His Treasure Seekers

“Daddy, will you play a game with me?”  It’s Elijah’s nightly request.  So when we were given the opportunity to review two games from USAopoly, he was probably the most excited out of all of our game-loving family.  Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone and Wonky:The Crazy Cubes Card Game are welcome additions to our growing collection of games we can enjoy together.

Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone

Tapple is exercise for the brain!  The object is to think of words in a given category that begin with each of the letters on the game board.  Each player has ten seconds (the timer is part of the game board and requires two AA batteries) to think of a word that starts with a letter that has not been used yet, then push down that letter and hit the timer to start the next person’s turn.  If you can’t think of something in that category before the timer goes off, you’re out.  The categories (with two levels of difficulty) are listed on cards that fit neatly into the bottom of the game board when the game’s not being played.

Tapple Details

• Ages 8+ (our older boys, 5 and 7, also enjoyed playing)
• 2-8 players
• 10-20 minutes to play (or as long as you want to keep going!)

Our Tapple Experience

My boys both loved Tapple so much they wanted to take it to a family party, where we taught our cousins, Grandma, and Auntie how to play.  It was a great way to bring all ages together for some fun rather than everyone going off on their own.

The box says no spelling required, and for the most part that’s true.  We had a few incidents where one of the kids tried to use words for the wrong letters (like pressing down the “s” key for “celery”), but other than that the only real limitation is vocabulary.  That’s where my boys tended to get tripped up and the “ages 8+” guideline makes sense.  We all enjoyed the game so much, however, that we just modified the rules a bit when playing with only them.

Wonky: The Crazy Cubes Card Game

Wonky is a fun building game that might drive a perfectionist crazy.  It consists of nine wooden cubes (each with three flat sides and three slightly curved sides) and a set of 54 “strategy cards” that instruct you as to which block to try to stack next.  If the tower falls on your turn, you have to draw three more cards.  Players win by being the first one to use all their cards (or successfully stacking the ninth block).

Wonky Details

• Ages 8+
• 2+ players

Our Wonky Experience

Again, even though my boys were below the suggested age level, they both enjoyed Wonky and requested it multiple times.  They had a little trouble stacking the blocks, but since that’s the whole point of the game it didn’t really bother them.  I was probably the most frustrated player.  My goal wasn’t so much to win as to build the tower, so I could only take the game for so long as time after time the boys knocked it down and stacked blocks so it would fall for the next person (which is actually a good way to win).  Eventually I just got the game out on my own one time to try building the tower (which I never managed to do)!  No one else seemed to struggle with that aspect, however, so this perfectionistic mama decided to just let this be a game for the rest of the family.

About USAopoly

USAopoly has been creating popular board games since 1994, including both original games and special editions of classic board games.  If your family likes games as much as ours, be sure to visit the USAopoly website to check out more of what they have to offer.  And if you want to know what other Crew families thought of Tapple and Wonky, click the banner below to read more reviews!