27Oct 2017

5 Second Rule Junior – Board Game Review

This week we’ve been playing 5 Second Rule Junior kindly sent to us by University Games.

5 Second Rule Junior is aimed at children aged 6 and up and is a junior version of the already popular 5 Second Rule game. You do need a minimum of 3 players for this game so its worth remembering that if you’re going to be buying it as a gift.

5 Second Rule Junior has a simple concept to play but is harder than you first think. 5 seconds really isn’t that much time when you’re against a clock!

How to play 5 Second Rule Junior

The winner is the first player to get to the finish line of the relatively small game board. Which on first glance seems easy. But it’s not all that easy to think quickly and stay focussed in 5 seconds!

To advance forward on the game board you have to answer the question on the card and name 3 examples of the question asked. Younger players are allowed to just give 2 answers. An example fo this would be “Name 3 things you take on a car journey”.

If the player answering the question names the 3 things within the 5 seconds then play passes to the next player to answer the same question. You can’t name the same things though. As you can imagine this gets harder and harder as the question goes round. Someone at some point will lose! For those players that have successfully managed to name 3 things (or 2 if they are younger) then they all move forward a space on the board. Or two spaces if the question has gone round that many times!

In addition to the plain spaces on the board there’s some helping hand spaces too which allow you 10 seconds for your question if you land on them.

What did we think?

We really enjoyed playing 5 Second Rule Junior. So much so we’ve had it out each time we’ve had visitors over half term. It’s a fun way to keep the children entertained. The concept is easy to understand and game play has lasted just long enough to keep everyone’s attention. As most of the players get to have a go at each question you really do have to concentrate on game play. This avoids duplicating someone elses answers.

My 6-year-old was quick to get in a sulk if he couldn’t get his 2 answers. However he was easily pleased with being allowed to use the timer. The timer makes a silly sort of mooing noise each time it’s turned over! Be sure to use the timer though on a flat surface. If you don’t all the tiny ball bearings won’t move down and time 5 seconds properly…and nobody likes a cheat!

We were not paid to review this item, as always all opinions are our own.

12Oct 2017

Yeti in my Spaghetti – Board Game Review

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

This week we’ve been playing ‘Yeti in my Spaghetti’ board game so that we can write a little review.

Yeti in my Spaghetti is a board games aged at ages 4 and up however my 3 and half year old did enjoy joining in and understood how to play.

You’ll need two or more players for the game and by gaming standards it’s pretty easy to understand how to play.

Theres only 3 main components to the game, the yeti (now he’s pretty cute!).

The bowl and the spaghetti. The aim of the game is simple. Don’t let the Yeti fall all the way into the bowl if you want to be the winner! The rules are simple to, just take it in turns to remove single pieces of spaghetti. Easy you might be thinking. Well yes easy to understand, difficult to be the one to not topple that cute yeti!

Pros:

We loved how simple it was
We also loved how even little people can join in
Game play is relatively short so it keeps small peoples attention span
Easy to set up, even for small people
Theres only one thing to focus on and thats the Yeti
No potential choking hazards like similar games with smaller marble sizer pieces
Easy to put away
If you just want to fill a few short minutes its quick and easy to play!

Cons:

The spaghetti needs keeping together when you remove it or you’ll end up loosing it
Other players will endure the grumps if the loser doesn’t like the fact they’ve lost!

My 6 year old desperately wanted to make a video review of the game so here it is (it’s only short but it gives you a good idea of the game!)

Thanks to University Games for sending us the game to review. I was not paid for the review and as always we are free to write are own honest opinion.

17Oct 2016

Googly Eyes Board Game by University Games- Boys Test Toys!

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

Googly Eyes – Game Review

Thanks to University Games for sending us a sample of their latest release Googly Eyes to test out this week! Here’s what we thought it –

The game is called Googly Eyes by University Games. Its a team game for 4 to 16 players who form up to four separate teams. As we had 4 players (2 adults and 2 children) we made two teams with a grown up on each.

The aim of the Googly Eyes game is to be the first team to get to the finish on the board, but the fun you have on the way is hilarious!

Each turn involves one person on the team having to draw something and the team members guessing what it is correctly before the time is up. However its not a simple as drawing, you have to wear funny glasses with differing levels of hilarious distorting lenses according to difficulty. The harder the lenses is to see through the more time you have to draw the picture and the team to guess.

There are three different lenses to pop in the Googly eyes frames , easy, medium and hard.

Game Summary

Things we loved about the game:

It was funny to play, and we did laugh…a lot!

I can see it being a hit in the Christmas season if you get a group of adults together who are enjoying the Christmas spirit (and a little mulled wine!)

It brought the teams together

There are lots and lots of different cards for variety so it’s unlikely in the course of a game or two you’ll ever get the same thing to draw again

It’s an easy game to understand you don’t have to keep referring back to the rules

The game says ages 7 and above but the 5 year olds had no trouble (if they like drawing that is) even if they can’t read the game card words (which ours could) then an adult could help them with that part

In trying to write a balanced review the only thing I could think might be a slight negative is you have to keep changing the lenses in the glasses which can sometimes be tricky if they don’t click in first time then can fall out when you draw, once you’ve got the knack of it though its not so bad. Also sometimes the timer is incredibly short (15 seconds) so when we were playing with the young ones we allowed a little more time for them!

10May 2016

Bunny Jump Game – Playtime fun for us!

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

Bunny Jump – Game Review

This week we were excited to be asked to take the Bunny Jump game from University Games for a test hop!

My boys love simple games and especially the eldest. As any mum of a 4 year old knows they often get enthusiastic about the thought of playing a game but by the time it’s set up and you’ve explained the rules they have lost interest and gone to do something else. This is a big pro for Bunny Jump, the set up time is seconds. Even the first time you open the box, theres no complicated instructions, nothing to put together, just straight out of the box and off you go.

The other great thing about Bunny Jump is that you don’t need batteries! Hurray no batteries to replace, no sifting around in the bottom of ‘that’ kitchen draw (everyone has one, full of random stuff) for a tiny little screwdriver to open the battery compartment! It seems so rare these days to have a toy that doesn’t need batteries or charging frequently so that for me is a great big thumbs up!

The boy was very excited to be playing a new game, and its’ just so simple to play. The recommended age is 5 years old and upwards but I let both my boys play supervised by one of us and they are 4 and 2. There can be up to 4 players for each round.

The aim of the game be the person with the most carrots in their basket. The game starts with all 12 carrots buried in the ground and bunny sat on the top of the hill. Each player takes it in turns to spin the spinner and remove the number of carrots shown, unless its a miss a turn! Everyone takes it in turns to spin and do what the spinner says until the bunny jumps in the air! When bunny jumps everyone need to try and catch it, if anyone does catch it then that person gets two bonus carrots, those two carrots can make the difference between being the winner or not!

Now so far in all our games none of us have managed to catch the bunny, even my camera can’t capture it in action as proved here when I tried to catch the bunny jumping!

So in order to try and show you I’ve had to mock up the next photograph!

But that is about how high the bunny jumps, however when your not expecting it and you don’t know which way its going the reality of actually catching it is very different, especially for a 4 year old!

Overall we have loved playing Bunny Jump as it’s easy to set up quickly, requires no batteries and games are short which engages little minds, it’s something that can easily be put away to so a game or two before the school run is very do able! Thumbs up to Bunny Jump form us!

Bunny Jump is available to buy from lots of toys shops including Argos and Amazon.