Download the newly revised Sizzletoad!® rules.   You'll be glad you did!

Reviewed by Ron McClung for GamingReport.com

Sizzletoad!® is a new Family Board Game from WizerGames.

This game is a family-friendly, 2-player game (with the options for 3 and 4 players) that is fast-paced and fun for everyone.  It also has some developmental benefits to it for younger players and is a great combination of two simple games that kids always play.

  From the back cover:
"This game combines rock-paper-scissors and tic-tac-toe into a fast, frog-hopping race around the pond."

  Players split the deck of 24 cards.  Play is in terms of rounds.  In each round, players present a card from their hand.  This is considered a Duel.  Whoever wins the duel places either card of the duel onto the lily pad tic-tac-toe board.  The other card goes to the discard pile.  Play in the round continues until one player completes a 3-in-a-row on the tic-tac-toe board, which ends the round.  At the end of the round, the player scores 1 point for each card that is in the discard pile.  Score is kept on the lily pad track along the outer edge of the board.  The game ends when the first player reaches 33 points or more.

  From the website:
"And remember: Sizzletoad beats Paper Duck beats Fossiltick beats Sizzletoad!"

  A duel is basically like Rock-Paper-Scissors.  There are three types of cards - Sizzletoad, Paperduck and Fossiltick.  As the quote above says, one beats the other like in Rock-Paper-Scissors.  There are also some interesting "leap frog" aspects to the score track that adds even more fun.

  IN CONCLUSION:

This is a great family game for kids and parents to play.  It incorporates basic hierarchy skills as well as matching skills.  Becoming a father 2 years ago has brought my attention more and more to these games, because I see my daughter develop and see how these games could really help.  This is a cool little game with an interesting dynamic for all ages.

  For more details on WizerGames and their new family board game Sizzletoad!, check them out at your local game stores or their web site http://www.chessmate.com.

Reviewed by Ron McClung for GamingReport.com.

Download the newly revised Sizzletoad!® rules.   You'll be glad you did!

Download the newly revised Sizzletoad!® rules.   You'll be glad you did!

Reviewed by Hunter Johnson (http//www.hunterandlori.com).

  Sizzletoad!® is the newest game line from WizerGames.  As with their previous title, ChessHeads, this game comes in a variety of packages.

  I received a standard box (the $19.99 edition) as a review copy; the deluxe box ($29.99) has a plastic carrying case instead of the cardboard box and nicer pawns -- colorful glass ladybugs instead of monochrome glass, uh, shapes (heart, star, shell, and other shell).  The standard pawns are perfectly functional.  While the carrying case would be a definite upgrade I'm not sure I'd switch to the ladybugs if given the deluxe edition.  The ladybugs are prettier, but they might be harder for very young players to distinguish.  There is also a magnetic travel version ($34.99), also with ladybugs.

  The game itself is simple, just right for a kids' game.  At least in the two-player version, that is.  The rules changes for three players make it a different game, and four-player is a series of two-player battles set up as a single-elimination tournament for each round.

  The game describes itself as a fusion of two triple hyphenates: Rock-Paper-Scissors and Tic-Tac-Toe.  The roshambo trio is replaced by Sizzletoad-Paperduck-Fossiltick, and you can't always pick the duelist you want: you get a handful of cards to start the round, and you might find yourself out of, say, Fossilticks before it's over.  Since all of the cards are distributed each round, a card-counting opponent will also know when your options have been reduced.  The winner of each pairing places one of the cards (winner or loser) on the tic-tac-toe board.

  The first several match-ups are not much to worry about; you can play predictably without fear until there are two in a row on the board with an open square left to finish it off.  Once someone does finish the row, their score is based on the number of cards discarded (played but not selected to go on-board) during the round.  So the longer you can string your opponent along (and still win), the better.

  The two-player version is the best of the three possibilities.  As mentioned before, four-player is a series of single-elimination tournaments: if you beat your neighbor, you take one of the cards played against the other pair's winner.  It works, but it adds a little time to the game without much benefit -- the benefit is that you get to play with four players, but we'd rather get a different four-player game out and save Sizzletoad! for another time.

  The three-player game gives up the Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic for a new one: you win if your opponents' cards match but yours doesn't. It's still a game of outguessing your fellow players, but it feels less satisfying somehow.

  So, buy it (if you have young children who enjoy games but you can't stand to be pulled around by your nose in Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders again) for the two-player game, and if you happen to enjoy the multi-player games more than I did, that will be a bonus!

  I tested the game against a nine-year-old and a six-year-old and both picked the rules up readily, and they were ready to play against each other without supervision after the first games.

Reviewed by Hunter Johnson (http//www.hunterandlori.com).

