HABA's Hit the Throttle is among our favorite new games of the season. It's the first "head game" we've seen that is comprehensible to kids as young as four and delicious fun for them as they work on their "poker faces" and attempt to strategize their way to the finish line. As with all kids' games that are fun for adults, there's a wide range of strategies older kids and adults can employ, and best of all, our most complex machinations still can't guarantee victory. The balance of luck and skill here is pitch-perfect for a family game.

The concept is, well, not so simple: A series of cards form a track and colored wooden cars (heirloom quality as always with HABA) move along the track based on die rolls. But things get interesting in a few ways.

First, no player represents a single car. Every player draws a heavy stock card at the beginning of the game, on which are featured two cars of different colors. The player wins if their two cars reach the finish line before the two cars on any other players' cards do. In other words, if I hold a card with a blue and red car, I don't win if blue gets to the finish line first, and if purple comes in second, it only matters if someone else had a card with the blue-purple combo.

Second, players do not reveal the cars on their card. The winning combination for each player is their little secret.

Third, cars are moved through a series of die rolls strategically played each turn. The player begins by rolling three dice, each of which has the same six colored faces representing the cars' six different colors. The player chooses one of these colors and moves that colored car forward one space on the track. He or she then rolls the remaining two dice, picks a color and moves that car, and then rolls the last die and moves that colored car a space.

A few points of strategy make this game pretty interesting for kids learning to be sneaky:

• A car that has reached the finish line can still be selected as the color of choice on a die roll. That means if none of the cars are your two colors, you can "skip" a move by selecting the color of a car that has already finished the race.


• It is very valuable for other players to not know which cars you're rooting for, and if they do know, they are likely to brag about it. Selecting another colored car to move instead of one of your own can throw them off for a good portion of the game.

Meanwhile, players carefully watch each others' moves and try to figure out what colors others need to win. It's always a bit tricky because you have to move a car on almost every roll, which means you are often moving cars that aren't on your card.

Long story short, we love this game! You can pick it up on maukilo.com or at Amazon.com for about $11. A great stocking stuffer or gift in its own right!

Win it! We're giving away a copy of Hit the Throttle to one ZRecs reader. Email us at zrecsmedia@gmail.com with your favorite holiday game to play with the kids and you'll be entered to win! You have until 11:59 CT on Monday, December 12 to enter. We'll contact a winner in Dec. 13 and get you the game in time for the holidays!

The fine print: Must be 18 or older to win and a resident of the U.S. One entry per person. Must tell us about a real game that you actually like, because we might play it, and if it is terrible we will be sad.

Disclosure: HABA is participating in an event for which ZRecs will receive compensation. We'll be talking about this event on ZRecs soon, but be aware that as always, our views here are our own and are independent of any relationship we may have with the company.