It’s 20 degrees on a dreary Saturday afternoon. No bands are playing, you don’t like any of the movies that are out and you’re not in the mood to go sit at a bar.
What do you do?
Call up a friend and head over to True Brew Barista and play some games, of course.
The Bicentennial Square coffee joint is home to all kinds of classic and modern board and card games that everybody knows and loves. Plus, you can get coffee, tea, sandwiches and plenty of sweets while you play, so that’s definitely a plus.
Last weekend, I rounded up the family and a friend to have a nice winter game session and a cup of coffee at True Brew. It was a lousy day, and it seemed like the perfect idea.
We walked in and placed our orders first – I ordered a large latte. I’m hooked after my first one ever a few weeks ago. Once our beverages were served, it was time for business.
We walked over to the electric fireplace – which really makes for a cozy environment in that front room – to peruse the selection of games sitting on top. We wanted something we all already knew how to play, as there would surely be little time to read directions, what with the 21-month-old in tow and all.
The options were plentiful: Parcheesi, cribbage, Scrabble (two boards), Clue, The Walking Dead Trivia Game and, among a few others, Donkey Kong Jenga.
Although we all knew most of the games, we decided to pick one that wouldn’t take too long – once again the evening’s activities would be dictated by the smallest, youngest member of the group (who still wears diapers).
In the end, the decision was made to go with DK Jenga. This game is about as straightforward as they come, and a round can end in a heartbeat. Plus, none of us had played in ages so the nostalgia factor was high – as was the curiosity.
We all knew Jenga, of course, but Donkey Kong Jenga? Must be the same thing, just with some video game franchise attached to it for marketing purposes, I assumed.
Then I glanced at the instructions and learned that this game was supposed to be somewhat different. Instead of traditional Jenga, in which you use your fingers to remove pieces from the tower, DK Jenga is supposed to be played with small plastic pieces that have characters from the game on them. The plastic pieces are like long, thin rods (think of thick spaghetti) that are meant to be slotted into a hole in the center of each Jenga piece.
Needless to say, all of those plastic pieces were missing, so it was just a regular Jenga game for us, just with plastic pieces instead of wooden ones, and those pieces had designs on them meant to look like the platforms in Donkey Kong.
One challenge was stacking the tower. Anyone who’s ever seen a Jenga set at a public place has surely encountered the lack of a stacking rack to keep the thing straight. It’s the same story at True Brew, but I didn’t mind.
In the end, I would have benefited from some kind of form, because the tower fell after only the second block I pulled. I say it was because the plastic blocks stuck together – unlike wooden ones – and I wasn’t expecting this. Either way, it was a good time that I’d recommend to all.
