It’s Bananas
- 2 or more players; age 6 and over. £23.99
- Instructions: bizarrely complicated and may leave you losing the will to live, let alone play
Roll up your sleeves and limber up, because this is a physical game that requires some strong thigh muscles. It involves splitting into two teams then securing an inflatable hooked monkey tail around your waist with a plastic belt and using that tail to squat down and pick up cardboard prizes, such as bananas and coconuts.
It is billed as a game “for kids, teens and tipsy adults” featuring “eight challenges in one”, but I found the rules impossible to get my head around. It might be more suitable as an after-dinner drinking game. I gave up and left the children to make up their own rules, which they loved.
Snakes
- 4-8 players; age 12 and over. £24.99
- Instructions: took a bit of concentration
I tried this with a group of three friends, which didn’t work that well, but another go with a group of eight proved great fun and quite addictive – so one for a bigger gathering. The aim is to collect points by correctly answering multiple-choice questions (sample: which nation’s inhabitants are the longest lived: Monaco, Japan or Singapore?).
Certain players are secretly allotted “snakes”, so when it comes for players to debate the answer for two minutes, they must lead other players to the incorrect answer. There’s a designated trustworthy player – the “mongoose” – but any other player could be lying. Less complex than it sounds, I’d definitely play it again… if Covid doesn’t prevent me having enough players.
Priorities
- 2 or more players; age 14 and over. £21.99
- Instructions: beautifully simple
Despite the age recommendation, I played this with three of my children – aged five, seven and nine – and they loved it. It also encouraged conversation and an awareness of each other’s foibles. Players must rank a target player’s personal preference in a list of five things named on cards (for example, Hawaiian pizza, Harry Potter, a balanced diet, talking loudly and flight upgrades). The aim is for players to spell out the word PRIORITIES from letters on the back of their cards.
This is a potentially highly controversial game, since some of the categories might inspire heated debate (I wasn’t sure about “women” and “immigrants” being two of the options), but I just went through the pack and removed a few cards before happily debating with my children their preference for “the beach” over “Netflix”.
Poetry for Neanderthals
- 2 or more players; age 7 and over. £20
- Instructions: simple, if slightly more complex than a Neanderthal might like
Though this is recommended for those aged seven and over, I played a slightly simplified version with a six-year-old, while a group of adults also enjoyed it.
Players divide into teams, then race to score points by describing words chosen from a card, which their team must guess, using single syllable words only. Players can choose a single point word, like shoe, or a slightly more challenging but similar word, like shoelace, for their team to guess, within a certain time.
Abbreviations, gestures or “sounds like” are all banned, and players are biffed on the head with an inflatable “No! Stick” if they use multi-syllable words. It’s not a complicated game, but it’s a fun way to encourage children to think about language. Highly recommended.
