An Evening In - with Spin Master Games

I love a good board games night, and always have done. When my oldest child was born I very quickly realised it was a great way to still see my mates and maybe have a lemonade or two, while also solving any babysitting problems.

In 22 years this hasn't changed, and when we were invited to a Spin Master Games evening over at Laura from Tired Mummy Of Two's house, along with gorgeous Eric there and his family from That Lancashire Lass, we gladly accepted.

I like Spin Master, I've reviewed a few toys for them now, including the Air Hogs Batmobile and Switchblade, and the Meccano Micronoid, but I hadn't really played many of their games. On the table were a nice selection both for the adults, and the children.

The children had Bellz! and Headbanz to play. The adults Wikipedia The Game, and Wave. We also had a couple of other games on standby (including Beat The Parents), in case we had enough time.

We started with Bellz!, as it was easy for people to take turns while we ate crisps and generally chatted. Recommended for age 2-4 players aged 6+, we had 12 people who all tried and were frankly rubbish!

It's a beautiful game, and the bells are lovely to play with. Using a magnetic wand you need to catch all of the Bellz! that match your colour, but it's so much harder than it sounds! Addictive because you really feel a need to beat your last high score...

We set the children up playing Headbanz. This was their favourite game, they played it for hours and really enjoyed it.

A quick question game of “What am I?” where you have to work out if the cartoon strapped onto your head is an animal, food or object.  Suitable for up to 6 players aged 7+ approximately, our 6 year olds had no problem joining in - although the older children had a definite advantage.

No night is complete without nibbles, and Laura had laid on a nice traditional party spread with plenty to please everyone. I was there mainly for the games, but the Truckle Brothers Chilli Cheese deserves a mention because it was gorgeous....

And the babysitters were still keen and enjoying themselves....

With the children all content (or asleep), it was time for the grown ups to test the more adult (8+) game, and star of the night for me - the Wikipedia Game. It really was an all-round hit with the adults and we could happily have played all night, in fact we nearly did.

Suitable for 2-4 players aged 8+ and with an rrp of £29.99, it was excellent fun and before each card was drawn, we really had no idea who among us was going to be able to answer the questions correctly. As there were 6 of us, we played in pairs, and it worked incredibly well. A brilliant game and I think my one that would be perfect to play with our teenagers.

The next game was The Wave Game. I've never heard of this before at all. A bar with multicoloured lights and sensors. You don't need to touch the bar, just wave your hand over it as directed.

There were several different games to try, the most popular being a game of increasing speed where you had to wave over only 1 specific colour. I'd like to point out I got the highest score on this, despite everyone laughing at my chopstick style of waving.... tsk....

Sadly before we knew it we'd been there 5 hours and needed to go home! No time to play Beat The Parents.... we'll save that for next time....

All of the Spin Master Games shown are available from good toy and game shops in store and online, including Amazon.