Printworks Play Four In A Row

A game you can leave out without your living room suddenly looking like a toy cupboard.

Printworks has reworked classic Four in a Row in soft blue, slate grey and cream, with a proper rigid game board and matching counters, all packed into one of their brilliant book-style boxes. Closed up, it looks more like something from the art and design shelf than a family game, which means it can happily live on the coffee table ready to be pulled out.

The game itself needs very little introduction. Two players take turns dropping their counters into the board, trying to get four in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally while simultaneously ruining the other person's plans. It's ridiculously simple to learn and much harder to stop playing once somebody starts winning.

We like that this is genuinely for everyone. Children understand it almost immediately, adults don't get bored playing it, and a supposedly quick game has a habit of becoming best of three. When you're done, the board and pieces pack neatly away inside the box.

A very good-looking version of a game that deserves to stay out.