We had some friends over this weekend and played a couple of games with them. Started with Tobago, warmed up with The Big Book of Madness and then did some heavy lifting with Rajas of the Ganges. I didn’t want to randomly whip out my camera so there were no photos taken.

On Sunday, however, when alone we took out an oldie (but a goodie?), Scrabble. Now I know, that Scrabble is an old game. From around the II. World War. But, I remember liking it, and being in awe of what a great game it was compared to Monopoly. Well, I might have played with too many newer, more modern games, so in the end it just did not give me the same thrill it did before.

I didn’t like how incredibly high the luck element is in this game. The only chance you got for mitigation if you have a horrible hand is changing some letters and skipping a turn. With that however, you just shot yourself in the foot with a bazooka. Also, no interaction, no interest between your turns. And when it is your turn you sit there thinking, and thinking (hoping for divine intervention) while the others pass out from boredom.

But what really got me is the (lack of) quality of the game. I remember that it was not a cheap game. Well, there are some low quality letter tiles in it, a bag, 4 letter holders and a black and white leaflet called ‘Rulebook’ that looks like it was photocopied. The pictures are small, hard to see. Funny enough, the examples keep referring to the light or dark blue multiplier spots that you just cannot identify because it is (again) in black and white! Did I mention it was not cheap?

But I must digress. The game is somewhat entertaining. I find ourselves recalling incredible combos, impossible words that we managed to spell in previous sessions. But in my opinion there are word games that are far superior to this which I’ll always suggest over this one. Have you tried Hardback or Word Domination? Well, if you like word games, you really should!

Game: Scrabble,