Bananagrams

So, we've all played Scrabble right, you know that word game that takes forever, is tricky to score and incredibly frustrating as you try and fit words on to a grid to score the most possible points. Well, what if I told you that there was a game that took about a quarter of the time to play, had no dull scoring process but still gave brain hurting quality as you try and make words with letters that seem to hate you! If that sounds good, come on in.

In Bananagrams, the aim of the game is to be the first to use all of your letters and there to be none in the central pile either. To do this you try and make a personal grid of interlocking letters in real time -you don't take turns in this game - that form words with (to start of with) 21 tiles. Once someone finishes all their letters, then they must shout 'peel!' and everyone takes an extra face down tile from the dump' one of your letters for three other random ones, sometimes saving you from a pickle but other times just worsening the problem.
middle, however finishing those last few letters is not always easy with those awkward letters that often pop up. To mitigate this, you can '

First things of, let me just say that this way better than Scrabble: you don't have to wait ages for other people to finish their turns (as you are working on your own board), it is quicker and easier to transport (fitting inside a cute banana shaped pouch) and you are more likely to be able to get young children to play this than it's old and slow counterpart. The ability to get rid of hard letters and to not have to worry about how much a word scores makes it possible for primary school goers to join in.

On the other hand, this isn't going to be the game that will suddenly make you love word games if you don't all ready, it is really just a streamlined version of scrabble with less hard thinking. You are still arranging words in different ways in a crossword like creation, that is still the same but in a more pure version if you like. The outer skin has just changed, not the concept behind it.

The component quality is nice and the rule book is clear and easy to read, all coming within a cool banana shaped pouch (isn't that the coolest thing ever, I mean a banana) that neatly stores them away. The tiles are strong, and you will not have to worry about breaking anything when some one inevitably'by accident'.
drops the down the stairs

Overall I would say it is a solid word game that I would play with 8 year olds and upwards because you still need a solid understanding of words to have a go at it. Though I know that some people out there will absolutely love and some hate it, I walk the line between the two, but will still always prefer to play this than Scrabble. I am going to give Bananagrams a solid 6/10 and suggest you word aficionados go out and play it.