel or 1 engine. And you can spend as much as you want that you have available. But it's a balance because, at the end of the game, the winner is the one with the most points.

So that is a very simple car racing game. I really love the aspect of being able to make each race track different. Make, you know, play around with, you know, starting the cars out differently. You'll definitely go through a lot more tires than you will the other ones, you know, fuel and engine. But you’re going to need enough of those to get you around the track.

So very very fun. I really like the the car racing game Famous 500. I’m also going to say that I’m very impressed that they’ve found something that starts with 5 so you can keep the Famous 500, Famous Forehand, Famous Flagships... I mean it's kind of cool.

[25:41] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - Famous First Downs football card game

Last here, Famous First Downs. Okay, this is the big football one. It is, you know, the more advanced level of game here but it is really really really fun. I really liked the concept to this one.

It does utilize a lot more markers. Again you could utilize just a pen and paper, I guess, in this regard as well. But in this one you're gonna have some... you’ll notice it has the instruction fold-out again, utilizing the back there to keep track of your downs, your yardage. You have 10 yards here, make up by pennies and one of these that can change throughout the game.

But basically one person takes on offense and one defense. And the game, each person will be able to have three tries as offense to score as many points as they’ll be able to do so. In each run, what basically happens... you have the defense over there that has the yardage that you're trying to win and there's three offensive cards but they are double-sided so you have six different cards available for you to play.

And, so if you look at these cards here, you'll notice few things. You’ll notice the numbers up there. Those are the yardage that you know that you could receive. And you’ll also notice a few other things, the run, short, long... so there's three different plays that you can run for left, middle, or right. And what's going to happen is you’re going to play that face up and then the defense will be able to go through all of their cards.

And they have also quite a few, here. They have six different cards as well that they can look through and try to decide which route are you going to run out of the nine showing on that card and try to pick a card that would be able to block maybe the ones with the larger yardage. But, you know, the other player may not choose one of those and try to get the yardage actually shown on your defensive card. [Rule clarification: The offense can only select from the three play options highlighted on their card. The defense does not have to protect against any of the 6 remaining unhighlighted options.]

So, after the defensive person shows a, picks a card, he’ll place it facedown. Then the offensive player will actually reveal which route he's going to run. You’ll notice here the double arrows - that represents a trick play which you can utilize momentum, which I’ll describe in a second, to go ahead and, if you used two momentum tokens, you'll be able to buy an extra five yards if you were unblocked on the defense.

So, in this instance, the defense shows poorly. I got three yards plus the six from him, that's nine yards. And if I had momentum, I could spend it, put them back in the pile here, and I'd gain an extra five yards. And you collect the tokens applicable and move them. If I established and got the 10 yards, I can even get a first down which, for offense, I would gain another momentum token.

If the defensive player somehow chose one that would be able to block the route that I chose when we flipped it over, then I would gain no yards. I wouldn’t gain the three yards as described and I won't be able to pay momentum or anything there. I would be able to pay 3 momentum to do a repeat down which would go ahead and kind of negate any other momentum tokens that were used or gained and we would basically just replay that down.

So you do that back and forth. If it’s fourth and down and you, you know, have a lot of yardage to go, you may want to punt. Because if you go for a play or field goal and fail, then the defense is going to start their offensive run with ten yards or, you know, nine yards or whatever is in this pile, they would go and start with that advantage. [Rule clarification: On a failed 4th down play, the defense reclaims the coins from the sheet before surrendering their cards and becoming the new offense. This gives them a very powerful field position for their next scoring drive.]

You can go and try to kick a field goal which would be, if you’re within, you know, twenty yards... if you have everything but twenty, it’s automatic. If you have... are any further than that, then you have to correctly guess card flips or pay momentum to get the field goal. [Rule clarification: the kicker actually has to guess coin flips, not card flips.]

The defense also can utilize momentum to change the outcome of the cards here a little bit. They can... theirs is a little bit more... three momentum tokens will buy a 5-yard sack on a blocked play. And four tokens would repeat the down. And seven would actually get you a fumble or interception, so some turnover there.

So the game is just really really fun. I like the concept of the, you know, pick this card, out of all the different options and then the defensive player has to sift through and say, okay, do I want to try to block all of the ones that show yardage? Or is he going to pick something else that doesn’t show it on there. So there's a lot of different options, different things that you can do with it and so I really really like the football one, how it plays out.

[31:47] Stocking Stuffer Game Reviews - In Summary

So those are all the two-player sport card games from Famous Games Co. and I really really do enjoy playing them a lot. They’re a lot of fun, they’re very simple but very good quality cards. The artwork as you can see is very very well done, it looks very nice.

You know you will have to have some sort of paper or pen usually. It's nice to have some, you know, loose change or some other things but you can use on it basically any other tokens. But, yeah, I think the tennis and the football are my favorites out of these, with the car racing, Famous 500, coming in third there, a close third. And, I mean, I really do enjoy all of them.

And good news - if you go over to my blog at HowLouSeesIt.blogspot.com, I will have a written review up there shortly that will allow you, if you choose, to go to Famous Games Co and go ahead and purchase. Go to their website and put in the basket the complete set of all these wonderful card games. You will be able to punch in the code that will be on my blog and you will be able to get five dollars off your purchase of the entire set. So for the first ten people who do that, you're in luck. After those ten, sorry... but go ahead and purchase it anyway because these are some really great two-player games.

Thank you for watching and, if you like this video, please like it and follow my other videos, follow my channel so that you can keep up to date on what is new and what is the new great games out there. Thanks and go ahead and go to FamousGames.co and check out their website.