Of course you may have also come to another problem. Only immediately after completing my review did I realize that there are several different versions of the game now available. To make sure no one gets confused during their search for the perfect gift, I’m here to give a run down of all the spin-off’s that the Classic Blokus has inspired since its release.

This Retrospective will act as a sequel to The Classic Blokus Retrospective. If you have not yet read that one, please do so.

Blokus Duo

In which the two colors of the rainbow NOT in Classic Blokus take center stage.

Also known as “Travel Blokus”, Blokus Duo is a more personal, head-to-head take on the game. The basic rules are very similar to Blokus: Both players alternate turns placing their pieces on the board, advancing by touching the corners of their pervious pieces, until there is no more space for either of them to advance. Player with the most squares covered in their color at the end wins.

There are two main differences. First, to accommodate 2 players instead of 4, the board is smaller and has less space, shrinking from a 20×20 square grid to 14×14. Second, instead of starting at opposite corners as one familiar with the original might assume, Blokus Duo has two specifically marked squares near the center of the board in which both orange and purple players must place their beginning pieces. This is good, because it enforces confrontation right away without a lot of chance to play it safe or build up a defense. Unlike two players who would just start at opposite corners nowhere near each other, it’s less likely to become a stale mate.

Personally, Blokus Duo is a grey area for me. While on one hand, I understand it’s easier to find one friend to play with than three, and that it’s also travel size and can be taken anywhere, both of which make it more accessible. Yet at the same time, it’s like playing a one-on-one game of Super Smash Bros: while it may be compelling and competitive for hard core players, half the appeal is gone when the fun and chaos of four people fighting amongst each other all at once isn’t there.

Blokus Trigon

Don’t be fooled. It’s just as easy to learn as the rest.

The most unique thing about Blokus Trigon is how it looks. Instead of a Square grid, the board is a Hexagon-shaped triangle grid that looks more similar to Chinese checkers, and the pieces you play with look like shattered pieces of the triforce. That’s all that’s really different.

The game starts exactly like Blokus Duo with four players each starting on one of four designated marked spaces near the center, and then for the rest of the game it plays exactly like Classic Blokus. While I will not deny that this is a unique way to change the game up, I can’t help but thinking why they didn’t take advantage of the concept and change it up a little more. They could have easily made the board slightly bigger and turned Blokus Trigon into a 6-player game. Yeah that would make it even more difficult to get a full game started, but seeing as the board was already a hexagon, wouldn’t that have made more sense? Maybe the game would be too chaotic then? If it aint broke, don’t fix it I guess.

Blokus 3D

Okay, now even I’m a little confused.

Imagine Blokus Classic is Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. Blokus Duo would be Super Mario Bros on Gameboy (a shorter simplified version that can be played on the go), Blokus Trigon would be Super Mario World for the SNES (an almost completely identical game, just with different graphics), then Blokus 3D would be Super Mario 64. What I mean by this is that Blokus 3D, of all the iterations, feels the most like its own unique game.

The rules take a little longer to explain, yet are still simple enough to figure out once you’ve played through it. In all the previous games, the main objective was to place as much of your colored pieces on the board as possible, whereas in 3D, the main objective is to place as much of your colored pieces on the board that are visible from the top view of the structure. This is done by using a set of three-dimensional pieces that, this time, must advance while staying in contact with their respected color. The players predetermine what structure they will be building up to prior to beginning the game. Choices include either a tower, wall, staircase, or pyramid. Once all players have placed as much of their pieces possible within the compound of their structure, they count how many pieces of their color are visible from the top, minus any pieces they didn’t play. Player with the most points wins.

So there you have it. Four ways to experience the strategy game that, with your help, can define the future of strategy games, and I mean future quite literally. Seriously, even when you look at Blokus and see its square battleship-esque grid and polygonal shaped pieces with their bright see-through colors, it aspires a very futuristic almost sci-fi image. Imagine that fifty years in the future, myself and every other old person will gather around a park to play Blokus while reminiscing about the good old days when video games had controllers, Elijah Wood had an acting career, and America didn’t get bought out by China.

