Everyone knows Scrabble (didn’t even ask me to spell check it) so no need for an introduction. But Bananagrams is a game incredibly similar yet fires the neurons in a completely different way. A great comparison can be drawn between Chess and Go, one analytic and one conceptual.
In Bananagrams each player only manipulates his own pieces and he is allowed to rearrange them however he likes. This is a speed game so pressure is applied as he is competing with other players directly. Success doesn’t depend on score but the first player to get his letters down.
Word games are in no way my area of expertise, but Scrabble draws a devout crowd. So Scrabbleheads, what say you of this new cock of the walk?
I have played both and prefer Quiddler by Set Enterprises. Montage by Gryphon Games is good too, but it calls for partnerships so you’ll need four players.
I played it once. It was fun while it lasted. Which wasn’t long for me, since I was playing against 3 librarians, one of whom is also a writer, and English is not my native language. I didn’t stand a chance.
I strongly dislike Bananagrams. I guess my primary issue with it is that all that matters is who actually goes out “at the end”. So we play for 5 minutes, the whole time I have a beautifully constructed little grid, I’m easily adding all my letters on, and then at the last moment I pick up C and V, have to reshuffle everything else, and someone else suddenly goes out. Well, THAT was satisfying. You might even argue that there’s no point in even PLAYING until late in the game, instead you want to start organizing your letters into prefixes or suffixes or something, make some stable words using your trickiest letters, and then only start actually gridding up at the very end.
Also, being a serious enough Scrabble player to really know your 2-letter words really makes it less fun, because so often you can just take whatever letters you just opened up and add them onto your grid as 2-letter-words, particularly given that you can play up and left not just down and right. Oh, I picked up an A and a T? Well, look, there’s a D hanging off so I can spell “DA” which is “AD” backwards, and a G hanging off so I can spell “AG”, etc.
In other words, putting those two factors together, I think it’s one of those games like Cranium that is less fun the more hardcore a game player you are. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
(Not to mention, of course, that it’s totally noninteractive in all ways…)
I wouldn’t say it’s incredibly similar except in the mechanics. (Assuming this is the same game as “Take Two” or “Speed Scrabble” as I know it, which it appears to be). MaxTheVool gives a good explanation of why it’s so different. Though I’d judge it on its strengths instead. It’s a good family game, at least with kids old enough to play moderately well but young enough to still join in. It’s even easier to learn than Scrabble, but still challenging. I would say the lack of game-enforced interaction is a bit of a downside. It can be bothersome to have a great set-up but not really be able to talk about it with neighbors if someone else progresses the game for you.
It’s not a good game to play seriously, but it’s a fun casual game.