Jenga stacking game

by Amanda Nettgen

(USA)

Game:
Jenga: the stacking game
Board game manufacturer:
Milton Bradley/Hasbro
Number of players:
1 or more
Ages:
8+

Quick verdict

Jenga is the simple yet classic block-stacking game involving skill and steady hands. Like in life, it’s all about maintaining a balance when it comes to Jenga.

The game and gameplay

It certainly isn’t fun to set up an eighteen block high tower every time you play. Whoever volunteers to do this beginning chore gets to go first upon assembly.

Fifty-four wooden rectangle pieces criss-cross by groups of three, and the aim of the game is to continue to build the tower in that same way higher and higher. You do this by selecting a block anywhere below the top row to dislodge and add to the summit.

It’s not like in chess, where once you touch a piece you are required to move it, but you do have to do all the transferring one-handed.

Once the block has been replaced on the tower, a player has ten seconds to be held accountable should the stack collapse, unless the next person has already begun their turn. As the tower climbs in size, you can opt to make your opponents nervous by chanting “Jenga! Jenga” during their move.It is the player who went just before the person who ultimately destroys the tower who wins (or you could just say whoever knocks the stack over loses). In any event, if you wish to play again, it’s the loser’s duty to reset the stack.

Pros and cons

Jenga is one of those games you should definitely play at some point in your life. Your towers could make for some pretty awesome pictures, and it’s fun to try and beat your group’s record (or your own if playing solo) of how high you got the tower.

Whether it’s a game you should run out and buy just to have around is another story. The concept grows stale very quickly if you over-use it, but at least the blocks double as substitute Lincoln Logs for your children.

The verdict

Jenga the stacking game will temporarily interest those looking for a skill-based party game, encourage aspiring architects and thrill any little kid who gets a kick out of things going BOOM. With fifty-four blocks in the set, it’s okay to lose a piece or two (or all of them if you donate it to your log pile when you’re done playing with it).