Exercise Your Brain with Blokus

Mental muscles can soften during the months when school’s out, so what better way to get the kids’ gray matter back into shape than with a Mensa-worthy game that doesn’t actually feel like brain-work? Blokus has been around for a while (it even scored “game of the year” honors in Europe six years ago), but as a deceptively complex spatial-thinking challenge, it remains as addictive and fun as ever.

The object is simple: be the first player to get all of your colored pieces onto the board. But it’s just how you’re able to place those pieces (adjacent placement is a no-no), as well as how you and your opponents can block one another in the process, that makes Blokus so challenging. Two to four players can take part in the fun, and there’s even a solitaire version — one of several rule-flipping twists on the game — for those times when the kiddoes just need to play alone.

Oh, and about that Mensa remark: the genius organization is just one of the 20+ groups that’ve honored Blokus with an award.

$24.99 at Amazon.