Friday, January 14, 2005

Game Review: Take Away

Players: 2-4 Ages: 7-Adult



So I picked up a few more games for the family at Christmas time, including Take Away, by Jax Games. The basic idea of the game is to find matches or runs (up or down in the same suit), which you can take from other players’ slots and add to your own, trying to collect the most cards.



My two oldest sons (ages 8 and 7) and I pulled it out and played it. It is one of the most boring games any of us have ever played. First, just trying to figure out the instructions was awful. They were written extremely poorly, so it took a long time just to figure out how to play. Once we managed that, we found that there was almost no strategy or thought involved, and very little opportunity to make plays. Most of our time was spent drawing cards from the draw pile and laying them in a slot, then passing the turn to the next person.



Now, it may be that, due to the poorly written instructions, we got it all wrong. Whether that’s the case or not, I can't recommend this game. We are getting rid of ours (thankfully, it wasn’t expensive) and I suggest you avoid it.