Released in 2000 Blockus is a unique strategy game where the purpose is to be the person that plays all of their 21 pieces on the board.
A great example of incredibly simple and understandable rules that make it seem easy, but is actually quite difficult.
Tim:
4/5 Very Good
It seems simple till you play a game. I've played this one with a large range of ages and everyone has been able to pick it up rather quickly. It's interesting that the "luck" element is the 4 player nature of the game were no matter what your plan is, the plays of the other people can totally side track you. There is a two player variant sold with a small board and I'm wondering if that would feel more like chess or feel just as random. The game has a ton of well-deserved awards from Mensa to Spiel de Jahres. About the only caveat I have is that this is a 4 player game only. This is simply not fun with any other number of players.
Laura:
4/5
Good game requiring forethought, planning and either cooperation (not likely!) or a plan B, C, or D depending on how many other players there are that have to place their pieces before yours. Enjoyable easy game that isn't easy to master.
One of the more interesting things I learned when looking this up is that the board has 400 squares but in a four player game the players only need to play 356 tiles, so if everyone played totally nice there would be plenty of room for everyone.
A few more images