You're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, right? But let's be honest: It usually saves a lot of time! So for this week's Weekly Wonder, we're wondering: What game did you prejudge--based on art, or cover, or subject, or whatever--only to have it surprise you when you actually played it?

For me, it was Triassic Terror, from Eagle Games and designer Peter Hawes. A friend kept bringing it to game night, and I just had no desire to play it. Despite the angry dinos on the cover, it just didn't grab me. And I just wasn't a fan of the art style or the colors. And it used plastic toy dinosaur figures, which I thought was just...goofy. 

So I put off playing as long as I could. Then, at one of our monthly day-long game-fests, he asked us to play it. And we all knew we'd put it off. And it was right around his birthday.  And he's one of the nicest guys I know, so I hated to say no yet again. So we played. 

And you know what? It was a darn good little area-control game. You have different action cards you can take, and they affect what you can do, and the order you can do things in. You have to keep an eye on everything, and plan your moves, and sometimes choose a card just to keep it away from that guy. And there's direct conflict--so no whiners. It does have a bash-the-leader problem, like most area-control games, so be warned. The toy dinos are still goofy, but they're functional. And the art style didn't magically get better. But if you like area-control games at all, you should give Triassic Terror a go!

So what about you? What game surprised you the most? Now, I think stories of games that surprised you in a good way are probably more interesting and helpful, but feel free to post about ones you thought would be awesome but turned out to be stinkers. 

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more contest winners!