LogFAQs > #898213188

11. Bananagrams
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27225/bananagrams

Genre/mechanics: Word game, dexterity, racing
Rules complexity: 1/10
Game length: 5-15 minutes
Player count: 2-6
Experience: 50+ games with 1-8 players
First played: 2015

Bananagrams is a real-time game played with Scrabble-esque tiles. Each player is dealt a number of letter tiles and must form a connected, crossword-ish array using all of their letters. At that point, they announce "Peel" and everyone takes one or more face-down tiles from the center. The game is played until there are not enough face-down tiles left to peel, and then the first person done at that point is the winner.

Design - Bananagrams combines some of my favorite things about games - words, simultaneous play, and speed. Plus, it comes in a freaking banana pouch, the tiles rattle around very nicely, it has a punny name, and you get to say "Peel," "Dump," and of course, if you're the winner, "Bananas!" It's a delight.

Enjoyment - The very first game I played, getting into the hobby, was Bananagrams. (The games I played that day: Bananagrams, Seven Wonders, Blood Bound, Battlestar Galactica.) Many game nights, before my patience and intuition for eurogames developed, the three to five rounds of Bananagrams would actually be the highlight, enjoyment-wise. And that has happened many times - Bananagrams rarely hits the table only for one game (unless it's a solo speed run, which I most definitely have also done.)

One favorite Bananagrams memory, and an example of my pettiness - I'm still salty over the one time we were on a group vacation and decided to play a Bananagrams tournament, one-on-one. I was paired against the person who owned the game and had organized the trip. We're down to the final letters, and both kind of trying to figure out how to do this thing. Then her friend, observing, points out how she could do her puzzle, and she wins. I figure mine out a second later. My opponent goes on to win the tournament.

I mean, I'm over it, but I'm kinda not.

Future - I don't often feel compelled to play Bananagrams since I have it, and since it's surprisingly punishing to get run over if it's not your thing. You can have a slew of letters you haven't integrated, and then have no clue what to do with them. But I've also gone through Bananagrams withdrawal. I've only played my copy ten times or so - everyone in my group owns it - but this writeup has reminded me to start taking it around with me more.

Bonus question - Can you trace your hobby to a specific day? Do you remember that day? Is it the same as the first time you played a game, or do you think it's different when you 'go into games'?

Hint for #10 - a bloodsuckingly good dinner party
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness