Tumbling Towers...
Written: Sep 16 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to find, multi or single player, good teaching tool
Cons: noisey crashes, patience a must
The Bottom Line: This game would be better suited for the pre-teen to the teen set, but can be used for an educational tool.
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| rngpie's Full Review: Jenga |
Before Jenga hit the market, there once was a game called Tumbling Towers. By comparison, I can see no difference in the two games withthe exception being the name and the price. I believe that Tumbling Towers changed it's name to Jenga, added a more exciting advertisement lay out, and became a multi-millionaire marketing tool.
When we first brought the game to the annual Thanksgiving dinner, my father who is a wood working artist- took one look at the pieces and the bemoaned that he could have been a millionaire, had he known that building blocks could be aimed at the adult population and would be bought. Another bright idea down the drain!! (My father was always humerously bemoaning the loss of a simple idea).
Both Jenga and Tumbling Towers have about 100 pieces of identical cut wood. The object is to place the pieces in a tower by layering the wood and stacking upwards. That is the easy part.
Once the tower is built, each player takes a turn pulling one piece of wood from the tower, hoping that the tower remains intact. The player may pull one piece from anywhere within the tower's structure, if the tower does not fall, then the play advances onto the next person.
There are two variations with declaring the winner.
The first variation is that if the tower falls, then the person who caused that is out of the game. The tower is rebuilt and the game resumes until only one person remains who has not caused the tower to fall. Thus, being declared the winner.
The second variation is that the game is over when the tower falls and a new game is started, with all members playing with the tower being rebuilt.
At our house, we hate the word 'loser'- and the negativity that it implies so we play the second variation which keeps the game fun yet no one is really to blame when the tower falls.
I have found that by playing with Jenga/Tumbling Towers-it has improved the fine motor skills of both my children and myself as well. There is definetly no way you can pull a piece of wood from the tower with a shaky hand and expect the tower to remain intact.
I believe that Jenga/Tumbling Towers would be an excellent teaching tool in structual engineering and would be excellent in explaining why buildings sometimes fall when their structures are damaged.
Despite the learning opportunities, this is one game that does not get played much. The time wait between players can be lenghthy, as each player wants to choose the right block to pull. For two children aged 8 & 5, the wait is simply too long. Also, when the tower falls, it scatters pieces everywhere making cleanup messy. I have also found that for some strange reason, the pieces do not fit back into the box as easily as they came out.
I found this game at KMart and paid $10.00 for it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 10.00
Type of Toy: Game
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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rngpie
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