Damn, is there really two B's in scrabble? (Scrabble Original)

Member Name: katykicker

Product:	Scrabble Original
Date:	17/07/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to set up, reasonably priced, instructions included to hopefully avoid arguments, good fun.

Disadvantages: Larger box, no score sheets.

Scrabble is a word based board game that is designed for 2 - 4 players and provides fun for most ages except smaller children who would probably not have anywhere near enough words in their vocabulary to enable them to stand a chance of winning a game of Scrabble.

The game play is relatively easy to pick up and the game itself is incredibly simply to set up, just unpack the board, open it out, shake the letters around in the letters bag, give everyone their letters stand and then begin by choosing a letter each from the bag and the player close to the beginning of the alphabet will begin the game.

The game will begin with the first player placing down a word made from the 7 letters that they received at the beginning of the game on to the star in the centre of the 15 x 15 square board. The second player must then make a word using the word already placed down so this could mean placing a horizontal word through a vertical word to use a letter and make a word themselves. If any player makes a word using all 7 letters in one play then they are awarded a bonus of 50 points on top of their word score. Each letter in Scrabble is worth a predetermined amount of points with the more common letters, E, O etc earning 1 points and lesser used letters Z, Q etc earning the player 10 points. On the 15 x 15 square board there are also bonus squares that help to boost the score by giving triple word scores, double word scores, double letter scores & triple letter scores to help boost a players total. If a player is unable to make a turn then they can simply forfeit their turn, earning no points, swap some of their letters in the letters bag (providing there are some left) or take their turn and attempt to earn some points. All words spelt in the same must be contained within a standard dictionary and any player can challenge another players word. If the word is not in the dictionary then the player who placed the word loses their points for that play and forfeits their turn.

I love the simplicity of the game as most people should be able to play. Providing you have fairly good spelling and word skills then there is a fair chance for lots of people to win this game and being strategical about where you place your letters could mean that a player with a lesser vocabulary could easily win the game just by playing tactically.

Board games seem to be increasingly popular recently and I believe this is because it's just one initial cost for the game and then you can have it for many years to come and enjoy a variety of different games for reasonable prices. Scrabble is not the kind of game that I would play will all members of my family as I have quite a few nieces & nephews but it's definitely something for the grown ups to play that I enjoy getting out from time to time just to make a change.

I like to think that I'm pretty good at Scrabble but it really does depend partially on the letters randomly chosen from the letters bag and how good you are at making words with the letters that are already on the board.

Scrabble is currently available from many toy stores as well as amazon.co.uk for the very reasonable price of £14.65 with free super saver delivery. The game is being marketed as 'Scrabble Original' as if it's some sort of upgrade, however, the only thing that's different between this and the older versions is the box is larger (although the contents remain the same size) and there is now no scoring card but it's cheap enough to use an old envelope or just keep score on your mobile phone (if you're not using it for the calculator that is!). The box contains the board game, 100 pieces (98 letters, 2 blank tiles to be used as 'wilds' during the game), 4 tile racks, 1 letters bag & 1 set of instructions. It's definitely important to have a thorough read through of the rules beforehand as the last thing you want to do is look like the idiot who doesn't know what they are talking about when your friend whose just visiting your house for dinner shows you up!

I am going to rate this game 4/5 as it's probably great from about 10 upwards, depending on the child's vocabulary and how well they can handle losing!

Summary: A fantastic game for many ages, especially adults of the family!