Fun but long

Having spent many hours playing Scrabble in the past we bought this as a new challenge. It does boost the ego to get large scores and we recently had four seven letter words in 5 turns. It isn't a quick game, but the number of tiles means that you can still catch up after falling miles behind. Tactics are slightly different and you become less concerned about leaving triple words open because there are so many scoring opportunities.

I was disappointed by the quality of the set, others have mentioned the folding board and not quite square letters, but it has already paid for itself in hours of entertainment. If we lose any tiles we will simply replace them from an old Original game.

As for scoring we use the travel scrabble to keep score although with just two playing we often both go past the 799 maximum.

Deluxe Marbles - great value

Great variety of bright smart looking marbles ..... ideal if you want them for something other than just bashing them at one another in a game with your grandson!!! Comes with a booklet explaining the rules for different variations on games of marbles. Great value.

Pass the bomb

Great game, pity that the batteries run out after only an hour or two of play. It runs on watch batteries which makes it a very expensive game as you have to replace the batteries almost every time you play it.

Family game?

Seriously disappointed by this game! Who dreamt up these questions? Fine if you're armed with a copy of Encarta, or you're a family of know-it-alls, but the average Joe and his children would have no chance of answering half of these questions. I had more fun peeling the pototoes for our Christmas lunch than playing this...

Great fun!

A brilliant game based on very simple principles. The game consists of a bag, a timer and oval shaped cards on which there are the names of three people - fiction and non-fiction. The basic aim of the game is to describe as many people on the cards which are picked out of the bag to your team without naming the actual person in a set time limit. The game is reliant on verbal dexterity and quick thinking and anyone can play it.

Sounds very basic but it fantastic fun and creates a great atmosphere in any party. It also sounds easy but it can be very difficult especially when you get stuck on an obscure person to describe. The instructions give a variety of ways to play the game but the best way to play is to get stuck in and play the basic game first as outlined in the first paragraph.

Highly recommended.

One of the best party games ever!

One team member gives clues in order to get the others in their team to guess as many correct words as possible within the time limit, but beware - use a word from the list of"taboo" words as a clue and lose a point. Naturally the taboo words are the ones you would be most inclined to use (try explaining"Puss in Boots" without saying cat, feline, shoes, footwear, or fairy tale!). Hilarity ensues.

This game has all the essentials for a great party game - simple rules, a dash of tension, and lots of laughter. And best of all there is no limit to the number of people who can play! I have yet to meet a person who has played this game and not thoroughly enjoyed it. A must-have for any party game collection.

Keeps the fun rolling on...

This set contains another set of cards to play the amazing, amazing description game. We'd got to the point where we'd played our original version of Articulate so much that we had done all the questions at least once, and had the best descriptions saved up in our memories! This pack means we can now continue to play it as if it's new. Hopefully they'll keep producing expansion packs so we can carry on enjoying...

Great for all primary aged kids( and few older!)

we played wiht a 13 year old down to a 4 year old who can only just read. Great fun - easy to understand and fast. really funny as players fumble for words and the bomb issue is irrlevant in my opnion.

Good fun but games can go on a bit

The board can tend to warp and the pieces shoot out if the popper is hit too hard. The plastic used for newer editions is much flimsier than the earlier models and this makes the game less durable than it was. The popper is ok but the spring can get damaged.

We have some spare pieces but they're large enough not to lose easily. The kids like it and it's a popular game for a wet Saturday afternoon. Better construction would make it better still.

Family Fun

We love cranium and bought the 2nd edition as we really enjoyed the first. I would recommendd this game, we used it at a childs birthday party and they loved it!, although the questions are more suited to older children and adults. Very enjoyable, but not at all suitable for children younger than 12/13 yrs they wouldnt know some of the phrases.

not worth it

I had high hopes for this game, being one of the few for the younger age range available, and to encourage family time yet I am dissapointed. It's a lot flimsier and cheaper manufacture than I expected for the name - something I might've expected if anything from a cheaper non branded version. The plastic sticks are bendy and generally too short...we spent most our time trying to get them to stay in the holes during attachment as they kept falling out. Also nothing much happens...by the time you've spent your adult time setting it up to impatient requests to begin the game then you do and it's over pretty quickly, the marbles often falling in large numbers at once down a very short slide, then to be collected by you and transferred into your area for score counting. My neice got a similar monkey version from elc and it was cheaper and no worse, and had more interest to my daughter and neices who liked the animal element. I think this toy is just for parents like myself who remember the name but in reality, as a game, it's not very good or well constructed.

Credit Card Monopoly

I thought that with the so many different Monopoly's out recently, this one would slip by unnoticed.
But I was really wrong!

This is a great version, in my eyes by far the best. It uses credit cards which keep track of the money you own, and includes a credit machine which you use to add or subtract money from your accounts. Children will love to tap in the controls on the credit card machine, it looks quite like a PIN machine.

Also, inflation has finally caught up with Monopoly, with the whole value of money changing. Ownership of the exclusive Kensington Palace Gardens (previously Mayfair) will set you back a cool 2million pounds.


A great improvement on the old version, there are no negatives about it!

Rather a disappointment

A game like Carcassonne needs to keep on finding new upgrades if it is to keep us motivated on spending more money to get more features. Unfortunately, this upgrade adds much less additional interest than Expansion 1, and its new features do not integrate with the rest of the game as well as those of Expansion 1. Sometimes we use them, sometimes not.
The tile bag is annoying because it cannot properly hold the number of tiles that you end up with once you have bought a few expansion sets.
The new tiles are, of course, most welcome.

aly-opoly

i thought i was going mad until i read these reviews!
i hunted for the instructions on playing the game (its been a few years since i have played monopoly), houses and hotels, title deeds etc, but it seems this version doesnt have theese - little point then to playing.

the paper is poor quality, the lovely monopoly pieces i expected to find (dog, hat, car etc) are replaced by 4 plastic pegs....

i would agree, best to buy the original and just put sticky tape over the names of the roads to customise it for yourself.

very dissapointing. best but was thinking up rude place names for the board and customising the 'community chest' alternative cards, though even the scope to customise the game is limited.

very poor show overall. shame.