I LOVE word games. L-O-V-E them. I’m so excited that my oldest is wanting to play them with me. She’s tried Words with Friends a few times- she does pretty well, in my (completely biased) opinion!! My mom had given us Bananagrams®a few years ago, and we’ve played variations on that game ever since. Since that time, Banangrams has extended their family of games and sent us each of them for review, including Bananagrams, Appletters®, PAIRSinPEARS®, ZIP- IT® and Fruitominoes®.
There are summaries of each game below- we’ve played Fruitominoes the most so I’m going to share our photos from that. This game has been fun for all 5 of us in my house- from my 2.5 year old all the way to me, the oldest in the house!! For my little one, she helps to match the fruits and count how many are on each tile. For the kids, they are getting really into dominoes of any variety and the fruits kind of level the playing field, because my son doesn’t always recognize letters or numbers as fast as his big sister or the adults.
Games like this are also wonderful for folks in our lives like my father who are suffering with memory illness like Primary Progressive Aphasia and Alzheimers- for a long time, they can still recognize things like fruits and shapes even if they can’t recognize the numbers or letters on a tile. So – Fruitominoes is a game I have been bringing and will continue bringing when we spend Monday mornings with my dad. Maybe he’ll be into playing it, and maybe he won’t, but at this stage of the game, anything that can get us “connected” makes my heart happy and who knows, it could do wonders for his psyche if he’s finding he’s able to successfully play a game with us.
As with ALL of the games and products in the Banangrams family, the Fruitominoes come in a self-storing container made of strong, durable fabric and good quality zipper closures. The tiles are a solid material and don’t bend, chip nor flake their paint no matter how hard nor far they are thrown (don’t ask why I know this but I do).
The games are meant to be fun for all ages, and portable, and I genuinely believe that they ARE fun for all ages and suitable for play just about anywhere. They make for wonderful gifts or even just for no reason at all!! I definitely recommend having some if not ALL of these games from Banangrams in your game closet!! These games are great for travel, for home, schools, clubs, camps, and more!
The original Bananagrams game grew from a passionate love of games. As a family, we loved to play almost any word game that we could find, but they all had their flaws and we hankered after something a bit faster and more fluid.We wanted a game that was competitive, but that the family could play together – ALL ages at the same time. It had to be portable, so that we could take it with us on our travels, with no superfluous pieces or packaging, and simple enough that we could play while waiting in a restaurants or hanging around in an airport.
BANANAGRAMS
“The anagram game that will drive you bananas!”Bananagrams is the first in the bunch, the game that started it all. Players race against each other to build crossword grids and use all their letter tiles. There’s no turn-taking to be found here—it all happens at once and it’s a race to the finish.
APPLETTERS
“An apple a day for us all to play!”Appletters is a strategic game of lettered tiles, packed in an apple pouch. Originally designed with younger players in mind, Appletters features three levels of play to amuse children and challenge adults. Players take turns building a “snake” of words that stretches across the table. New words are added to the first or last letter of the “snake”, and the first player to use all their tiles wins. It’s an addictive, intense, and exhilarating game, but the fun doesn’t end there. You can use the same tiles to play Applescore, with bonus points for big words, and Apple Turnover, where words can be replaced— but only with longer words. One game, three levels of play.
PAIRS IN PEARS
“Fresh fun comes in pears!”PAIRSinPEARS, true to its name, is a fast-paced pair-making game, packed in a pear. Lettered tiles come in four distinct alphabet sets, and players race against each other to make connected pairs of words in matching patterns. It’s a great way for children to develop memory and cognitive skills while learning the alphabet, pattern recognition, word construction, vowels, vocabulary, rhyming and more. Deceptively simple and exceptionally fun, PAIRSinPEARS is perfect for family time and classroom activities.
ZIP-IT
“The twenty-second word race you can play anyplace!”ZIP-IT is an exhilarating, high-speed, two-player game played with 24 lettered cubes and colored scoring zippers that come built into the pouch. Each player takes 12 cubes and races against their opponent to build a word grid. One hand can be played in as little as 20 seconds, and everything you need is in the bag! Playable on an airplane or train tray, ZIP-IT is the ultimate travel game. Each pouch includes a WEORDS dictionary of weird words that win word games!
FRUITOMINOES
“Connect fruit…instead of dots!”A fresh, fruity, and colorful twist to the classic game of dominoes! Each player takes turns matching the six attractive fruit patterns. Twenty-eight Fruitominoes in a compact pouch make this a game that’s great for young and old.
About Brett
I think my Grand kids would really like the Fruitominoes.
The Fruitominoes would be so cool! http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
my daughter has been wanting the banana one
I have and love bananagrams, but I would also love to try the fruitominoes!
I have been wanting to get Bananagrams for a long time!! But Pairs in Pears looks like a fun game too.
This one looks interesting…http://www.bananagrams.com/our-games/zip-it/
I love these!
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
We would love to try http://bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/, my daughter and I enjoy games and especially word games, this looks fun and I have never heard of this game.
I think my girls would like Fruitominoes. Thank you.
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Pairs_In_Pears/
I like that the games are educational.
I have been wanting to get bananagrams for my kids – I think what I like best about it is that it makes learning fun!
Zip It looks fun http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Zip-It/
I think this is really cool: http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
I would love banana grams and the Pple one
I have Bananagrams and I play it with my son who is 4– we go slow and I help him, but he loves making words with the tiles. He wants all the other games, too!
Pairs in Pears looked fun : http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Pairs_In_Pears/
I had never heard of these games before. I love the fact that they come in pouches and not boxes that fall apart. I also love the portability of them…perfect to play in the car on a long trip!
I like them all, but I guess I would choose this one first… http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Bananagrams/
The Fruitominoes are super cute!!! I love them!
This looks fun for my daughter: http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/
I like this one! http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/
http://bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Bananagrams/ I have never played any of these games but after reading about them I would like to play Bananagrams because it looks fun and educational.I am a mom of 7 and we love games!
Pears in Pairs is my kind of game! lol
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/ My daughter has bananagrams and loves it!!
‘pairs in pears’ looks fun!
annae07 at aol dot com
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/
the appleletters game looks fun! i think my daughter would enjoy it
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/
appletters sounds like fun http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/
i thimk this one looks good http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Zip-It/
I love word games & I see they have 12 awards!
I think the Fruitominoes looks fun.
Fruitominoes – since dominoes is one of my all time favorite family game night games!
http://bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/ looks so fun!
My kids would love the Zip-its game http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Zip-It/
This is going to be a birthday gift if I win this!! We will have fun playing all of them!!
APPLETTERS looks fun too!
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/
I like pairs in pears
I like the Fruitmoninoes http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/ Our 4-yr-old is loving dominoes, right now. I can just imagine her delight with fruity dominoes!
I like the Fruitominoes game. They have sure won a lot of awards for their games. Hope I win!!
I think the Fruitominos would be fun for little ones.
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
All these games look fun, but after visiting their site, I think I would like Zip-it the best. http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Zip-It/
I like the Pear in pairs
I like the Appletters game. http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/
I am really excited to play Fruitominoes. I love regular dominoes so this would be so much fun to play with my family. http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
I like the Pears in pairs- http://bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Pairs_In_Pears/
I would love to play Fruitominoes with my kids because it gives a great spin on an classic game!
http://bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Fruitominoes/
BANANAGRAMS all the way!! I think because it would suit the both of my kids with there 8 year age gap between them.
http://www.bananagrams.com/Our_Games/Appletters/ I think the appletters would be fun!
I’ve played bananagrams before and it wa so much fun. I’d love to play appletters, too.