My Word
Family Card Game
Review by Russ Lockwood
|
My WordFamily Card GameReview by Russ Lockwood |
 |
The trouble with getting a big hit out of the box is that you're constantly striving to surpass it. Apples to Apples was a monster hit and deservedly so. Technically, Bosworth was first, and I liked that quite a bit, so A&A did top it. We still pull A&A out and play it at parties. Out of the Box's third game, Shipwrecked, was O.K. but didn't get a big call for repeat play.
My Word My Word ($8.95: ISBN 0-9708554-2-7) provides 56 cards with one or two letters on them, including a few "?" which act as wildcards. The object is to form words out of three or more cards like you form words out of letter tiles in Scrabble. The one with the most cards wins. There are no turns--you just announce the word first and scoop up the cards. Ideally, a neutral dealer flips the cards face up between the other players. We played one-on-one, and so simply one of us acted as the dealer. There's no advantage or disadvantage. A game lasts through one deck, and takes about 10 minutes with adults. Since quantity, not quality, matters, forget about creating fancy words. Just spell "cat" or "dog" and grab the cards. Sometimes, you'll get a series of cards without a vowel to be seen and other times, visa versa. On rare occasions, you'll have a nice mix and nothing can be found word-wise.
If I could present an option, perhaps a Yahtzee-style bonus for the first four card word, first five-card word, and first six-card word. That way, you inject a little quality into the quantity aspect. Out of the Box Publishing
Back to Other Game Review List Back to Master Game Review List Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |
Now comes the next pair of card games Out of the Box: My Word and Blink, both by Reiner Knizia. Both satisfy the "learn in five minutes, play in half an hour" motto of OotB.
After an hour, we placed the cards back in the box. I'm thinking that this would be useful on family vacations when TV is boring and you need something to do. Scrabble is better, but My Word is quicker.