When I was asked if I'd like to review one of the games from University Games, it was a company I'd never heard of so I clicked straight through to their website to see what they had on offer. The first thing that leapt out at me was that there are some great, very original games on there that really seem to get the fun/educational balance just right. Not only that, but they look like they'd appeal to the whole family - which is great for us here at The Madhouse as 5-year-old Juliette always wants to join in when I play with 9-year-old Sophie but she quickly gets frustrated when she can't get involved because it's too complicated.
Sort it Out! Junior is the kids' version of the award-winning Sort it Out! board game with questions designed especially for children aged 8 and up. Players have to put different lists of items in the correct order so, during the game, they will find out what is the shortest, tallest, longest, heaviest, loudest, biggest, smallest pretty much everything ! To give you an idea, a couple of the questions are : Can you sort these animals by the number of adult teeth they have in a full set - a dog, an elephant, a human and a pig ? How about sorting these things by how fast they can go - a swimming swordfish, the air in a sneeze, a running cheetah and a Porsche car ?
What I love, as well as the educational aspect, is that even Juliette can join in by guessing - and she gets almost as many right as we do ! It really gets the kids thinking and using logic to try to find the right answers. Even if you get every question wrong, it's still fun to play because you get random snippets of information and fascinating facts along with the answers. Sophie loves reading them out and teaching me loads of things I didn't know, so it offers a bit of healthy role-reversal that makes her feel very important and clever !
The rules of the game are very child-friendly. You place a topic card in the middle of the table and all players answer the question at the same time by placing their four coloured smile dots in the correct order on their plastic holder, so there is no long waiting around for your turn which often leads to whining and impatient fidgeting. The girls got very excited by the fact that certain questions involve the players getting on their feet and lining themselves up in the correct order too !
It's a really fun and educational game that people of any age will enjoy playing, so a family or a group of young friends could play together equally well. The idea is really simple and there are no complicated rules to learn, so you can just jump right in and start having fun !
star rating : 5/5
RRP : £24.99
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This looks a good game, will consider it for christmas
ReplyDelete@ali991
It looks interesting
ReplyDeleteIt's worth to buy
It's great to see a good, educational family board game that the whole family can enjoy. In an era of computer games and so many other distractions, the board game tradition needs to be kept alive. So Bravo to University Games for this contribution!
ReplyDeleteOooh, I like this. I'm always looking for ways to entertain the kids without tv & computers. They love playing board games but most are too old for them. This seems great & just what we need. Thanks :D
ReplyDeleteI just reviewed a new one of theirs, Who ? What ? Where ? which is like a Pictionary kind of game, great fun for all the family too ! You can see that review here : http://madhousefamilyreviews.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-what-where-junior.html
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