If you have read my previous reviews you will know that I am a huge fan of Orchard Toys. I thought I would never come across an Orchard Toys game that didn't tick every box. However, my heart sinks every time my daughter brings this one over and asks me to play it!

Fruit Frenzy consists of 42 fruit cards, 2 wild cards (which show all the fruits and can be used to represent whichever fruit you want) and one spinner. The spinner has 3 sections, one for 'Take a face up card', one for 'Take a face down card' and a 'Fruit Frenzy' one. To play the game you spread all the cards out face down (the 'pool') and take 5 cards each. The aim of the game is to get 5 matching cards. A card that is rejected by a player is placed face up in the pool which is how you end up with some face up and some face down cards. All this is ok. The thing I really struggle with is the Fruit Frenzy bit! In fact I had to read the rules for this bit several times when we first played it as I could not get my head round it! If the spinner lands on Fruit Frenzy then the player who spun the dial takes a face down card and puts it on one side (creating a small 'pool'), then each player puts one of their cards face down with it. On the count of 3 each player grabs a new card. Now, I have only ever played this game with my 4 year old. Just me and her. And, at the moment we still play games like this with all our cards laid in front of us face up. So we both know which cards we have added to the Fruit Frenzy, meaning the only surprise card is the one taken from the table. My only hope (as I am struggling to deal with the fact that Orchard Toys are capable of making a game that is not brilliant) is that once she is old enough for us to play this game 'blind', and maybe once we are playing it as a family (at 2 little brother is too young to join in yet) that this part of the game will be the best bit and not the worst bit!

This is Orchard Toys game is aimed at children aged 4 - 9. She got this for her 4th birthday and was totally capable of understanding the rules (once I had got my head around them!), however I think that to really appreciate this game you probably need to be a little older. I am not prepared to give up hope for this one yet!

You can currently pick this up at Amazon for around £6.50 which is a very reasonable. Like all Orchard Toys the quality of the cards and spinner is excellent. The spinner is designed so that you can hold it still at the edge and spin it without your fingers getting in the way which is a bonus as I don't have to keep reminding her to keep her fingers out of the way. It comes in my favourite sort of box - one box with a top opening flap, much preferable to the box and lid option which inevitably ends up with all the pieces ending up on the floor when carried by a child AND need storing one on top of the other, so that when said child want the bottom jigsaw/game and pulls it out, all the jigsaws/games above it end up on the floor. These amazing new top flap boxes can be put on a shelf like books! Genius!

So, although at the moment this is one of my least favourite games to play, I suspect that in time we will enjoy it more. Let's just say I still have faith in Orchard Toys!