MadBlox: My Dad Has Turned a Simple Stacking Game Into a Family Competition

We have a family tradition of getting together on Sunday afternoons. Usually, someone brings food, the television is on in the background and eventually we end up playing some kind of board game. A few weeks ago, my younger brother brought MadBlox.

I did not think much of it. We had played stacking games before, and I assumed it would be something simple that everyone could enjoy without taking it too seriously. I had forgotten that my dad can turn almost anything into a competition if he gets interested enough.

The first few turns were calm. Everyone carefully removed a block, placed it on top and tried not to make the tower unstable. My brother was taking unnecessary risks, my mum was being extremely cautious, and my dad was studying every possible move as if he were solving an engineering problem.

Then my brother made a particularly risky move. The tower started leaning, and everyone became invested in whether it would survive. Somehow, he managed to place the block on top without bringing everything down. That seemed to convince my dad that he had discovered the secret to the game.

For the rest of the round, he became increasingly confident. He started identifying which blocks were supposedly safe, explaining why certain moves were strategically better and giving everyone advice they had not asked for. The funny thing was that he actually seemed to be getting better.

Until it was his turn. He spent a long time inspecting the tower before choosing a block that looked relatively easy to remove. The moment he started moving it, the structure shifted. He tried to correct the movement, but the tower was already coming down.

My brother was delighted, my mum could not stop laughing, and my dad looked personally offended by a collection of wooden blocks. He immediately wanted another round. We have played several times since then, and he still insists the collapse was caused by the previous players.