Want more articles on board games? Check these out:

-All Out War: A Risk Retrospective

-Victory Never Tasted So Sweet: A Candy Land Retrospective

-A Retrospective on Trivial Pursuit the Board Game

I like to imagine world leaders looking like this man while they play Stretego.

So chess is a classic game of strategy and checkers is a classic game of “I Wish I Were Chess.” I was always good at chess (checkers, not so much), but there was another game I was addicted to beyond those two: Stratego. Have you played Stratego? You really should. Don’t believe me? Oh ye of little faith. Follow me then. It’s time for a history lesson.

A Cultured Past

Stratego as we know it was first a game called “Game of the Fighting Animals (“Dou Shou Qi!”), “Animal Chess,” or simply “Jungle,” and it came from China. The main difference between “Jungle” and “Stratego” was the in “Jungle” the identities of the pieces were known and the initial starting locations of everything were always the same. I haven’t gotten a chance to play “Jungle” for myself, but it sounds like a heck of a game, what with the pieces being animals rather than army personnel (“My Tiger attacks your Hippo for MAXIMUM DAMAGE!”).

Eventually a one Mademoiselle Hermance Edan decides to make the version of Stratego that we all know and love (unless you’re one of “those guys”). She patented her version at the end of the year 1908 with the year 1909 becoming the official first year of Stratego and 1910 being the first year it was sold all around under the name “L’Attaque,” which means, to my knowledge, probably “The Attack.” I don’t know, it’s French. I dropped French after a week and a half of feeling stupid. Oh right, we’re talking about Stratego. Well, that’s the short history. You can probably guess the rest.

Rules Shall Be Rules

Pretty basic yet so much fun.

Now that we’ve got the origins out of the way, let’s discuss the rules, shall we? You know the rules by now, but let’s go over them again in case you just don’t know yet. Stratego is all about deception and clever strategy. The game is played with two players as they set up their inconspicuous board of pieces. Each player gets 40 pieces to set up as they want (just don’t do it wrong) on their side of the 10-by-10 board. There are two lakes placed in the middle of the board, causing a funneling of pieces to make the game more dramatic. One of the pieces each player gets is a flag, the most important piece in the game. If it gets captured then the game is over.

The whole concept of the game revolves around the rank of the individual pieces. The pieces have a rank between 1 and 9, plus a Spy, the flag, and six bombs. The lower the number on the piece (number 1 is called the Marshall), the stronger it is. So if a 9 runs into a 5, the 5 wins and the 9 is removed from the game (he goes to “Number Heaven”). The Spy is a very special piece though as it’s the only one that can kill the Marshall, but only if the Spy is the one that attacks. Also important are the 8’s, called the Miners. They are the only pieces that can defuse bombs. And 9’s, called Scouts, are the only pieces that can move in as many spaces in one direction as they’d like (oh those crazy 9’s).

That’s basically the game there. Players take turns moving pieces, discovering what their opponent’s pieces are, and trying to find the all-important enemy flag. But you’ve got to use strategy. If you don’t, then what’s the point of playing a game called Stratego? Here’s a simply strategy I always use: Place your flag in the corner and surround it by bombs. Then all you’ve got to do is find your enemy’s Miners and it becomes impossible for them to win. Can’t get through bombs if all the Miners are in “Number Heaven.”

Ain't nobody getting to that flag.

Also, don’t give away the location of your Spy. You’ll need that sneaky little bugger for when your opponent is trouncing your troops with their Marshall. Keep your Spy hidden, but in a place that it can quickly rush out and assassinate Mr. Number One. After enough times playing against someone while using my “Flag in the Corner” strategy, I barricade a Scout in the corner and let my opponent kill themselves just to let him out. The classic look on their face when that happens makes it all worth it.

Yeah, you can find some variations of Stratego with all the usual brands, such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, and Marvel Comics (no Twilight version yet, but give it time). For me, it was all about the classic version though. You don’t even need to buy the game if you don’t want to as long as you have the time to make some cardboard pieces yourself. Just remember though that when you finally do get the flag, it’s important that you scream, “That’s Numberwang!” as loud as you can muster. You won’t understand why, but that’s probably because you just don’t appreciate Stratego like I do.