Time for another classic game review. This time it's the turn of Boggle. This is a game that has been around for many years and is viewed as very popular still. Although not strictly a board game you do use a form of board when you play this and the game is based on word play. So now you know the basic concept, let me tell you a little bit about how the game actually works.

In reality there is no real limit to the amount of players who can take part in Boggle. It's get a little awkward if there are more than four of you, but you can squeeze round and play regardless. The game starts when all players have a pen and a piece of paper for writing words down. The little Boggle cube is then shaken and the sixteen dice inside settle down with a letter facing upwards, now the egg timer is turned over and the round begins.

The idea is to try and make as many words as you can from the letters in front of you. You must connect the letters together either vertically, horizontally or diagonally to form words and you can not use the same letter more than once in a word. When the timer runs out you must stop writing your words down. Now comes the scoring to see who did best.

You might think that the scoring is based on most words, but this is not true. You only get points for unique words. So the first player will read out their list of words and if any other player has the same word then this does not count and will not score points. You only score points for unique words. If you do have a unique word when everyone has read their list of words out, then you score points. The longer the word the more points you get. You can then play as many rounds of Boggle as you like and add your scores up after each round. Obviously the player with the most points at the end is the winner.

This is a game that requires a little bit of brain power to play. Boggle is aimed more at adults than children although it can be a good way of teaching children to spell and help them develop in their language skills. The game usually costs around £20 to buy brand new in the shops but there are lots of these knocking around online or you can often pick the game up in a charity shop for just a few pounds.

Although I'm not the best Boggle player around I do quite enjoy it. It causes some great discussions and arguments over words and can really get players involved in the game. There is always a great feeling when you come up with a really special word that no one else has though of as well. So overall Boggle really is a very good little game that has been played for many years and no doubt will be played for many more years in the future.