Fun Games and Puzzles from Spin Master Review
We’re facing extraordinary times right now and many of us are now tasked with finding new ways to keep our families happy and entertained whilst practicing social distancing at home. Games and Puzzles, traditionally come out at Christmas time, when families are usually together at home, but given the fact that we’re all facing enforced family time right now. I thought this is the perfect time to get out all our jigsaw puzzles and favourite games.
This week’s games and puzzles are brought to you from Spin Master who have a fantastic range of puzzles and games to suit the whole family. We’ve been playing with a few of them so we can show you what’s hot and what’s not. Our four games and puzzles include;
HedBanz, Otrio, Jumanji Classic Retro 90’s Board Game and Baby Shark Let’s Go Hunt.
HedBanz – SRP: from £13.99 and suitable for children aged 7+
HedBanz is the classic ‘What am I?’ game. Each player is given three scoring badges, and a card to stick on their headbands without looking. On your turn, flip the timer and ask “yes” or “no” questions to find out what you are. Are you an animal, food or object. Guess correctly and you get to stick a scoring badge onto your headband, then pick a new card and continue asking questions. If you guess incorrectly, you lose your turn. The first player to earn three scoring badges wins. Hedbanz is fun for kids, parents and grandparents and is perfect for family game night. Through playing this game, kids will develop deductive reasoning and problem solving skills in a fun and thrilling way. We loved this game so much.
It’s really easy to play and there’s no setting up required. You simply stick a headband on your head, grab a card and get going. Although this game is recommended for children aged 7 years and over, it could easily be played by children a bit younger we think. It’s a nice simple game that everyone can join in and play. This was one of our favourite games.
Otrio – SRP: £19.99 and suitable for children aged 6+
Otrio is a head to head strategy game, it’s a real brain busted style puzzle. To win, you need to get three pieces of your colour in a row based upon similar size. They can be lined up in ascending or descending order, or within the same space as three concentric pieces. The rules are simple but the game is complex. Otrio is a unique game that is engaging, challenging and beautifully built to let you show off your smarts in a brainy showdown.
This game took a little getting used to but once we’d mastered it, it was lots of fun. Lily seemed to have mastered this game much quicker than her younger brother Ryan who found it a bit trickier, meaning he lost every game and Lily won which didn’t end well – oops.
It’s a bit like another game we used to play where you have to line up 4 in a row but much more complex as there’s different sized pieces involved in this game so you’ll need to think a bit harder on this one. We love a good challenge though so this puzzle went down a treat.
Jumanji Classic Retro 90’s Board Game – SRP: £19.99 and suitable for children aged 5+
Stalking lions, charging rhinos, snapping crocodiles and other dangerous creatures all await you in the wild world of Jumanji. With this board game, they’re only a die roll away. Grab your pawn, roll the eight sided number die and move through the jungle. Draw a danger card, then use your decoder to discover the secret message and see if disaster strikes. Your fellow players must race against time to rescue you. The jungle threatens and begins to fill up the Doomsday Grid. If the grid fills up, the jungle will overpower you and your fellow players meaning everyone loses. If you are the first to reach the centre before the Doomsday Grid fills up, yell “Jumanji” and you’ll win. t’s just like the movie, only more fun.
This game is a little more complicated than the others but once it’s all set up, and you get going, you’ll get used to it quite quickly. Both Lily and Ryan really liked this game as they could both play it fairly, without one of them having a game advantage over the other. If you’re children are anything like mine, the smallest thing in a game can set them off into a spiral of arguments over who cheated, or who didn’t play right, and so on. This game didn’t cause any of that behaviour luckily. We managed to play a nice calm, fun game or two.
Baby Shark Let’s Go Hunt Fishing Game – RRP £9.99 and suitable for children 4 years +
The Baby Shark Fishing Game brings musical fun to a classic board game. See how many fish you can reel in with your Baby Shark themed fishing rod. The player who catches the most fish wins. You can play as Mummy Shark, Daddy Shark, Grandma Shark or Baby Shark. This colourful board game plays the iconic Baby Shark song while the board spins.
It’s designed for 2 to 4 players to play at any one time and is just right for getting little ones to work on those fine motor skills. Why not teach your child to count the fish to see who’s won, and help them name the colours for more learning fun. This games aimed at young children but that didn’t stop my two from loving this game. They thought it was fantastic.
Lily may be 13 years old but she absolutely loves listening to the Baby Shark song. I’m not sure if it’s because she genuinely likes the song or if she loves it because it annoys me so much. Either way, she loved playing this game with the song playing nice and loud for all to hear, over and over again for hours each day. You’ll either love it or hate it, but either way, it’s a nice simple game that brings lots of fun and enjoyment to the children in your life.
All of these games and puzzles are available online from Amazon and other toy retailers.
Thanks to Spin Master, our time at home has been made much more enjoyable than it could have been. We’ve really enjoyed playing our games and puzzles together, it’s been a real treat. Every now and then, we all need to step away from the TV and have a little family fun.
Disclosure: We received our Spin Master games in return for an honest review.
