I’m pretty sure that most people my age played games in maths lessons at school that involved making pictures from some basic shapes. Either plastic ones if your school had a bit of money, or cut from paper or card if your school had a stretched budget. That’s basically what Superpuzzle from Spear’s Games is.
Superpuzzle is something that you an either play on your own, or against another player. The game contains two sets of twenty four pieces (one set red and one green) with each set having 12 each of two different shapes – a rectangle, and what could be described as a rectangle with a corner cut off!
There is the instruction booklet which contains 60 puzzles in the form of a picture that you have to make from the plastic shapes. Also at the back of the instruction booklet are diagrams showing how the pictures are made up from the shapes. To enable two players to play there is an additional leaflet containing the puzzles, but not the solutions.
With two players it can either be that they both try the same puzzle with the fastest to do so being the winner, or they can work independantly.
There’s no date on my copy of Superpuzzle, but I believe it to date from either the late 60s or early 70s. Certainly the days before people had phones or computers to entertain them on a wet Sunday afternoon.
As with so many games of this period, there’s an obvious educational angle to Superpuzzle, which is why it reminded me so much of school maths lessons. It’s also the kind of thing that children of today might smirk at a bit, but yet when my nine year old walked in on me playing at the kitchen table she suddenly wanted a go!
Spear’s Superpuzzle – the facts
Published by Spear’s Games. For one or two players, with a recommended age of 7 years and up.
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