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Four award-winning games from Out of the Box Publishing
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The Word on the Street game involves players breaking into two teams around a board that looks like a street with five lanes. - photo by Ryan Morgenegg
Out of the Box Publishing's vision is to "inspire and connect families and friends around the world with exceptional and engaging games," according to materials from the company. Its mission is to produce and sell exceptional family friendly games that are accessible and affordable.

Following are four award-winning games that are perfect for family entertainment.

Snake Oil is a party game where one player takes on the role of a customer and the others take on the roles of slick salespeople trying to pitch their product. The customer draws a card to determine the role to be played. For example, the role of doctor is assigned. The other players take two cards from their hands that combine to create a product they want to sell to the doctor for example, a laugh whistle, a pair of dream glasses or a bacteria television. The players who have something to sell take a moment to pitch their product to the customer. The customer then votes which product was best and the winning salesperson collects the customer card. Its a fabulous party game that oozes creativity, laughter and fun.

Word on the Street is another game that has won multiple awards. A word game as indicated by its title, the game involves players breaking into two teams around a board that looks like a street with five lanes. The center lane has a variety of alphabetical letters. A team draws a card and reads the category such as breakfast food and the timer starts. A team must then decide on a single word that matches the category before time runs out. For every letter in the chosen word that matches a letter on the board, the letter on the board moves one lane towards the current teams side of the board. If a team moves a letter tile off the board on their side, it is captured for good. The team with the most captured letter tiles wins. The rules are simple to learn, the game is fun to play and unlike other word games, players work as teams to win.

10 Days in the USA is an award-winning game about travel. Players try to create a 10-day trip in the U.S. moving state to state by following a continuous route using planes, cars or walking as modes of transportation. Players strategize by planning a trip that comes together in as few turns as possible. The destinations and modes of transportation cards are drawn from a deck, and players plan a 10-day trip using a combination of destination and transportation cards. The goal is to be efficient and creative. Whoever can plan the best trip around the United States making each one of their connections along the way will win. This is a great game for beginning gamers. There are also Africa, Europe and Asia-themed games in the 10 Days series.

7 Ate 9 is a quick-thinking card game with simple rules. Each player is dealt the same amount of cards with the goal to get rid of them as quickly as possible. The rest of the deck is placed on the table, and one card is drawn to start the discard pile. Each card in the game features a prominent number from one to 10 with a less prominent plus or minus number from one to three. Players add or subtract the less prominent number from one to three from the prominent number on their card to determine what options they have. For example, a number seven card with a plus or minus two could be played as a nine or five on the discard deck. A card can be played on the discard pile if it is one more or one less than the top card. Everyone plays at once and gameplay is fast and frantic. This is a great, fast, fun card game.
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