Practical Travel Gear • November 2010
By Kara
By Kara
This compact, take-anywhere crossword race can be played by two people in a restaurant, in an airport, on a plane or in an RV — just about anywhere you have a level playing space. ZIP-IT is a game for anyone ages 7 and up, and I’ve played it several times now with my 10-year-old, but I’d certainly have a ball playing it with another adult as well. In fact, I think I’ll take on my vocabulary-savvy mom when she comes to visit over the holidays!
ZIP-IT consists of a small, rectangular cloth pouch filled with 24 letter cubes; the two zippers on the pouch double as a score card: each time a player earns a point in the game, you move the zipper down one notch to keep track of who’s earned what.
To play, each player receives 12 letter cubes, and the first person to use up his or her cubes by spelling words (with letters on any side) in a crossword fashion wins a point. First to 10 points wins the game.
What’s cool about ZIP-IT is that you can even the playing field by changing up the rules, according to players’ skill levels. When I played with my 10-year-old, we made the rule that I had to make words with at least four letters in them; she could use words as short as two letters. Similarly, you could set a rule that every seven-letter word is worth an extra point.
ZIP-IT, which retails for $14.95, comes with “Weords,” Bananagrams all-new mini-dictionary featuring “weird words that win word games” (i.e., “Q” words that do not have a “U”).
ZIP-IT consists of a small, rectangular cloth pouch filled with 24 letter cubes; the two zippers on the pouch double as a score card: each time a player earns a point in the game, you move the zipper down one notch to keep track of who’s earned what.
To play, each player receives 12 letter cubes, and the first person to use up his or her cubes by spelling words (with letters on any side) in a crossword fashion wins a point. First to 10 points wins the game.
What’s cool about ZIP-IT is that you can even the playing field by changing up the rules, according to players’ skill levels. When I played with my 10-year-old, we made the rule that I had to make words with at least four letters in them; she could use words as short as two letters. Similarly, you could set a rule that every seven-letter word is worth an extra point.
ZIP-IT, which retails for $14.95, comes with “Weords,” Bananagrams all-new mini-dictionary featuring “weird words that win word games” (i.e., “Q” words that do not have a “U”).
