NY Toy Fair 2014 — Game Previews II: Guess the Mess, Get a Life, Strike a Pose & Hearts of AttrAction from R&R Games

Where is everybody hanging out? To figure it out, take a look at what they're holding and try to Guess the Mess!

In a round, each player takes a place card, e.g., "in the attic" or "under the dock". Someone flips over a thirty-second timer, then everyone searches the face-down mess cards to try to find items appropriate for their particular (secret) location. Once time runs out, someone reveals one of the "Which Way" cards, then players pass their mess cards in the indicated direction. All the place cards are revealed in the center of the playing area, then everyone tries to guess which location matches with the cards they hold. If they guess correctly, both the guesser and the messmaker score points.

In Get a Life, you want to assemble either the best or worst life possible from the cards available to you — but which way you want to lean depends on the secret goal you receive at the start of the round.

Each round one player is the "contestant". Each other player receives one card in each of five categories — companion, transportation, location, occupation, accommodation — as well as a "Best" or "Worst" goal card. Players must reveal two of their five cards, then they use the "get a life" cards to acquire, steal or give away cards, all while trying to shape the "perfect" life. At round's end, the contestant judges which player has the best life and which has the worst — and if these players have the right goal cards, they take a scoring chip.

Whoever ends up with the most scoring chips after a certain number of rounds wins.

Players in Strike A Pose need to do just that, with the poses they strike being presented to them on cards within the game.

Each round, one player is the Guesser and must leave the room before everyone else does their thing. The other players take a statue card that's shared, then an individual ID card with a number from 1 to 7 on it; each number relates to a named pose on the card, with all of the poses having a theme in common — e.g., "Water Sports" is the category, and the poses are snorkeling, swimming, fishing, sailboating, surfing, water polo and jet ski.

The players each freeze in their poses as best they can, then the Guesser returns, looks at the statue card, then assigns numbers as best as she can to each player. If she guesses correctly, then both she and the poser score.

In the game, players must flick their "shooter" magnet into the playing area to attract and collect other magnets. Of course, it's not quite that easy since the magnets repel as easily as they attract! Strategies unfold and develop in reaction to the patterns on the table.