Download the newly revised Sizzletoad!® rules.   You'll be glad you did!

Download the newly revised Sizzletoad!® rules.   You'll be glad you did!

Reviewed by Tom Vasel      http://www.thedicetower.com/

  Whatever else one might say about the game Sizzletoad! (WizerGames, 2005 - D.M. Weinstock), it does have a catchy name. I'm not sure what exactly a Sizzletoad is - apparently it's a frog with a flaming tongue, but the idea of the game is actually rather simple and easy. Sizzletoad is merely a mixture of both "Rock-Paper-Scissors" and "Tic-Tac-Toe", combining games with a few simple mechanics together. Every kid in the world has played both games, and they often form the basis for much more complicated systems.

  Combining two very simple mechanics does not make that satisfying of a game, however. I've playtested the game with many kids (the ideal audience for the game); and while they have a lot of fun with the "Rock-Paper-Scissors" part, the "Tic-Tac-Toe" part is really only there for show and doesn't have a lot to do with the game. I applaud the idea, but the execution just doesn't do much. Kids could simply play the game with their hands, not resorting to purchasing this version, and probably have the same level of enjoyment.

  The game is played on a three by three board of lily pads, while a pile of twenty-four cards is shuffled and dealt evenly to all the players. The cards show one of three animals, which beat each other in this fashion: Sizzletoad beats Paperduck beats Fossiltick beats Sizzletoad. Players place a token of their color on a thirty-two space track around the outside of the board, and the first round begins.

  Each player chooses a card from their hand and simultaneously reveals it. The player who wins this "duel" places one of the two cards on any unoccupied lily pad, and another "duel" begins. In a three player game, if two players flip the same card, the other player automatically wins - regardless of the hierarchy. In a four player game, there is a two-step duel for each round.

  Either way, this continues until one player finishes a row on the board (in any direction) of three of the same animal. It does not matter who placed the first two, and three of the same animal will work. The player then counts the number of cards in the discard pile and moves their game piece that many spaces on the track. The next round begins, with the cards being re-dealt. The game continues until one player gets more than thirty-two points, at which point they win the game.

  Some brief comments about the game.

  1.) Components: The board is very nice looking - with murky water and lily pads forming a Tic-Tac-Toe grid. The cards are of okay quality; after only five games or so, they are already looking a bit worn around the corners. They do have a simple diagram on them, showing which other card they defeat, and they also each have a different border color, which makes it easy to differentiate between them. The playing pieces are the nicest part of the game - glass stones of different shapes and colors (red heart, white star, etc.) Everything rattles around in a much too large box (although it's still not huge) with a bright silver color. Not the greatest components in the world.

  2.) Rules: The rulebook, which includes a most silly story about the creatures of the game (just what is a Fossiltick anyway?), is three pages of easily understood rules, although it does look it was printed out on a home color printer. Either way, I was able to get the game up and running in only a few moments (people understood the game - even my six year old daughter).

  3.) Rock, etc.: Everywhere I go in Korea, I see children playing Rohzambo, with varying changes, etc. I don't mind the rock-paper-scissors mechanic as the basis for a more complicated game - such as the one found in Basari. But the game is ONLY this basic mechanic - nothing added really changes that.

  4.) Tic-Tac-Toe: Okay, to begin with - I think that Tic-Tac-Toe is way overrated; and I stopped playing the game as a kid, since it offered very little. Variations on the theme, with more complexity, can be quite thrilling and exciting. Here, the variation is very little, using only three different animals. The problem lies in the fact that players can use any animals on the board to form their three-in-a-row. Because of this, the game is pretty much worthless. Players can attempt to block the other player, but why would they want to, when they can simply place the final piece there themselves? I found this part of the game to be lacking, and an added layer that does nothing except perhaps justify the price of the game.

  5.) Fun Factor: It's fun to beat someone in Rock-Paper-Scissors, because you can be satisfied that you have outguessed them. I'm not sure that it's fun to play it 50 times in a row, which seems to be average for this sort of game. And if I DID want to play it fifty times in a row (which would cause me to check in a mental ward), I don't need a commercial game to do so. Every person that has played the game has found it lacking, and several students begged out halfway through.  They admitted that they had fun with the simultaneous selection, but that the Tic-Tac-Toe part wasn't worth the trouble of playing out.

As I said in the beginning, combining two simplistic games might result in something more interesting and engaging. These two, though, were not meant to be coupled - at least like this. Sizzletoad is a lot of window dressing for something that two kids could do in the back of a car for free.

Reviewed by Tom Vasel    "Real men play board games"    http://www.thedicetower.com/

Download the newly revised Sizzletoad!® rules.   You'll be glad you did!