Name That! Game

Name That! is a brilliant travel game – we took it along on our adventure driving holiday to Latvia (and back) and it was played most evenings by both children AND us adults. It’s really good fun – and unlike a lot of games, the rules are simple so you can just ‘get on with playing’ 🙂

Visually, the game is a set of 50 round cards in a sturdy metal tin. On the underside of the cards is a large letter of the alphabet and around the edge is a category. To play is very simple:

*   Assign a dealer, who should give the cards a really good shuffle and place the whole stack face up on the table

*   The dealer reads out the category from the top card (for example, ‘Kind of Make-Up’).

*   They then take the top card away to reveal the letter on the card underneath (for example, ‘S’).

*   The first player who can name a kind of make-up beginning with the letter S wins the top card.

*   The dealer then reads out the next category (for example, ‘Breakfast Item’).

*   They then take the card away to reveal the letter underneath (for example, ‘F’).

*   The players then have to quickly shout out a Breakfast Item beginning with F.

*   This carries on until all the cards have gone. The winner is the player with most cards.

What I liked most about Name That! is that my 10 year old daughter met her match in my 7 year old son – who normally loses games because of the added knowledge/maturity of his older sister. Once he realised he could win the game, it did get very competitive! But it also really boosted his confidence, and as a boy who has struggled to master reading this is a big thing for him.

The game often got played in the car – we did spend a lot of time on the road (only 3,900 miles covered in 3 weeks!) So I can honestly say that the game was played in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, on an overnight ferry to Lithuania, in Latvia (many times), and Poland … it’s a very well-travelled tin! Because the tin is so sturdy, the game looks as new as it did the day we first opened it.

It’s a great game – it’s multi-generational in that everyone who plays stands an equal chance of winning. And the tin is lightweight, and with a diameter of less than 10cm, it’s a great travel game. It does get a bit loud though, so probably best not to get it out at the library!