Photo: Out of the Box Games
Last January I reviewed all of the existing (at that point) 10 Days in… games from Out of the Box Games. I covered 10 Days in Europe, 10 Days in the USA, 10 Days in Asia and 10 Days in Africa. One could say that all the games look the same, but there are notable differences to each one, and, honestly, you’d be missing the point. The games are quite fun to play, yes, but they’re also for learning and teaching geography. You absorb quite a lot of information and detail by studying a continent, reading country facts and planning a trip.
New to the family is 10 Days in the Americas. Also drawn by Dork Tower‘s John Kovalic, this edition takes us to North and South America, and also includes Central America and many Caribbean countries. There are two features unique to this version. You can travel through the Panama Canal to link the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, and you can take a cruise from one country to another by linking those countries with more than one adjacent ocean. Methods of travel in this version are by foot, ship (and cruise) and airplane. Basic game play is the same as in the other versions.
One quirky aspect of this game is that a few of the countries (such as Guatemala) have very short shorelines along one ocean. This is clarified in the rules, but it’s just one more thing to remember.
Make these games your own. There are plenty of rules variations on the Out of the Box website, but you can easily make up your own rules, too.
With the addition of 10 Days in the Americas, you can now play a new variation called 20 Days Around the World. To play, you need the four other continent-based games, but not the USA game. Tiling the four game boards creates one very large board, and there are some special rules for linking them up. Complete a journey of 20 days including at least one country from each board, and you’re the winner. You can also expand this to do 30 or 40 day journeys.
Play these 10 Days in… games often enough and you’ll learn your world geography pretty well. They are wonderful for families to play together.
10 Days in the Americas is designated for ages 12 to adult, but younger children can easily play with a little help. It currently sells for $24 on Amazon.
