Delightful Dexterity Diversions - Dexterity Game Mechanics

 Introduction to Dexterity

I've noted a recent trend of more and more dexterity games hitting the market and it started getting me thinking about the mechanic of dexterity games. I'm not any authority on games that have been released over the last several decades, so my noting of additional dexterity games might just be because I'm getting into this hobby more and have started to see that there are more and more available than I had originally thought.

However, a quick search of the "Action/Dexterity" mechanic on BGG showed that as of today (2/12/24), there are 47 different dexterity games that have come out or are coming out in 2024 alone. To me that seems to be far more of an upsurge in popularity, although I would have to compare that to the overall number of games released so far in 2024 and that is a bit too far into statistics than I want to get with this blog.

To the uninitiated, the BGG definition of "Action/Dexterity" games is: "Action/Dexterity games often compete players' physical reflexes and co-ordination as a determinant of overall success." To put it more succinctly, dexterity games task players with performing actions that often result in movement or stacking of the pieces used in the game. Any game that utilizes a mechanic to have the player push, pull, set, build, flick, etc, could all be considered "dexterity/action" games.

Tumbling Back in Time

My first introduction to the idea of a dexterity game came as a kid in the form of Jenga. I'm not really sure when I started playing Jenga but I do have some early memories of building the tower with my mom and attempting to see how far we could get with the build.

On a side note, I do remember that the version that I had growing up was the knock-off version called "Tumbling Towers" and I was extremely confused when someone referred to the game as "Jenga". I had a very long argument with the kid and it wasn't until later that I learned that the game was originally called Jenga and the version that I had was not the original. Oddly enough, that was also the same for "Puppy Chow," as we called it "Muddy Buddies" when I was a kid.

Towering above the table.

Back on the subject of Jenga, I had grown up playing the game so I was aware of the idea of an "action/dexterity" game. I had fun playing it as a kid, but there was only so many times that you could build the tower, only to have your younger sibling knock it over in a fit of rage because you took the piece that they wanted. The game was fun, but ultimately, it lost it's shine and luster for me after finding other games that could fill that void.

It might have popped up here and there as I grew older where my friends tried to add some changes to the game, such as making it a drinking game, or adding in dares on the blocks, but overall, the game had it's prime in my life, and I moved on from it. Jenga and the idea of a dexterity game faded into time and memory.

Ice to Meet You

"The world had changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I feel it in the air.

Much that was once was is lost, for none now live who remember it." - JRR Tolkien

Many years had passed and I hadn't really given the idea of a dexterity game any thought. I had been into board games off and on throughout the years and despite some failed Kickstarter games, I enjoyed the resurgence of board game popularity and the new games that seemed to come out monthly. There were new games that came out that took mechanics of board games in new ways. Games like CATAN, Betrayal at House on the Hill, and Disney Villainous: Wicked to the Core went beyond the usual Monopoly or Risk that I had grown up with.

Life moved on and my wife and I began thinking about having a family, and that in turn began changing what I was beginning to look for in games. I found that my tastes for games began looking into games that were geared more towards kids and families to enjoy. I started to look into lists that talked about games that were fun to play as both kids and adults.

Much cover. Very award. Wow.

And that was what led me to ICECOOL. The list that I had read noted that it was a dexterity game where the players had to flick penguins around a board to collect fish that were sitting over the doorways of the school that was created using the boards that were nested inside the main box. It was not only a really clever implementation of how to build out a larger game board using smaller boxes, but also a really smart way to nest everything internally.

A nice overview of the box and how the fish are posted on the doorways

The flicking mechanic was also really fun to play with and each of the penguins contained within the box were well weighted to fly pretty well. It took some time to best learn how to flick the penguins around the school (see the image on right for how the boxes were set up to play), but soon my wife and I were flicking penguins around the board with ease. It still has eluded us to regularly make trick shots, but I definitely look forward to teaching this to my daughters as they get older.

This was the first game that I had played in years (decades really, but who's counting) that had a mechanic that required me to use my hand-eye coordination to play and it definitely opened up my mind to additional games that could be played on the table.

Yeah! Science!

The guy on the right looks like a muppet. I can't unsee it.

I had really hopped on the "dexterity game" train and was all in on this new type of game that used flicking mechanics to play. I really wanted to pick up a copy of PitchCar but unfortunately, it had been out of print for some time and any copy that I wanted to pick up was going to be a significant amount of money that I didn't have.

I fell into a lull with dexterity games and told myself that I'd just have to enjoy ICECOOL for now. I knew that there were other games like Flick 'em Up! and KLASK that used a dexterity mechanic, but nothing really spoke to me. I thought that I would have to move on from the idea of getting a dexterity-based game until I played For Science! at a monthly game session with a friend.

Now build this under a time limit!

The game itself was fairly clever with it's implementation of the dexterity element. It required you to draw cards and add them to either a personal board or a main board and then build a tower using the specific connections listed on the cards, ensuring that blocks didn't touch unless they were noted. Add in some time elements and some additional chaos of trying to build and verify towers all at once and you have a recipie for a game that utilizes children's blocks in a very clever manner.

Flicking Forward

Since then, I've had the opportuntiy to play several other games that were considered "dexterity/action" including Galaxy Trucker and Escape: The Curse of the Temple that usually include some time-related element to them. I'll talk about real-time elements in my next post on Monday, but it's been a really fun experience to dive into dexterity games. I've also seen games like Tokyo Highway and Tiny Laser Heist that just go to show how much variety there is in dexterity games.

An unfortunate difficulty with dexterity games is that they are tough for some people to play. As someone who regularly works with individuals who have brain injuries for my day job, I am well aware that there can often be motor control issues that would prevent someone from playing games like this. This has come up quite a bit in the last few weeks here on BGG, but accessibility is a big concern with board games and finding ways that we can include everyone without making it too expensive.

My hope is with this blog post, I can promote some discussion about the genre of games and even come up with some clever ways to implement them in ways that everyone can play, not just those of us who are able to play games normally.

What are some of your favorite implementations of dexterity games? What challenges are there when playing a dexterity game that you've noted? In regards to dexterity games in general, what are your thoughts on them? Good? Bad? Meh?

As always, have a wonderful rest of your week and keep ejoying those games!

*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 12/2/2024*