Game review: Bananagrams - fun for family and laughter

Although its been in the market for more than 12 years, I only got hold of this game this Christmas. Initially I bought it as a 'back-up' gift just in case I needed it last minute to gift it to somebody, but the temptation to try it out eventually made me open and play it with my family during the Christmas break. It is packaged in a case shaped like a banana which is eye-catching and easy for travellers.

Bananagrams is a word-tile game where players build word grids similar to crosswords. It differs to Scrabble where every participant plays on the same word grid. In Bananagrams, every player does his own word grid with the number of tiles given in the beginning. Terms such as "Split", "Peel" and "Dump" drive the participants to start, pick up new tiles and exchange one to three tiles accordingly. It can be a pretty fast game depending on the number of players. Naturally, if there are more people playing, you end up with less tiles, hence a shorter game altogether.

Once in while, you get a family member who tries to be funny and build up nonsensical words - that's when you label him or her "Rotten Banana!"

My verdict?

It is a good game which uses the brain from the language and vocabulary execution. It is especially good for children as a healthy way of entertainment, interaction and vocab-building session. Older players can benefit because building word grids require a certain amount of thinking skills as well. I think it is a simple enough game yet to teach and play over a gatherings.