Break Free from Ravensburger is a fast paced interactive game best suited to ages 6+. It involves chaining yourself up in a handcuff which is attached via a chain to other players and then being the first to unpick the lock and Break Free.
The Break Free game pieces consists of 4 special padlocks with chains, 12 unique locking puzzles that you insert in the to base of the handcuff – 4 of each level, 4 lockpicks and 12 tokens. To play the game all players (can be played by 1 to 4 at a time) put one of the puzzle pieces (green for easy, yellow for a bit harder and red for tricky) into their padlock then attach the padlock to their wrist. You clip all the ends of the chains together and are then ready to begin.
The idea is in each round, the first player to unpick their lock, takes the highest numbered token, the next player takes the next highest token and so forth. So the first round you all start with green which is the easiest and work upwards.
What I really liked about this game is that all four of us could join in, mummy, daddy, 10yr old and 8yr old. We were really were all at equals trying to unpick the locks and although sometimes you though you got the knack, in the next round you would struggle again.
It certainly got competitive with everyone eager to unlock their padlocks and be the first!
Another aspect that I liked about this Ravensburger Break Free game is that within each level, all the lock puzzles have different sequences within them, so if someone works out a quick way to turn their pick to make their way through the lock, then if you play the game again and mix the pieces up, they are likely to have a different route to follow to unpick the lock which keeps everyone on their toes.
Even though the 8yr old got a little frustrated on the harder levels at times, you can see he is thrilled here when he beat his older sister. The kids also loved it when daddy got stuck sometimes just going round in circles and not actually unlocking his handcuff so they had to help unpick his lock at the end – of course mummy succeeded in coming in the top two places in most rounds!
Break Free by Ravensburger is a fun family game that all ages can join in or the kids can just play alone. My boy even enjoyed having a go on his own although I think he was trying to hone his unpicking technique for future rounds. We like this with it’s fast paced competitiveness and the excitement it brings – a good one to add to Santa’s list I think!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest 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.
Inside the box are three pieces that join together to create the playing board, along with a large card that stands up to be the Arendelle palace and five figure cut outs with stands, four tokens and three dice.
