We've already reviewed a couple of games from Bananagrams - firstly the original Bananagrams game, getting involved in a hilarious Bananagrams blogger battle, then Zip-It - so we knew we'd be in for another simple but addictive word game that the whole family would be able to enjoy when we were chosen to review their Pairs in Pairs game for Fuel My Blog. The first thing I have to say is that I love their packaging - they've created a funky pear-shaped zip up bag for you to keep all the letter tiles in. Genius !
The bag contains four complete alphabets in four different styles of letters - white, black, stripes and spots - and a little leaflet explaining all the different ways you can play the game or use it as an educational tool. First of all, Juliette wanted to write her name using the four different styles of letters but, unfortunately for her, there weren't enough E's or T's to finish the job !
Sophie managed it though and they both got quite competitive trying to be the first to find the different letters ! This was a great way for Juliette to practise her letter recognition.
To play the actual game, you need to come up with pairs of words of three letters or more that share a letter. You can combine the game with the educational exercises - trying to create words that rhyme, homonyms, etc - or just play it freestyle and get any pairs of words you can find, using the tiles that are dished out to each player. The winner is the first player to use all their tiles. You can play with or without scoring, depending on the age of the players, winning extra points for longer words or for makign pairs using the same style of letters rather than mixing them up. This is what Sophie came up with for her first pair - cue much hilarity as Juliette managed to read it !!
And that basically says it all ! It's fun, accessible to all ages, easily transportable, educational, quick to play and has no complicated rules. It's great for a quick five minute play when you haven't got much time, can be played by yourself and is a versatile game that can be used in a wide variety of ways. I think this game will appeal more to kids (or kids playing with adults) than the original Bananagrams which is more of an adults'/older kids' game.
That's three Bananagrams fruity wordgames that we own. At this rate, we'll soon be able to play our five a day as well as eat it !
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £10.99
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This sounds like a great game, and like a great way for my five year old to spell out words.
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