Crash, from International Playthings LLC, is designed for kids ages 4 and up, which seems perfectly suitable for a game that’s both vibrantly colored and has the potential for lots of noise. Game play revolves around a tower with multiple ring-shaped tiers, with each tier supporting ten column pieces. Two to four players take turns rolling a die with five colors and the equivalent of a wild; whichever side comes up, that’s the color of column that the player must remove, and then place on top of the tower. Once 10 columns have been placed, another tier gets added, so there’s nowhere for the game to go but up.
Now of course, you don’t have to be an architect to recognize that as the game goes on, the number of columns holding up each tier decreases, and the whole structure becomes less stable. The goal is to not be the player whose move causes the whole tower to come crashing down. From what I could tell from demo games, it can actually take a while before the tower starts to list in one direction or another; however, once instability sets in, it affects game play noticeably. Unless they roll a wild, players are already limited to which color of column they can move, and may find their choices lessened even further once the tower ceases to have sound form.
But that’s also the fun part! At a certain point, removing any props becomes a real nail-biting experience, though to be fair, my own demo managed to go on well past the point where gravity—or a lack of manual dexterity—should have caused some kind of literal and metaphorical downfall. I credit that to strong game design that manages to keep things interesting (that is, so long as players are actually competing and not actively trying to lose). Despite its relatively simple game mechanics, Crash offers enough thrills and unpredictability to make it appealing to everyone, and I especially recommend it to parents whose children show any inclination of becoming architects or structural engineers.
