Box of Brains Subscription Box Review – August 2016

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Box of Brains is a monthly subscription box that delivers card games, brainteasers, dice games and puzzles to your door each month.  As the website notes, Box of Brains is “perfect for game nights or boring rainy days.”  Subscriptions are $35/month plus $5 shipping in the US.

We love games at our house, so we were super excited to see what was under all this green shredded paper!

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First, here’s a closer look at the information sheet.  The information sheet lists off the items included this month (there was also an unlisted bonus game), along with some information about the games and their retail prices.  Box of Brains promises the included games will be worth at least $45 each month.

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And here is a look at the games we got this month.  What a fun variety of games!  Let’s get to playing…
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Coggy ($14.95):  This is a one-person puzzle game – perfect for travel or anytime you have to wait.  The game consists of sixteen “cogs” that are connected in a row and that can be rotated or shifted to form various shapes and patterns.  The game also comes with a book with patterns to try and match – ranging from easy to challenging.
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Here’s a photo of the back of the box, providing a little more detail about the game.  As the box notes, one side of the puzzle is colored (as you can see), the other side is black-and-white…making for even more puzzle possibilities.  The game book has patterns for each of the sides.

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And here is the game in action.  As you can see, I was able to successfully match one of the easy puzzles.  The challenging ones are no joke…which is good, because it means lots of hours of entertainment.  My daughters, aged 11 and 14, also liked this game.  According to one…”It’s challenging, it really makes you think!”  Sounds like a winner to me.

Additionally, this is a great game for travel, because the cogs are all connected – the game is a single, unitary piece.  No losing pieces, etc.  Even without the book, you can spend a lot of time just moving the cogs around to different designs and patterns.  This game has already made an appearance on a car trip – winner!

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King’s Gold ($12.99):  This game is a dice-scoring game, with the added fun that you keep score using “gold” coins.
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Here’s a picture of the back of the box, providing some more information about the game.  The game includes 5 pirate dice and 60 gold coins, plus an instruction sheet.

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And here is the game in action.  The instruction sheet provides a list of dice rolls that result in a variety of actions.  For example, if you roll 5 skulls, you can take all of one player’s coins…but if you roll 3 crossbones, you have to give 3 of your coins to the King’s Gold as a penalty.  The pirate dice and the ability to give and take coins as part of score keeping makes this a fun twist on other dice games, like Yahtzee.

This is a pretty simple game to learn and play, and it doesn’t take long – the box suggests 15 minutes.  After a few minutes, my daughters (11 and 14) were able to figure out this game pretty easily on their own – and then they had a great time rolling the dice and stealing each other’s coins.  Although the box says for ages 8+, I think with a little guidance, even younger kids might find this fun.
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Aztack ($24.99):  Another fun game – this one is a tile stacking game, kind of like dominoes, but you build up, rather than out.

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And here’s a picture of the back of the box, with some more information about the game.

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Here’s a picture of the game in action.  You start with a base of 12 tiles (2×6) and a set of tiles in each players’ hand.  You play tiles by matching colors or designs (glyphs) to bridge two already-played tiles.  The first player to run out of tiles in their hand (or if no more plays exist, with the fewest number of tiles in their hand) is the winner.  Although the game is simple to play – it’s just matching colors or designs…there is definitely some strategy involved in making sure you get rid of your tiles efficiently.  Quick to learn, quick to play, but still challenging – criteria for a perfect game!

My daughters wished the directions were a little more clear, but once we read and played through it together once, it was easy peasy and a lot of fun!
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On the Dot ($11.95):  This game wasn’t listed on the information sheet – bonus game!  This is another puzzle game and can be played by 1-4 players.

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Here’s the back of the box, providing some more information about the game.  The basic game play involves selecting four transparent squares (with dots) so that the dots line up with the pattern card.  There are 64 different pattern cards (some of them easier than others!), providing many hours of game play.  You can either challenge yourself or race against other players.

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Here’s a picture of the game in action.  We’ve mostly played this game as a solo diversion, rather than racing against competitors.  I’m terrible at spatial visualization…so I found this very challenging.  My younger daughter was frustrated by this game too – not because it is too hard to understand, but because she takes after me and is not a big visualizer.  That all said, this game is probably exactly what we need to work on this deficiency.

My family loves games and puzzles, so Box of Brains was right up our alley.  We liked the variety of games — both puzzle and board/dice type games, as well as the fact that some were for solo and some were multiplayer.  We also liked that the games were pretty easy to learn, but not too simple that we’ll only play them once or twice.  One thing that we would have liked to see was a game that was a little more lengthy in game play – after all, the website says Box of Brains is perfect for rainy days…and we tend to spend those rainy days playing longer games.  But all in all, we were excited by all the games in this box, as well as the general idea of a subscription box to deliver new and different games to us!  So much fun!

Visit Box of Brains to subscribe or find out more!

The Subscription: Box of Brains
The Description: Box of Brains is a monthly subscription box that delivers card games, brainteasers, dice games and puzzles to your door each month. Perfect for game nights or boring rainy days. For $35 a month get a guaranteed $45 value in every box.
The Price: $35.00 per month

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  • Valerie
    09.05.16

    Wow, this box is cool – all those games sound like fun.

    • KJ
      09.05.16

      We were so happy – all of the games really were a lot of fun!