I purchased Blokus as a board game to have on hand that is suitable for a wide range of ages, including younger children. The recommended age for Blokus is 5+, and it can be played by up to four players. Blokus is an abstract strategy game using tetris-like tiles. In the box there are four colored tile sets, a square plastic board and a single-page illustration of the rules. The rules of Blokus are very easy and the included illustrations are straigtforward. Gameplay proceeds as players place tiles connecting their color until no player is able to place their tiles. Bonus points are earned for players placing all of their tiles, as well as placing the smallest tile last. At the end of the game, points are added for each player based on how many of the board squares have been covered by each color. Gameplay takes 30 minutes or less. The original game was made in 2000, however there are a few other
versions of this game available now: Blokus 3D, Blokus Duo, Blokus Trigon and Blokus
Junior. 3D involves 3-dimensional pieces, Duo is the 2 player travel
version, Trigon has a hexagonal board and Junior has fewer and larger
pieces as well as a smaller board.
While the recommended age for this game is 5 and up, I have very successfully played with my 3 year old grandson with some simplification of the rules. The rules I used for the young child was less strategy and more of a puzzle game, playing cooperatively and disregarding connection of colors but not allowing placed tiles to be moved. This has become his second favorite game at Gramma's house, with any game involving Milo being first! As an early child game I would highly recommend Blokus. It works skills in following basic rules, fine motor skills, abstract visualization (flipping over and/or rotation of pieces to make them fit), and counting the pieces left over. Another aspect of this game is practice in dealing with frustration and recognizing when a piece just will not fit anywhere. I would not bother with the Junior version, as he had no trouble handling the regular-size tiles and I prefer the versatility of a single game that can be played by nearly anyone. I am also not a fan of unnecessarily dumbing down things.
Playing Blokus as a solitaire game was also fun and challenging. I have not yet been able to wrangle 3 other adults to play the full game, however from playing it alone I don't see why it would not be an ideal quick, challenging and entertaining casual game.
Blokus can be purchased online for around $20, I got lucky on Ebay and found it for $13