Blinks are electronic hexes that link together, light up and play games. It is a gaming system with 12 games currently available.

Blinks Description:

My son saw Blinks at PAX Unplugged and really wanted them. He brought me to their booth and I got to see how they work and sample some of the games. Blinks are hexes with magnetic sides and a soft “push button” top. The Blinks can communicate with one another too.

Each Blinks hex holds a game it can teach the other hexes. The core set contains six Blinks with six games, Mortals, Fracture, Bomb Brigade, Berry, Puzzle 101, and WHAM! Mortals is a real-time, fast-paced strategy game. Fracture is a puzzle game where you need to get your hexes separated before your opponent. In Berry, you and your opponent alternate moving a hex in order to create specific patterns that score VPs. Puzzle 101 creates a color puzzle you must solve by matching hexes with one another. And WHAM! is a single player game of whack-a-mole.

The expansion set contains Speed Racer, Astro, Flic Flop, Honey, Zen Flow and Widgets. Speed Racer is a single player game in which you must take a hex from the back of the line and add to the front before time runs out. Astro has you matching colors but in a specific sequence while racing against other players. Flic Flop is a dexterity game where you need to flick a hex toward a larger group of hexes, but you need to time it so that when (and if) it connects to the group it is showing your color. Honey is a solo puzzle game with a bee theme. Zen Flow is for relaxation. You watch the colors move across the Blinks and can put them in any arrangement you like. Widgets includes dice (the hexes are broken into six visible pie-like slices), a spinner, coin flip or timer. You can combine these to create your own games or play one they include the rules for.

I did not get any but you can also buy blank Blinks and a developer kit. This lets you create and program games (in C+) and put them onto a Blink.

Quick Review of Blinks:

Blinks are an innovative electronic boardgame platform. They look amazing and they have a ton of potential. The included games range in quality, but if you like to program you can create your own games (with the dev kit). There are even some known game designers working on games specifically for Blinks. Since everything (up to this point) is open source the community could really expand the games available.

The rules for the games are pretty easy to understand and if you have any questions the Blinks YouTube channel shows the gameplay for all the included games. They are all easy to explain once you understand them.

My favorite games are Mortals, Flic Flop, Fracture and Bomb Brigade. My son made a few game to play using Widgets. Some people have really enjoyed playing the included games. Others love how the Blinks look and interact. These games can be enjoyed by both veteran gamers and those more casually involved in the hobby.

I might get my son the dev kit for his birthday. It is a good way to have him try programming and might help expand the available games. That is what will determine Blinks future. The makers are very interested in growing Blinks’ catalog and that will help its longevity. If you are looking for a unique board gaming experience give Blinks a try. If you are a programmer and want to add new games to the platform even better!