I came across this game Pentago at Narita airport. Seeing the content and the fact that it won so many awards, I was attracted. Here are the awards that this game has won.
I appreciate intelligent games like this. Therefore, I decided to add this to my collection partially because I was afraid that I might not find it elsewhere as I thought this is a Japanese game that might not be available elsewhere.
The game is pretty simple, it's just like a usual "5 in a row" game. Each player takes turn to put a black or white marble on a 6 x 6 board. The first player having 5 balls in a row either horizontal, vertical or diagonal wins the game. But the trick is that the 6 x 6 board is divided into 4 sub 3 x 3 boards, which can be rotated. This feature definitely adds a new dimension and difficulty to the game. I am impressed by the mechanical design of the board, simple and elegant!
I like this game because it's simple. There's no need to learn many rules and I can enjoy the game together with my son almost immediately. In fact, after the first game, my 6 year old son can beat me.
I think this game is really a mind twisting game. The possibility that the board can rotate 90 degree clockwise or anti-clockwise actually twisted my brain. No wonder this game won the Mensa Select Award.
Recently, I saw a version of this game being sold at SGD14.90 in some toy shops in Singapore, almost half the price I paid. The packaging is very similar to what I have but I can tell that it is of lower quality. Since in Singapore, pirated products are dealt with strictly, I am not sure whether those are legitimate products. Perhaps it's local low cost legitimate version? I am not sure.
For those of you staying in Singapore, you may be able to find this in any toys shops at your local shopping mall. Alternatively, let me put down some links below in case you want to shop online.
Amazon Website : The most trusted online store in my opinion; shipping rate is reasonable if the seller is Amazon.
Official Website : I believe this is the official website, some of the links do not work on my browser.
Wikipedia : provides some background information on the game.
Well, I think this is a good game for adults too. For kids, definitely the game will help to sharpen the young mind, as we all know, the more we use our brain, the better the brain will develop. And more importantly, there's a lot of fun!
