I fucking love Scrabble. It's a game that I do well at AND enjoy. It's like my Holy Grail of competitive, intelligent board games. So when I found out that there was a Scrabble card game, for on the go and quick Scrabble action, I just about shit my pants. I was so very excited to get it and play that I bought it based solely on the fact that it says Scrabble on the front without investigating it much further. Unfortunately my excitement turned to bitter resentment that has kept Scrabble Slam to one lifetime game. This is literally the second time that I've opened this box to the hellish mockery lurking underneath.
The box itself is pretty cool: red an black with some nice gradient effects that catch your eye.
The cards are also decent, but the visual stuff isn't what breaks the game, it's the actual gameplay. One player comes up with a four letter word that becomes the base word. The rest of the deck is then handed out to the rest of the players. The guide then says to say, "Ready, Set, Slam!" to begin play, but I find that you can play even without saying that. Lying bastards! Play proceeds in that each player can just yell out the word that they are changing the base word to and play one side of one of their cards down on the base word. The winner is that player that finishes up their hand of cards first. There are no rules besides acceptable, disputed, and repeated words...What the hell kind of game is that?! You just yell out a four letter word, there are plenty that I can come up with I assure you, and play one card on top of the other? There aren't turns or rounds or anything resembling an actual game, it's just chaos. Chaos dotted by immaturity. Whether we like it or not, everyone is thinking the same thing when playing this game, "I can spell damn and shit, but are those 'accepted' words?" Let me tell you, if you're talking about how damn shitty I think this game is, then yes, they're highly acceptable.
All in all, I guess this isn't a terrible game to being with, but when they slammed the name Scrabble on it, Parker Brothers and Hasbro gave it expectations that it couldn't live up to. Why name a game after another game that it has nothing to do with? That's just poor marketing. If you're wanting to play some quick Scrabble action either on the go or at home, my advice is to get it for your phone or iDevice. Avoid this thing like the plague that it is.
The box itself is pretty cool: red an black with some nice gradient effects that catch your eye.
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| Looks enticing, right? |
The cards are also decent, but the visual stuff isn't what breaks the game, it's the actual gameplay. One player comes up with a four letter word that becomes the base word. The rest of the deck is then handed out to the rest of the players. The guide then says to say, "Ready, Set, Slam!" to begin play, but I find that you can play even without saying that. Lying bastards! Play proceeds in that each player can just yell out the word that they are changing the base word to and play one side of one of their cards down on the base word. The winner is that player that finishes up their hand of cards first. There are no rules besides acceptable, disputed, and repeated words...What the hell kind of game is that?! You just yell out a four letter word, there are plenty that I can come up with I assure you, and play one card on top of the other? There aren't turns or rounds or anything resembling an actual game, it's just chaos. Chaos dotted by immaturity. Whether we like it or not, everyone is thinking the same thing when playing this game, "I can spell damn and shit, but are those 'accepted' words?" Let me tell you, if you're talking about how damn shitty I think this game is, then yes, they're highly acceptable.
All in all, I guess this isn't a terrible game to being with, but when they slammed the name Scrabble on it, Parker Brothers and Hasbro gave it expectations that it couldn't live up to. Why name a game after another game that it has nothing to do with? That's just poor marketing. If you're wanting to play some quick Scrabble action either on the go or at home, my advice is to get it for your phone or iDevice. Avoid this thing like the plague that it is.
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