My sister, Judy - apparently a Scrabble Turbo Slam Guru

My sister, Judy - apparently a Scrabble Turbo Slam Guru

I like Scrabble, but it’s one of those games that the amount of enjoyment depends a lot on who you play it with. If it’s played with someone willing to get silly and post crazy words that illicit a giggle, then it’s a ton of fun. Play with a wordsmith who takes their skill in building obtuse words I’ve never heard of that make use of the high-value and hard-to-play letters and well; it sucks all the fun out of it for me.

I’m very non-competitive and I play games for the fun of being together, laughing together, and just sharing time being together.   And perhaps that’s why I love the new Hasbro Scrabble Turbo Slam! game.  It shares very little with the traditional Scrabble game – there’s no cute little wooden playing pieces, no board, and no wooden trays.  In fact, it’s so far from being Scrabble it’s a bit misleading

But what it is, is a fun game for ages 8+ that is fast paced, allows you to race against the other players to get your words down first, and leads to fun jostling and jabbing as you make a play.  And for me the fact that the winner is the first person to play all of her cards is perfect.  No long-term game playing, no score keeping, just quick-paced fun.

Hasbro Scrabble Turbo Slam Game - ages 8+

Double-sided cards make for more fun in the Hasbro Scrabble Turbo Slam Game - ages 8+

But what I liked about Scrabble Turbo Slam!, my game playing partners didn’t.  They wanted it to be more complicated, for scoring to be kept, for tougher letters to play to be worth more.  Frankly, everything I hate about a game.  The one thing we all agreed on is the Turbo Slam unit needs volume control – it’s too loud! And we all appreciated the compact design that holds everything you need for the game – this will be great game when travelling!

My lovely sister won every single round we played and we played 6-8.  I lost track in the giggles and trash talking, and that’s why I loved it.  We can sit down and play a few rounds without committing too much time and then can walk away and come back to it sometime later.  We also realized that we could make it harder by doing a 5 or 6 character word and will next time.  For the younger crowd a 3 or 4 would be perfect.

So do we recommend it?  Three out of four of us loved it and continued to play.  The fourth was done after 2-3 rounds.  Personally it’s a game I’ll be purchasing since we awarded my sister the unit we were trying out since she clearly is the Scrabble Turbo Slam! master.

Hasbro Scrabble Turbo Slam! Details:

  • Includes electronic Turbo Slam unit with storage tray, 55 letter cards, 12 action cards and rules.
  • Requires 3 “AAA” batteries (not included).
  • For 2 to 4 players.
  • Ages 8 and up.

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