You've just stumbled onto a small secret pond, hidden right in your own neighborhood. Three odd little creatures and their frog-friends are playing, and whatever their game is it's good! There's a duck made of paper, a bug trapped in a rock, and a toad spitting sparks from its tongue.

They're all squealing and jumping, leap-frogging and bumping, and racing the pond; oh what fun! Such tumbling and flapping and sparking and quacking; how you'd love to join the confusion. Then they all see you watching and ask you to play, and assure you it's not an intrusion.

Sizzletoad! is the game for two to four players (ages 5 and up) that combines rock-paper-scissors and tic-tac-toe with an exciting leap-frog race around the pond! There's a nice bluffing element as well (especially in the 2-player version).

Players duel with each other in rock-paper-scissors style using their 12-card hands of Fossilticks, Paperducks, and Sizzletoads to decide which player will be able to put cards on the lily pad pond, make a tic-tac-toe, and score the most victory points.

During the race around the pond the excitement builds as the players speed closer and closer to the flower at the finish-line! Care for a game of Sizzletoad! anyone?

This is a great game for parents to play with their kids when they're looking for a bit more variation and strategy than say, "Candy Land" or the like.

Here's a quick "How to Play" summary for the two-player game:

In a two player game, of Sizzletoad! the players shuffle and split the deck (which is filled with an equal number of Sizzletoads, Fossilticks, and Paperducks.)

Each round a single card is compared between the players and the winner of the duel puts either of those two cards onto the lily-pad tic-tac-toe grid of the board. The other card goes into that player's discard pile.

When one of the players places a matching "3-in-a-row" card on the tic-tac-toe grid, the other player counts the cards in his/her own discard pile, scores one point for each card and moves his/her game piece around the board by that many pips, then hands his/her cards over to the maker of the tic-tac-toe.

The maker of the tic-tac-toe then puts those cards into his/her own discard pile and adds them all up, scoring one point for each card and also moving his/her game piece around the board by that many pips.

All of the cards are then shuffled, re-dealt, and the players have another duel. The players continue dueling and adding cards to the board and their own discard piles and moving their game pieces around the numbered pips on the board.

The winner is the player who makes it all the way around the board onto or past the flowered lily-pad before the other player.

With easy game play, this solid game is a fine addition to any "children's'" game library.

Remember: Sizzletoad-beats-Paperduck-which-beats-Fossiltick-which-beats-Sizzletoad!

Sizzletoad! by Mindspan Labs (previously WizerGames) is Made in the USA

Mindspan Labs Digital has released a 1 and 2 player app version of Sizzletoad! that is now available in the Apple app store.

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