I have a need, a need for S-P-E-E-D!

Following from the earlier guest posts by Pamela Tan of MyFirstGames, I tried my hands at a couple of games with Dumpling!

Dumpling has played simple games like Zingo and some basic board games and has enjoyed them so far. After chatting with Pamela, one of the games she suggested was Spot it!.

Spot it! is a game that is built for speed. The recommended age is actually from 7 years old but when I opened it, I found it to be pictorial based and the game, simple enough even for preschoolers.

Fast eyes coupled with fast hands - there is always one and only one matching symbol between ANY 2 CARDS in this game. So, Spot it! and the player wins.

For such a simple game, I thought that there was perhaps only 1 - 2 ways to play it. So, it was a pleasant surprise when Pamela shared a few ways of playing this (as elaborated below).

The simplest game (Game #1 - The Tower) is of course to distribute a card to each player (max. of 8 players) to start off and the remaining cards are placed in the centre. Each player has a turn to flip over a card from the centre deck and the player that is the quickest at spotting the same symbol "wins" that card and adds it to his/her collection. So, the winner would be the player that collects the most cards.

For older children, one can reverse the strategy. Instead of "collecting" to win, the players can spot the symbol in the centre deck against the other player(s) deck to "add on" to his opponents' pile of cards (Game #4 - The Poisoned Gift). In this way, the objective of the game is to have as few cards as possible.

And so, some of these card and board games became part of our family time where we got the gramps involved too. :)

Family time: Grandma showing and explaining the "rules of engagement" to Dumpling :p

Here Dumpling did a trial run of the game as she was unconvinced that there is a common symbol between any 2 cards. LOL

Errrrmmm... where is the common symbol?!? AHA! I found it!

The game was simple and the use of symbols made it easy for any kids to catch on. What would be useful when you play it is to go through the symbols together to come up with and agree on a common name. An instance of this is where the gramps would call a particular symbol "bull's eye" while I call it "target". 

On the whole, we enjoyed the game tremendously. The game was fast and it added a lot of "squealing moments of delight" to our family time in the evenings. The game also trains the little one to pay attention to details and she also developed her own way of looking for the similarities between cards. The game is also very compact as the cards are nicely tucked away in a small circular metal tin. This makes it very presentable as a gift too.

Retailing at an attractive price of $24.90, this popular game is currently out of stock (no surprise there!). However, Pamela Tan is taking pre-orders so do email her to reserve yours!

Best of all, from now till 31 July, readers who quote "SMB-BEANIENUS" will receive a 10% off your purchases (not applicable on delivery and shipping). So take the chance to stock up on some early X'mas shopping! :)

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated to MyFirstGames or have been compensated to write about this review. I also do not get any renumeration from any sale that MyFirstGames may have from this review. The games were loaned to us and all opinions are based on our experiences and 100% my own.