| Brand: | Bananagrams | ||
| Average Rating |
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Bananagrams is a fast and fun word game that requires no pencil, paper or board. All you need is a table. One hand can be played in as little as five minutes. It is a great for family fun as well as being educational. Bananagrams portability makes it perfect for travel. Just grab the pouch and go. more info
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Even educational for the younger set and great for travel
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We puchased this while on vacation as a good compact, travel toy that my 5 year old could play with. He can read a little bit but this game, used as it was created for, would be too hard for him. We just use the tiles at restaurants to have him make the alphabet, to sort letters, find vowels, create short words, as well as his name. I would recommend it for even those as young as 4-5 years old. We still keep the game in our “restaurant bag” and we find challenging ways to keep it fun and educational. For this price, you can’t beat a compact game that is both fun and educational as well as being one that spans the ages.
An excellent game
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The banana seems sturdy enough, the tiles are a lovely quality, and the directions are super easy, but the fun is all in the game. My husband and I play Scrabble a lot, but it can take sooo long. This game is much faster, easier, and more fun because everyone plays at once rather than waiting – sometimes endlessly – for another player to make the “right” Scrabble move. Highly recommended.
I did order this game from Amazon, but it took more than six weeks to arrive.
bananagrams
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Easy to travel. We enjoyed camping and being able to play a great game with all of us at the camp site.
Scrabble for the ADD set
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is one of those products that is so simple, and so compulsive that it makes you think “Why didn’t I think of that?”
The action is fast paced, bordering on frantic. Grabbing an awkward letter out of “the bunch” can cause you to completely rearrange your anagram. An X, V, Q or J in the last tile grab can cause some of the most intense gaming that you’ll find anywhere.
For those that say this game is anti-social: I do understand this criticism, but at our table moments of intense concentration were broken up with peaks of hilarity at unfortunate misspellings and words that aren’t quite words. As with anything, who you’re playing with has as much to do with whether or not an activity is social as the game itself does. and unlike traditional scrabble, you don’t end up wanting to kill anyone for taking 15 minutes to figure out where to make their next play.
The tiles feel good in the hand, and that does add to the game play. The packaging is light-hearted and seeing it on the shelf, people always ask after it.
If you’re a word game family, I cannot recommend this game enough.
Such an appealing game
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We’ve only had Bananagrams a day, and we’re hooked! My teen and I are big word-game fans, so we won’t be abandoning Scrabble or Upwords, but Bananagrams is a nice twist on the crossword game, and its compactness and portability are huge pluses. (Also, no need to keep score or wait for someone to take his turn.) The banana game pouch is well-made and the game tiles are further secured in a Ziploc baggie, which is easy enough to replace if it rips. Oh, and the directions for the game and its variations are a riot, too. Let the banana puns begin …
Its like Scrabble but better
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
If you enjoy playing Scrabble you will absolutely love Bananagrams.
It is a much faster paced game, which is great because you don’t have to wait for your slow opponents to make a move. You actually are punished if you go too slow, because the goal is to be the quickest.
One of my favorite things about it is you don’t keep score so there is nothing stopping you from playing it on Shabbat.
Not just a game
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I got this game for my 7 year old’s birthday. And I love it. She isn’t ready to play the game against my husband and me — basically b/c we are too competitive with each other and can’t lay off even a tiny bit. But she plays “her way.” And her spelling has improved dramatically. She lays all the tiles out and starts spelling different words. We even practice for her weekly spelling test using the tiles. And she just started understanding the crossword style. I can practically see her little gears turning as she tries to figure out how to create a new word using what she already has laid out on the table.
As far as game play goes… my husband and I started making house rules and created a scoring system. We alternate different ways of playing b/c the which rules you use drastically can change game strategy. recently we started playing 5 rounds of 5 minute play then we count tiles used against unused to get a score for each round.
In short, this games ROCKS. We give points for longest word, most words, BEST word (although sometimes this is a fight).
Fun game to play anywhere!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This game is great to play with family and friends. It helps you sharpen your vocabulary and think creatively. It’s easy to take with you anywhere – I’ve even played it at the beach!
Fun and educational
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We first played this game at a friends house and liked it so much we bought it. And our 18 year old daughter and her friends like it too!
fun game
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
It is so much fun to play. One was for me and one was a gift. It is nice and compact and you can even play it with yourself.
Great Game
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Everyone playing at once really fuels up the competition in our house, we love playing best out of five or best of seven. It is great to play with our very competitive young adult children or just my husband and myself. A great game!
Fun!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
If you like any kind of word game you will have fun with Bananagrams. We play most everyday and make up ways to play and have a dictionary at the ready! I don’t think we are a bunch of nerds; but maybe we are.
