Modern enginuity.

• Position: What's new? Toys galore & more; Target

On a recent snowy day, we sat down and taught our seven-year-old how to play the card game Rummy. As she's starting to outgrow many of her "junior" board games, we figured it was time she learned some of the classics. She immediately took to playing, and it was really interesting to watch her strategize as she decided which cards to hold or discard to get the most points. Winning, of course, is one of her favorite things to do. No sooner had she mastered the game than we discovered Target, the Enginuity, LLC, San Jose, Calif., rummy game with more than just runs and sets. We'll never play the old way again.

In Target, players get five playing cards, with five "target" cards dealt face up. Each target card, worth varying points, describes a different meld, such as "two pair" or "any three cards totalling four or less." Be the first person to hit the target and win those points. Then put in a new target card to keep the game moving. You even can hit more than one target at a time.

We also tried Enginuity's other card games: Linx, where each player gets 10 cards and must make a chain connecting two of four cards on the table by matching a number or color; and Bid It!, a bidding and bluffing game along the lines of Liar's Poker. Each of these card games is packaged in a colorful metal tin and retails for $9.95.

Enginuity also has a line of challenging, strategic games: 3 Stones, Doubles Wild, and Soli2 ($29.95 each). In 3 Stones, players take turns pulling stones from a pouch and placing them on a board similar to the one used in Chinese checkers. The object is to win points by scoring three-in-a-row. The catch is, you don't know whether the stone you pull will be your color, your opponent's, or clear, which scores for...