Mattel Scrabble Original

I am a huge fan of Scrabble and enjoy playing it with my friends. It is a classic game which has been in our family for many years.

There are a few variations on this game that you can get such as a junior version which is a great idea to get children interested in words.

This game is played on a board. The board has tiles drawn on it, some are blank but others are the special squares which give you extra points.

The aim of the game is to get as many points as you can by making the most of the letters you have and the tiles available on the board.

Each member has seven letters which are on little plastic tiles. Each letter is worth a certain value for example E and S are worth 1 point whereas Z is worth 10.

The person who goes first has to place their word through the middle square and automatically gets double the points. The following turns then have to be placed on the board so that they are going through/next to the words already on the board. You cannot just put a new word down away from the others, they all have to follow on. Sometimes words that you place down can end up making several words if you link it to the tiles that are already on the board, this is a great way to earn more points.

When putting tiles down it's always a good idea to see if you can make use of the special tiles on the board, these say things such as 'double word score' or 'triple letter score'. Also whilst you are putting letters down it is worth checking whether where you are putting them are opening up the special squares for your opponent.

After each turn the member replaces their tiles used by choosing some more from the bag. The bag has all the tiles remaining in and you are to take them without looking. The tiles that players have sit on little shelves which is a good way to display them so you can see what you have and people sitting around you cannot see them.

One thing which you have to be careful of is not to knock the board! There is nothing more frustrating than moving the tiles by mistake so you can't remember where they all went and your game may end prematurely!

You can buy a scrabble dictionary that goes with this so you can look up words to see if they're valid or you can just use an ordinary dictionary.

I enjoy this game because i think it is a great way to get you thinking. Anyone can play it as you just think up words and it's a great way to make you learn too, I have really improved over the years after playing this more regularly. It's made me learn lots of new words and to think ahead when putting my own tiles down.

I thoroughly recommend this game. It's up to four players although we have played in teams before when there are more than 4 of us.