Time Waster Tuesday: Pajaggle

PAX is an awesome place to try new games. We were tipped off to this one by Jonathan Liu of GeekDad, a board game playing maniac. It’s both a puzzle and a strategy game, depending on how you play it, and can be played individually or with a group. It was also awfully addictive. If we hadn’t been leaving PAX the same day we played it, we might have gotten stuck there. Read on to learn more about this incredible game.

The basic idea of Pajaggle is that there is a board with 61 cut out pieces that fit back into the board like a puzzle. Think of it like the type of puzzle you give a very small child where the square piece fits in the square spot and where the circle peg fits in the circle spot, only about 1000 times harder. Each piece is distinctively shaped and often with very small differences between them in size of the piece and shape of the protrusions or number of flower petals. The pieces all fit just right into the board, and some of the pieces fit inside each other as well.

General Game Objective: dumb the pieces out of the board and fit them back in as quickly as possible.

There are a number of ways to do this, both by yourself and with others.

Single Player Games
You can play this by yourself or with others but each person focusing only on their game. The basic game is simply to play for time. Dump the pieces and see how quickly you can put them back. To make this more challenging, reorient the board each time so it is harder to memorize the locations. We also really, really want to try this game blindfolded. I can only imagine how long it would take. Putting all the pieces in took me 6.5 minutes and Dawn 5.5 minutes. In consideration, I dropped a piece on the ground in the process.

Multiple Player Games
We played a multiple player version of Pajaggle called Chaos. Each of four players had a different color board, and the pieces were all dumped together. The objective was to fill your board as quickly as possible with only colors that were NOT your board color. Then, points were awarded for pieces in other colors in the correct locations and for finishing first, second, and third. That was a lot of fun, everyone grabbing at the pieces at once.

Overall Pros
This is a fun game, with a lot of variations. If you are a spatial, visual person, you will get into it immediately. It looks deceptively easy, but really requires a lot of thought and a surprising amount of strategy.

Overall Cons
This game requires an investment or a few friends who like it. Each board is $30, which is mainly because the detail is so difficult to construct. To play chaos, each person needs a board. See how that adds up! Also, if you happen to be a visual, spatial person, you will have a leg up. Don’t play against someone who isn’t good with that for the first time. My apologies to the guy my sister’s and I played with at PAX!

Anyway, I’m totally going to tell my mother to buy each of us a board for Christmas this year. Stocking stuffers? Maybe we’ll steal Bigfoot’s stocks this year! Anyway, if you don’t have to own them right now, I was assured through twitter that there are new colors coming out in about six months! Wait, and buy enough for a party!