AWESOME!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I just love this game. Bought it for my 7 year old nephew and he wanted to play it non-stop with the adults. Everyone was addicted.
Don’t Underestimate the Fun!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My husband and I played this game with some friends on a rainy day. Neither of us were very interested when we first started playing, but after about 2 minutes into the game, we were hooked. It’s challenging to make up words on the spot! Although it can be played with two people, I think it’s best if there are three or more playing because the game move quicker.
Way Better Than Scrabble
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My family and I play Scrabble every holiday and birthday. The worst part is waiting for someone else to go and hoping they don’t take the one spot you need. This game totally eliminates both of these things. This one is totally and completely worth the money! I have played all the versions, and I can’t decide which one is more fun. We often switch off between the versions, but we always play the game several times because it is that much fun. Buy this. If you like Scrabble, you don’t regret your purchase.
Great fun!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Small game, but great fun. Can take it with you on a trip. Great game to play in a hotel too.
A great way for OFs to help keep their brains active
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We’ve always liked to play Scrabble (as well as other word games), but have tended more and more to play Bananagrams instead. One great advantage: you don’t alternate moves as in Scrabble, but each person plays “all the time” — the goal is to exhaust the pool of unused tiles first. Second, the words are “free form” — they don’t have to fit into any particular pattern (unless you impose local rules such as no two letter words, for example).
This is also a satisfying solitaire game; you play against yourself by best times. There is also a computerized version developed by Large Animal Games, in partnership with Majesco Entertainment. The game is available on Facebook and Bebo.
It’s possible to play the game with Scrabble tiles although the distribution of letters is somewhat different. The “official” Bananagrams set is:
2: J, K, Q, X, Z
3: B, C, F, H, M, P, V, W, Y
4: G
5: L
6: D, S, U
8: N
9: R, T
11: O
12: I
13: A
18: E
At this price, an official set or two is a very satisfying word game, small enough to take on a trip and fun for word lovers of any age.
Joe Edley, the only three-time National Scrabble Champion, has written a very useful book — BananaGrams! The Official Book — with resources to help you improve your skills in this challenging game. Some of the puzzles are particularly good — rated from one to four bananas in terms of difficulty.
The “anagram game that will drive you bananas!”
Robert C. Ross 2009
Better than Scrabble!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I enjoy playing Scrabble, but tired of begging people to play with me. So bought this thinking I could play alone. Which you can, but it’s much more fun playing with at least another person. The game goes fairly quickly and you don’t have to wait for the other person to finish their hand (as you do with Scrabble), which is appealing. You’re not taking turns but are playing against the other person(s). I’ve found the odds of enticing people to play Bananagrams is more likely than getting anyone to play a game of Scrabble with me.
Bananagrams, bought through Amazon.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
“Bananagrams” is a fabulous game! It’s a lot of fun while being highly educational.
It’s suitable for kids who can spell, +- 8 yrs old, right through to the elderly. I’ve played the game with up to 8 players, but it can even be played as Solitaire.
Apart from the obvious benefits of any word game, it also utilizes the arts of quick thinking, strategy, flexibility AND organization.
I am 67 and bought “Bananagrams” after watching a group of very intelligent high school kids playing the game. They even let me play once… Couldn’t wait for mine to arrive; thank goodness it didn’t take long!
Another major advantage of Bananagrams is that it comes in a small zippered pouch, so is totally portable. What a great game for vacations!
I cannot recommend it highly enough!
G.Davis, grandmother of 11.
Challenging & even good for two people over coffee.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Easy to take on vacation; most adults will find this game more challenging than Scrabble.
Challenging and Fun
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a wonderful game to play for even just two players. The game rules that allow you to rearrange letters whenever you want, as well as spell words backwards, forwards & on a diagonal make for a lot of fun and challenge. Nice travel game too.
Great game for all to play
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
THis is a game where odd or even numbers young and old can play together, I highly recomend it!
More Fun than Scrabble!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We had so much fun playing this game with Jason’s parents! I really think that it is more fun than Scrabble (no waiting, you don’t have to rotate the board,less counting, more opportunities to change things around). I think that this would be good for younger families too. Because you all work on your own puzzle, the younger kids (starting probably around 9) would be able to keep up with the older and more wordy grown-ups! It makes your brain sweat without making it ache!
Excellent game
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is one of my favorite games – it’s like Scrabble but a lot more exciting. As others have mentioned, try combining sets for large families. Wonderful game!
Bananagrams are fun
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a fast-paced word game that allows players to make their own crossword-style grid of words at their own pace. It’s a lot of fun for players of just about any age. It’s also very compact and portable, which makes it great for taking on the road.