Hasbro Scrabble Board Game Review

I always enjoyed Scrabble when I was a kid. I was a wordsmith back then as I am today. Give me some letters, I make words. Little words. Big words. Common words. Random words. Obscure words.

When we went on vacation this summer, we had everyone along from my Mom to the boys' Dad to my teens. There were board games at the rental cabin, so we relaxed in the evenings with some games. Scrabble was, by far, the most popular game.

For anyone - gasp - not familiar with Scrabble, it's kind of a crossword puzzle game. You get tile letters and then make words. The next player makes a word that crosses with your word kind of like domino tiles. Various letters and game board squares have point values.

My Mom, in her 60s, likes Scrabble. She grew up playing Scrabble. She's great with words. She liked Scrabble much better than Pictionary which rather befuddled her. She actually draws well but just didn't much like the rushed art.

My oldest son is academic while still being "cool." Playing with words is right up his alley. He enjoyed coming up with really random words. You can challenge in Scrabble. It didn't do any good with the green eyed kid. He knew his words.

My youngest is hands on. He really does not like books or writing. He likes to build and make things. I wasn't sure he'd enjoy Scrabble. It turned out that he rocked the game. His specialty was double words - or ones where he added a letter and made words two directions. The rest of us didn't see these opportunities. Brown eyed kid didn't plunk down a lot of big words, but he used his spatial skills to impress and to score high up and down or side to side or both. He also got out the dictionary at the cabin (gasp) and read up on some new words.

The big surprise for me was that my younger kid really loved Scrabble. In fact, he found a travel version that packs up and tucks right in the truck and bought it. This was all on his own. I didn't know until he showed me what he'd bought. I'm thrilled that he takes his 3-D view of the world and then builds his words now. I never really thought he'd get excited about words. He's a little man of few words. His buying Scrabble spoke volumes.

Scrabble is a word game. I knew my Mom enjoyed it. I figured my oldest would. I was thrilled that my younger son used his own strengths to make this his own game. He won several times - not with longer and more complex words but with strategy on the grid. Now he's gathering more words to enhance his play. I'm really thrilled about that.

Scrabble cuts across the generations and while I always thought of it as a game for wordy folks, it can also work for visual learners like my youngest. The rest of us saw letter tiles. He saw gaps in the overall puzzle.

I'd suggest Scrabble for anyone of any age. It might not be a hot game for everyone, but I've found that it works for my whole family clan. That's rare. We humor each other. We are, after all, family. Scrabble, though, was fun for all - and no grinning and bearing it.