Mattel, America’s leading toy company, has acquired the rights to Blokus, an abstract strategy board game created by Bernard Tavitian.  Blokus, which was first published in France in 2000 by Sekkoia, has already won the 2004 Teacher’s Choice Award as well as a Mensa Select award.  Blokus, which was published here in the U.S. by Educational Insights, is an excellent family game, which can be played by anyone 5 or older, and takes only 20 minutes to complete.

The addition of Blokus indicates that Mattel, which acquired a trio of family games (Apples to Apples, Snorta, and Blink) from Out of the Box Publishing in late 2007, is continuing to build up its arsenal of family games (see “Mattel Nabs 3 Out of the Box Games”).