Dem Bones: Cat Tower

Cat Tower
Reverse Jenga
2-6 Players
Playtime: 15 Minutes
Designer: Aza Chen
Publisher: IDW Games
Year of Release: 2013

For a while now I've been fairly interested in board games. Sure as a kid I played plenty of the standard cavalcade of games, Monopoly, Sorry, Yahtzee, Apples to Apples, Clue, etc. And I think everyone's played Cards Against Humanity by now. But I've always been aware of this larger world of hobby board gaming. Sporadically I'd read or watch reviews and wish I had money to try some of these games out. Slowly, but surely, I've finally started amassing a collection. So let's start off with a kid's game that is essentially backwards Jenga! Meow!

In Cat Tower you're dealt a hand of cats, cards that are slightly bent to look like cats, with one placed in the center of the table. Taking turns each player rolls a die that tells them what their action is, place one cat on the eponymous cat tower, place two, or some special actions. Rolling a cat die means you get to pass your turn to someone else, forcing them to stack a cat for you. A fish means you'll need to stack a cat upside down, making things tricky for the next player. Finally the catty fatty side requires you to stack one of the flat fat cat cards sitting to the side, along with a token that requires you to do another special action (such as those on the dice, reversing turn order, or equalizing everyone's hand). Your goal is to rid your hand of cats. Being reverse Jenga though adds a bit of a challenge beyond the random dice rolling, if the stack gets knocked down the person responsible must pick up two of the cats (three if they knocked down one or more of the tokens on a fat cat). The game then continues with the remaining cat tower as is.

Obviously this is a very simple game, but for most sane human beings... CATS ARE ADORABLE! To tell the truth I'm trying to wet my feet writing about board games, the other games I own would be like jumping into the deep end. Cat Tower is available cheaply and basically everyone (even heathen cat haters) can quickly learn the game and play a round or two. Usually with my group of friends each person winds up winning a game, which is nice for people who cannot stand losing. It also plays really fast, so there's no real time investment. Quick, adorable, cheap, accessible and honestly more fun than I was expecting, Cat Tower is more than worth your attention.