Bananagrams vs. Scrabble Apple: Fruit Fight!

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2 Responses

  1. Aha, so Scrabble Apple is Snatch.

    My favourite Bananagrams variation is to ban two-letter words. They’re dubious and cheaty, and you feel much more satisfied assembling a grid of proper words of 3 or more letters.

    • Snatch indeed. When I first wrote this article, I hadn’t the pleasure of meeting that game. Since then I’ve noticed the similarity. The original article’s comments at Guilt Free Games mentions this, and, because someone else mentioned Appleletters, I went on to explain what that and Pairs of Pears is like. This article seems to be missing that good addendum, so I’ll addit here.

      1.) In Appleletters, players take tiles that are fat and stand up on their side so only you can see them. Each player takes turns making words and attaching them to the beggining or end of the last word, making a snake-chain of words.
      2.) Pair of Pears sucks. I don’t know what they were thinking. It looks ugly and plays dumb, and this comment comes from a very lenient writer. I’d explain how you play, but I fear I’d have to find someone to slap if I continued on that vein.

      Someone then tried to defend Pears of Pairs as being a ‘children’s game’, which I had to respond to:

      I know Pairs is made for a younger group, but that doesn’t excuse shoddy design. If the game is too complicated for 3 year-olds to play without adults, and too aggravating for adults to enjoy, then I consider it a failure. I’ve played a number of “Children’s Games” with adults. Good Kids games, like ‘Ring-o Flamingo’ and ‘Thing-a-ma-bots’ should be able to hold your attention and look entertaining to play. The tiles in Pairs are ugly, and the game asks players to spell the same words over and over again… sometimes with no possible way to win. I can’t endorse that product.

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