Scrabble is a classic board game of word building with letter tiles, a game has been around since the 1930s. It is still a family staple and has a place in many family board game cupboards and shelves around the world. In fact, it is still one of the world’s bestselling and most played board games. It is an excellent game for kids, families and adults to play. But like everything, things evolve. Scrabble has had many incarnations with themed versions (Harry Potter, Star Wars etc.), large print versions, junior versions, travel versions and even a trick version (Scrabble Trickster). There are even card game versions and it one of these that we have been playing – Scrabble Cards.
In the box:
- 136 Scrabble Cards – 100 Letter Cards, 10 Premium Cards, 16 Action Cards and 10 Rummy Round Cards
- Rules / Instructions
Like the original classic board game of Scrabble, Scrabble Cards is a still a word building game. It is a card game version that is suitable for 2-4 players, aged 10+. It is a card-based version of the classic Scrabble game, has no board or tiles and has 3 ways to play; Classic, Forfeit and Rummy. It can be played in the classic way that we all know and love by building words to score points, but it also can also be played with some rule changes to play in Forfeit or Rummy versions.
The three ways to play are:
Classic: make the best words you can from the cards in your hand and get high scores with Double and Triple Word Cards.
Forfeit: with new action cards you can choose to increase your score – or take points away from another player.
Rummy: race to match a different target in each of ten rounds – but be quick or miss out on the points!
With Scrabble being such a well-known and popular game, most of us will have already played the classic board game version and understand the concept. The idea is to build words on the board to earn as many points as you can, trying to use double and triple letter/word squares. It is not a difficult game to understand or play, finding good quality, high-scoring words is much harder. Scrabble Cards has the same concept except that there is no board to play on, no double and triple letter/word squares to land on and some words get removed from play after a turn. As the name suggests, Scrabble Cards is played with cards rather than the tiles we are all familiar with. There are the same number of letter cards as there are tiles in the board game version and the cards all have the same points value as the traditional board game.
With Scrabble Cards you can play anywhere, so it is a really good travel version of the popular game. No board, no tiles to lose and so easy to just throw in your bag. Scrabble Cards has three ways to play but the Classic game play is still pretty much played the same with cards as its original tiled version.
Each player receives 7 cards, these will be a mix of letter cards and premium cards (the premium cards allow players to use a card if they have it for a double or triple word score). Players then take it in turns to play a new word or expand a word that has already been played. Players can exchange cards or miss a turn just as you would in the board game and get an extra 50 points if all 7 cards are used. With the classic board game version, all words played are laid out in a grid pattern for everyone to see and make use of, but in Scrabble Cards that is more difficult as the cards are a lot bigger than tiles making the playing area too large, so there are some changes. Once a word has been played and scored, only the words which have been created or modified on that turn are be left on the table. Any words from previous turns are removed and placed in the discard pile. The instructions explain it in detail with examples of how this works. It may take a couple of reads through the instructions to fully grasp the concept, but it isn’t that complicated and works well. When all cards from the draw pile have been used and players can no longer make any more words, the scores are added up and the player with the highest score wins.
If you want to play a slightly different version of the game, you can play Forfeit or Rummy.
When playing the Forfeit version, this adds in the Action cards (these are easy to distinguish from the other cards as they have an exclamation mark on the back of the card). You play this in the same way as in the classic game but now each player has an Action card which when played can increase their own score or take points from another player – so you might have an Action card that says 5 letter word or contains “H”, if you play that card when you lay a five letter word or a word with the letter “H” in it you get the + value of that category added to your score, alternatively if another player lays a 5 five letter word or one with “H” in it, you can play the card and they lose the negative value on the card from their score. It makes it a slightly more interesting variation of the game.
And then there is the Rummy version. If playing the Rummy version, the Rummy Round cards are brought into play. Whilst playing the classic version you turn over the top Rummy card and players must complete the task on the card to score the points for that round. Play lasts for 10 rounds and the player with the highest score wins.
Overall, we have loved Scrabble Cards. It is perfect for playing anywhere as the size of the box is the size of two decks of cards, so easily fits in your bag. Gameplay is pretty much the same as playing the board game version except that you remove cards that have previously been played and don’t have all the words on display, but once you get used to that you don’t really notice the difference. Plus, there are also two bonus games to expand on the word building fun.
In Scrabble Cards, the cards are the size of a standard playing card and feel good quality. Our only slight issue with the game was with the box, its fine when being stored in a cupboard, drawer or on a shelf but if you throw it in a bag to take on your travels the lid could easily pop off leaving cards all over the place. We placed an elastic band around the box to stop this, but we feel that the box could be improved by featuring a more secure lid (maybe a hinged lid with a magnetic closing or a popper fastener). Other than that, it is the perfect travel game.
We think that Scrabble Cards is lots of fun and great for helping kids with vocabulary and spelling. It has the same word building fun as the classic board game but can be played and enjoyed anywhere. With it now being summer (apparently) it is great for playing in the garden, the park or even for taking away for a family staycation or holiday abroad and is perfect for family game nights.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £12.99
For more information, visit www.johnadams.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
