Ambassadors – our budding wordsmiths try out Winning Moves’ Lex Go! games

AMBASSADORS SPECIAL

A night on the tiles We’re back! Our junior team of toy testers and enthusiasts return to the TnP pages and they’re trying out the Lex Go series from Winning Moves in some of the different versions of the game, taking in Harry Potter, Disney and Star Wars variants… Lex Go! Disney

Colette, age seven

Colette:

It teaches children that may not know many words to learn them. It gives me inspiration and it's fun! It's fun and if you sometimes go on holiday, you can play with it

Mum Emilie: I like this toy because it's educational and it challenges my daughter to learn new words. She already enjoys Scrabble with us but I feel like this is more appropriate for her age.

I like that it's portable and can be played on the go, especially when eating out or waiting around.

It was fairly easy to set up. The instructions were simple but we found ourselves stuck at the first round without picking into the pile and exchanging.

I like the neat size of it as toys can cause such clutter. It's small and easy to tidy up. My child was excited and it didn't feel like homework, just another game.

The Disney tiles and rules are a nice touch.

I think it will be something she will play again and again. She enjoyed the time frame and competitiveness of the game and the fact that it can be played as a group or just two people.

The portability and educational values are the best factors for me as a parent.

Lex Go Star Wars Word Game

Rose, age eight

Mum Emma: We played this word-making game with a 12-year-old, 13-year-old, 10-year-old, an eight-year-old and an adult. Everyone enjoyed it and although the older children could make words faster, it gave the younger children a chance to join in. There is an element of luck to it provided by the special

Star Wars tiles, which give you an opportunity to derail your opponents. This makes it good fun. Rose liked the fact that it's quite a fast game where you have to think quickly and each round is quite short so everyone gets a chance to win.

It was pretty easy to understand how to play it although it does take a while to memorise what the different special Star Wars tiles do.

Rose thought it was the Star Wars version of Scrabble when she first saw it but in actual fact it's more similar to Bananagrams. I was grateful that there's not too much packaging and it won't take up a great deal of room in our house, which is already packed! The design

Spike I like how sometimes you can’t always get the letters you wanted and so you can mess up somebody else’s letters!

Lex Go! Harry Potter

Spike and Rémy, age eight

Mum Marie-Claire It’s multi-generational fun as well as educational without the boys noticing. It packs away nicely, it’s very portable so can be played anywhere.

It’s a quick and easy game that can be played anywhere, and encourages spelling. We had a couple of quick games while we waited for our dinner to be ready, and in the morning when we had a bit of time before the school run.

It was really easy to set up. They loved the special tiles and being able to penalise each other and mess up their words.

They were giddy with excitement because it was ‘from the world of Harry Potter’. They couldn’t wait to open it and spill it out onto the floor to try to make sense of it. The rules are easy so it didn’t take long for them to get going.

The Polyjuice and Spell tiles are a great idea.

I think this is something the boys would play with again and again; it’s an easy game to have lying around because it doesn’t take up too much room, so it doesn’t need to be resigned to the games cupboard out of sight.

One of the boys is a stronger speller and would definitely play this again and again. Rémy I liked it because it’s got small packaging but lots of words!

and packaging are also appealing.

It has different letter tiles and special Star Wars tiles, one of which can be used as a substitute for a letter, one can be used to mess a chosen opponent's tiles up (which was fun but led to an argument!) and another forces an opponent of your choice to freeze for 10 seconds. You can insert your letters into other player's words or create your own. Choosing between the two Rose (aged eight) I liked making words and shouting 'Lex Go!'. I also liked it when I could use special Star Wars pieces to mess up other people's words strategies, or opting for a bit of both, is challenging.

I think this is a good quick game to play. It's fast to set up and fun to play. We haven't yet tried it with a small number of players but the fact that you can play it with two players is a bonus. I can definitely see us playing with this again.