Simpsons scrabble game (Mattel Simpsons Scrabble)

Member Name: jenny967

Product:	Mattel Simpsons Scrabble
Date:	01/01/08 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun for the whole family

Disadvantages: A lot of rules to remember

My kids are all fans or the Simpsons, so their granda bought them The Simpsons Scrabble game for christmas, needless to say they were delighted. (not sure of the price as it was a gift)
The game includes:

100 letter tiles,
4 racks
Tile storage bag
Playing board
Character cards
Score pad
Instructions
The board

The board is two sided with the regular scrabble on one side and Simpons scabble on the other side.
The regular side has all the usual premium squares on the usual places and the simpsons side has preimium squares that are all mixed up.

Premium letter square
If you land on a light blue square then this doubles the score of the letter which has landed on it, an orange square quadruples your letter score and a green square quintuples the letter score.

Premium word squares
This works in the nearly the same way, if you land on a light red square you word score is doubled, if you land on a dark red square it is then tripled and the purple square in the left hand corner quadruples the word score.

The Character Cards
Each card has a character form the Simpsons on it.At the beginning of the game each player recieves 1 card, these can either help you or they can hinder your opponent depending on which colour you get. Green cards help the person who played it and the red card hinders your opponent. The cards only have effect on the turn they are played.

How To Play
The game is for 2 - 4 players, each player gets a rack and has to pick seven letters from the bag, there are also two blank tiles which a player may use as a letter of their choice, or they can keep it until the end of the game and get a bonus 10 points, also at this point each player recieves a character card, at every turn each player can choose to to exchange tiles, pass or place a word on the board.

Passing a turn
Players may use their turn to replace some or all of their tiles, then wait until their next turn to place a word. Players may also pass their turn if they are unable to make a word.

Starting point
When placing the first word it should start on the middle square of the board and should read across or down.

Scoring a word
All letter tilles have a number on them, calculate the numbers on each tile of your word and if you have landed on a premium square this also has to be added to the score, also if the player has played a card and has been adwarded bonus points then these alo need to be added.

50 Points bonus
If a player uses all seven letters in one go, they get the 50 points bonus, even if they land on premium squares, although the 50 points don`t get doubled or tripled.

End of the game
When all letter tiles have been drawn and one player has used all his or her tiles then the game has ended and it time to calculate the scores, after the scores have been added, then it is reduced by the sum of unplayed tiles they have left. If one player has no tiles left then their score in increased by sum of the other players unplayed tiles, the player which used all their tiles is rewarded an extra 9 points. so who ever has the highest score after all this wins.

Verdict
I like this game as the whole family can join in and the kids have lots off fun. they are playing an educational game and dont even realise it, another good point is that the game is not over with in 15 or 20 mins it lasts for about an hour or so, I would highly recommend it for primary school age and above.

Thanks for reading
I have done this review on Ciao

Summary: This game is pretty much like the normal scrabble but with the Simpsons logo