Read on to see why I think this game sucks major ass.
In a dimly lit room, two people sit naked. Both are masturbating. They stare off in the distance, gaining no pleasure from one another, but race toward the inevitable climax nonetheless. They pay no attention to one another; they do not feed off of each other's sexual energy. They moan softly as their muscles tense up and finally release. Wiping up their respective pleasure residues, they retreat to seperate rooms without saying goodnight.
If this sounds like a blast to you, I urge you to go and pick up the game Bananagrams. You've all seen it, I'm sure. You breezed through Barnes and Noble this holiday season, and passed by the clever marketing scheme. The game is packed within a zippered, nylon banana. The cute packaging belies the utter sham of a game packaged within. I found this to be a completely unenjoyable title for the simple fact that it does not encourage any kind of interplay whatsoever.
The game consists of a bunch of scrabble-like tiles chosen at random by players. The players then are asked to make their own scrabble-like crosswords in front of them. The crossword is your own. You have no chance to play off of your opponent's tiles. The only thing that is mutual is the pool of letters from which you draw. My question is this: Why the hell make a two-or-more player game if the players don't give two shits about what the other players are doing? Take other hit word games. The aspect that makes them fun revolves around players participating with other players. For example. Scrabble: One of the best word games because it is fun to hear your 70 year-old grandmother curse at you when you place your letters where she wanted to place hers. Boggle: Sure, you're doing your own thing, but the set of letters is the same so no one can bitch that they didn't have any good letters; I played with the same letters you did, asshat. You can't tell me that I got lucky. Taboo: Okay this one is a stretch, but it is a word game that involves lots of player communication and fun.
Throughout my little Bananagrams review, I have focused on one of the things that makes board games great. Player communication. If players have a chance to compete and/or have fun with one another, it generally makes for a successful board game. If you wanted to do something by yourself, you wouldn't be playing a two player game. My advice to you: Instead of buying Bananagrams, take the fifteen dollars you would have paid to your nearest tavern. Buy a beer with the ten dollar bill and ask the bartender for some singles. Pump a few bucks into the Touchmaster and play all the single-player word games you want. Hell, you may even have cash left over for another beverage!
A note on my rating system: I am using a very simple rating system of good, blah, or bad. Read my review to see how I further stratify within these ratings; you should be able to tell if I'm merely stoked about a game, or if I'm pee-and-poop-myself excited about it.
The ratings are as follows:
Good: Solid. Copacetic. Boss. Shibby.
Meh: I could be playing this game. I could be taking a dump. I'm pretty indifferent.
Fail: Throw your money on the ground and burn it; if you bought this game, that's just what you did.
