Sorry Sliders

Sorry Sliders is what might happen if Parker Brothers hired a game designer who had a profound appreciation for how kids play, a deep understanding of the tongue-and-cheekily joys of the Sorry game franchise, and an equal amount of appreciation for games like shuffleboard and Crokinole.

Craig Van Ness is that designer, and Parker Bros. Sorry Sliders is, as one would expect, Major FUN.

The game comes with a lot of parts, and a similar lot of rules. But it turns out that the parts are relatively easy to assemble, and the rules similarly relatively easy to understand. Both require a certain amount of care, and young children (the game is recommended for kids 6 and up) would definitely benefit from adult partnership.

There are 4 shuffleboard-like tracks and plastic reflector rails that need to be installed. The tracks can be joined to each other, and ultimately joined to a target board. There are two target boards, each has two sides, each side offers a different variation. Each of 4 players gets a set of 4 special pawns that slide on a ball-bearing.

Each player also gets a scoring board and 4 scoring pawns.

Players take turns sliding (pushing, flicking, or otherwise propelling) their sliding pawns down their track towards the goal. After everyone has played, score is kept by moving scoring pawns on the scoring board. Once a scoring pawn reaches Home (by exact count), it is safe. Until then, if the sliding pawn goes into a Sorry Zone in one of the corners of the target board, everybody gets to say "sorry" while the player moves her scoring pawn back to start.

What makes the game of special interest, and of real play value, is that there are so many different ways to play it. Tracks can be joined to each other, they can be placed all around the target square or all in a row. Combine that with the 4 different target boards and you get hours of reasons to play together.

Having a choice of all these different ways to play allows families to customize the game to their own tastes for fun. Exploring the variations, discussing which is the most fun for everyone, result in a valuable opportunity for the whole family to gain a deeper appreciation for and understanding of how they can best play, and live together.