The front of the box is a lovely bright red colour that features some fun graphics including a cheeky monkey, a cute blue rabbit and some vibrant colourful stars. It is really eye-catching and also shows you some of the game pieces. The top right hand corner identifies the game as being suitable for children aged 4+ and that it can be played with 2-4 players.
The rear of the box provides you with a brief overview of the game, which gives you a good idea of how it is played. There are also some images of the actual contents that are included, along with a list. The box contains:
- 40 Tiles (1 to 10 in 4 different colours)
- 4 Joker Tiles
- Star Counters
- 4 Tile Racks
- 1 Instruction manual
We carefully removed all the items from the box and began to set up the game. The instructions were relatively straight forward and it was very simple to get everything into place. Once we were ready to play, I read out the instructions to the rest of the family and although a couple of my children didn't quite get it intially, this all fell into place once we began to play and in just a few minutes it all made sense.
The aim of the game is to collect as many stars as possible by creating Runs of numbers or adding to them. A Run has to comprise of at least 3 tiles and these tiles must also be in consecutive number order. In addition, all numbers in the run must be the same colour.
To begin, we each selected a playing rack and 6 stars, before turning all the tiles over on the table face down to create a tile pool. I then told each player to select 6 tiles at random and we each placed them on our tile rack, whilst ensuring that our opponents could not see which tiles we had selected.
The oldest player then starts off the game play by trying to lay down a run. If they are unable to go, then they must pay the bank one star and pick up a tile from the pool. The person to the left then takes their turn. Once a player is able to lay down a run, then the next person has the choice to add another tile or tiles to the run laid out, or alternatively they can start a new run of a different colour.
To help you to earn stars there are a series of rewards and for every tile that you manage to lay down, you can claim one star. If you manage to lay a run then you can also claim another star and on the last tile played which clears a player's rack, then this also entitles you to a further bonus star.
For example if I was to lay down a new run consisting of the numbers 3, 4, 5, then I would score 4 stars. It is very simple to pick up once in play and as soon as we had finished our first round, my children immediately requested to play again.
There are also 4 Joker tiles that can be drawn and these are very useful and valuable tiles, due to the fact that they can be used as any colour or numbered tile in a run. You can also use two or more jokers in the same run which can make the game quite exciting.
The game is complete once a player manages to successfully lay down all of their tiles from the rack. The remaining players must then each pay the bank one star, for each tile that they have remaining. The winner is the player with the most stars, but in the event of a tie, then the winner can be determined by who managed to put down all of their tiles first.
Overall my family and I really enjoyed this game. Whilst I initially thought it would be most ideal for my youngest son Riley, it ended up being something that we could all enjoy and it has been a great addition to our family collection. Everyone picked up the idea of the game very quickly which meant that no one got frustrated trying to understand how to play. I particularly liked the fact that it was helping my youngest son with his numeracy skills, as well as encouraging him to use logical thinking. With an RRP of £22.99, I think that this is great value for money and I would definitely recommend Junior Rummikub to others.
Junior Rummikub can be purchased from toy retailers including Amazon.
If you would like to find out more about Junior Rummikub or other products available from Ideal Games, then you can visit their social media pages on the following channels:
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