World Series STARE OFF Official Game takes staring competitions to the next level with two headbands and poles for an official game along with a blocking screen, red card, distraction cards and a rule sheet. It’s great fun for all the family and for all ages – anyone can join in and it’s great that young can fairly compete against those older than them.
The essential parts of a the game include a three piece pole and two head pieces that attach to each end. The pole can be shortened by removing a section of the pole and you do this as you move through the rounds.
You randomly draw names to choose the first two players to have a match and pick someone to be the referee who will do a countdown to start and also shout ‘Blinker’ and show the red card when a player has blinked. This ends each round and players move onto the next one to see who wins the match (first player to win two rounds).
There’s also a blocking screen which you hang from the centre of the pole before each game so that the participants can prepare. The referee removes this on the countdown to start.
An added fun part to the Stare Off game are the distraction cards. Each player picks one at the start of the match and can use it in any round of their choice to try and distract their opponent. These are a really fun and interactive part of the game. My children thought they were hilarious and certainly gave us all the giggles.
You have to do what’s on the card and it can be anything from ‘Meow like a cat wanting food’, ‘Smile a crazy smile’ or ‘Recite your favourite nursery rhyme’.
There are a few rules to follow in the instructions which help you set out guidelines for the Stare Off game, although we did pick and choose these a little as we played, the kids decided that they wanted to use a distraction card in every round as added to the fun. But with a game like this you can be flexible and make it suit your situation.
Overall we think Stare Off is a fun game that would be ideal for family gatherings or parties. We can’t wait to play this at Christmas when family come over and my kids are already eager to challenge their cousins to a few staring contests when they visit. It’s a simple but fun and certainly has the entertainment factor when a group of people are around. I imagine it would make a good drinking game too if you wanted to add a bit of fun to a social night with adult friends.
Will you be adding Stare Off to Santa’s sack this year?
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
The game comprises of the following parts:
The idea of the came is to collect all of the bells in one colour. The colour you collect is determined by the first colour you pick up that no one else is already collecting. The magnetic wand is used to pick up the bells and has a bigger stronger magnet at one end and a less powerful one on the smaller end. It’s up to you which end you choose but we found the big end really strong so tended to play with the smaller side.
My children loved this game, the jingle of the bells kept them excited and the thrill of what they could collect on the magnet. It is tricky, not as easy as it looks at all, but we did have our own rules to simplify it a little. For such a simple game, it has been played many times over the last few weeks and it’s always lovely to see both concentration and smiles on their faces. I also love the travel pouch, a round neoprene zip up case that holds all of the bells and magnetic wand so the game is completely self contained. 
A fun family game that everyone can enjoy and is great to take on holidays, weekends away for a bit of healthy competition and fun!
The game is enclosed within a giant plastic ball and consists of a maze which goes every way imaginable. There is a small silver ball which you have to get from one end to the other. The maze is marked with numbers along the way which you have to follow and it guides you through. There are three starting points, so if you keep getting stuck at a certain point, you don’t have to go right back to the beginning, you can step in at the second or third starting points.
To get through involves a lot of twisting and turning to balance the ball along it’s path and just a slight wobble can make the ball fall off of it’s track. The game is aimed at all ages and both my 8yr old daughter as well as us adults have all spent much time playing with this. It’s one of those things where you are determined to get further than the last person and the challenge keeps you motivated to keep trying and trying again until you succeed.
The tiles come in a simple zip up banana shaped bag. This is really useful and keeps all the pieces together for storage. It also opens nice and widely so that it’s easy for little fingers to help tidy away at the end of play.
The Bananagrams set comprises of 80 high quality single tiles and 13 combination tiles. There are brightly coloured and differently coloured to help younger children recognise their letters. Therefore letters such as p’s, b’s and d’s will always be different colours. The letters are all small letters which are what preschool children learn to recognise first and the tiles also have a small line at the bottom to identify which way up the tile should go. Vowels are also easily seen by being coloured yellow.
Both my children aged 5 and 8 were eager to have a play and we started with some simple letter recognition ideas that we found on the instruction sheet such as finding the letters in your name, finding each letter of the alphabet and making small little rhyming words such as cat and mat. We then had a go at the main game, although gave Mister B some assistance being the youngest. He was really good at finding words, he just needed a little help to link them together.
The game is a race to use up all your letters and you can have unlimited swaps from the centre. It is fast paced and fun and get’s everyone excited and competitive during play. Of course you can slow things down for younger players and even help them to maintain their motivation to play with letters.
The set comprises of:
I like the way the set is designed for a family with a combination of adult and child mallets and the same with the ball sizes which are again solid wood. Everything is beautifully made so you really are paying for what you get with this set retailing at £99.99.
The children thoroughly enjoyed playing croquet even if we did play to our own rules, but we kept it simple and fun and it was a big hit with everyone. This is definitely a family game and really brings about a bit of competitiveness that everyone can enjoy.
The quality of the set comes through when you are playing and it feels good to play with, it’s all very sturdy, looks nice and everything is a good size.