Check out the official site for Pajaggle!
Pajaggle at first glance may seem as if it’s a simple game that is reminiscent of Perfection, but it’s actually more complex than that. The majority of what was played at the Pajaggle booth was admittedly putting the pieces back into the proper spots as fast as you can. It can be approximately 14 games though, so it’s not limited to putting pieces back into holes in a timed fashion.
First off, what the heck is a Pajaggle board? It’s a board with 61 various shapes which are different sizes. All boards are exactly the same with the exception of the colors. Each board and pieces are different colors to provide better contrast. All pieces on the board seem to be circular in some regard, but that’s about their only similarities. There are pieces that are known as doublers that have pieces that fit inside.
The overall design is quite devious to your spacial reasoning. The first run is laser cut and acrylic which looks sharp. When placing a piece into the board, each makes a satisfying snapping/clicking nose. If you misplace a piece and it gets stuck, the back of the board has holes in each of the back of the shapes. To get pieces out, you use a Pajigglier to poke through and lift up the offending piece.
These boards won’t be around much longer I’m told. I was shown a prototype of sorts of the next iteration and gone is the shiny acrylic, replaced by a textured plastic. Although it didn’t have the visual appeal the first run boards do, they felt easier to pick up and place. A word of warning to those looking to purchase two sets, the first run and the new run are not compatible. Make sure which versions you’ll be picking up before purchasing.
So once I checked out what exactly it was that I was playing, it was time to play the Time game on the board. This is simply dumping out the pieces, mixing them up, starting a timer, and placing pieces as fast as your hands and brain will allow. There is a universal rule for most of the games with the board and that’s that the logo piece must be placed last and then “Pajaggle!” must be yelled out. At PAX, the Pajaggle folks were giving away clear logo pieces to those who had a time of three minutes or less. I managed to get one and beat the best time of the day with a 1:37. This was also good enough for the world record too.
Yes, I spend four hours and beat the world record for this apparently. When I had finished I squealed quite loudly and started to rub my right wrist. I have a feeling it’s a muscle strain or worse. After checking out my injury, I noticed my hands were visibly shaking. This game got my adrenaline pumping.
Luckily for me, I had a witness to this so my achievement was recorded on the leaderboard. However, they have asked me to replicate me doing so and at this point I’m not sure that I ever could. During that run, I felt my mind simply click. That made me ignore the pain and push as fast as possible. Who knows though, I’ll be back to whittle down my score most likely in the free time I have left.
Aside from Time, there’s more to do with the board. One other game I played with another was Hand Wars. This game pits two players against one another to see who can put all their pieces back into the board faster. To play, you divide the pieces, giving each player 30 and leaving the Pajaggle logo piece off to the side for both to grab. Unfortunately for me, I had a much harder time with this and got thoroughly beaten. Even the variety of this where you take the pieces from two boards and use only one board I didn’t fair any better.
With the variety this game offers, I think everyone should go at least go check it out if you’re able. It’s a great game for most ages and keeps you nimble with your hands and brain. Just don’t do it for four hours at a time!
