Editorial Review
Now younger players can experience the fun of Taboo with this junior edition featuring over 200 words specifically chosen for kids. The rules sound simple enough: get your team to name common words without voicing a few choice descriptors. But can you describe bubble gum without mentioning pink or blow? Taboo rewards those who think–and speak–fast. The team that correctly identifies as many words as possible in a minute (measured with the included hourglass timer) wins. If a member of the opposing team, armed with the blaring buzzer, catches the clue giver using any of the taboo words, a point is deducted from the group’s score. It’s a good idea to separate people who know each other well, because familiarity can be too advantageous. Playing Taboo requires one AA battery–and a sense of humor.
This is a great game. My 10 year old daughter loves it and it boosts her thinking skills. Great game. That being said ……. absolutely DO NOT buy it here on Amazon for $121 or even $85. You just need to keep an eye out on ebay and you can find one for $15 – $20. I did! Good Luck!
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
it is a good game with alot of fun things and they should have more cards because we play that alot and we mostly know all of them so if there was more cards that would be alot better and i do like the price of the taboo game
Amazon User Rating: 4 / 5
This game is one of my all time favorite games! I had to buy this version since the regular Taboo Game was so much fun and we needed a new game that my 8 and 9 year old could play on Family Game Night!
The concept is easy; just make your teammate say a certain word. Easy right? Well, not exactly. You can’t use any words on the taboo word list to describe the main word you are trying to say! Then there is the timer (you only have 60 seconds to make your teammate guess as many words as possible. Then there is also the obnoxious buzzer, which opponent team members hovers over you with to make sure you don’t say the forbidden taboo words. It’s a lot of laughs and almost everyone would enjoy this game.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
Oh, okay: it’s a “GAME”! And a fun one, at that!
We’ve been playing regular Taboo for years, sometimes with the kids looking on, and in fact, I have been known to play a variant with them where we have fewer or no forbidden words besides the “taboo word” itself.
Anyway, they’ve always been intrigued by the idea, and now, they have their very own version of the game. The words in the kids’ version are generally simpler (but not TOO easy!), and there are fewer forbidden words, making clue-giving a little simpler as well.
The inclusion of a funky spiral-track board and playing pieces for the two teams is a nice touch, but my beef with that is that the tracks aren’t long enough… you can generally win the game in only two or three turns (averaging 3-5 points for each turn, which is easy enough). I really wish they’d made the tracks longer for a more challenging “neck and neck” racing experience!
I really like the idea of the “squeaker” they’ve thrown in here to replace the buzzer that you get with the adult game. No batteries required… in fact, it’s thrillingly low-tech in a funky, retro kind of way.
The reason I’ve given this game only 3 stars for durability is because it looks like they’ve included the same hourglass as in the adult version, and it’s not the most durable one in the world. We actually ruined the hourglass in our adult Taboo just with a little excess shaking. Of course, the reason we were shaking it was because the sand got stuck right in the middle and so would not flow through anymore.
You’d think with something as primitive as an hourglass, there’d be a way to put in a high-quality, kid-proof version to go with the rest of this highly kid-friendly package.
Despite these issues, I’d heartily recommend this game for hours of family fun. I’d suggest adult supervision to coax things along and reinforce the rules at least the first few times your kids play. But then, that’s not a drawback of the game — that’s a PLUS!
Recommended Ages: 6 to teens (with adult help for younger kids)
Playability on Shabbat: YES!!! (no batteries, electronics or writing) (put the squeaker away before Shabbat and just shout “bzzt” at the clue-giver if they make a booboo)
Amazon User Rating: 4 / 5