''Bananagrams'' is a
word game
Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.
Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can add ...
invented by
Abraham Nathanson and Rena Nathanson of
Cranston,
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
, wherein lettered tiles are used to spell words.
Nathanson conceived and developed the idea for the game with the help of his family. The name is derived from the founding family's claim that it's the "anagram game that will drive you bananas!" Beginning as a family innovation, Bananagrams was made available to the public in January 2006 at the London Toy Fair. The game is similar to the older
Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...
variant
Take Two.
Gameplay involves arranging one's tiles into a grid of connected words faster than one's opponents. The object of the game is to be the first to complete a word grid after the pool of tiles has been exhausted. The tiles come in a fabric banana-shaped package.
Gameplay
![Bananagrams](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Bananagrams.jpg)
The game consists of 144 lettered tiles that are placed face down on the playing surface. This is called the 'Bunch'. The same number of tiles is drawn by each player (between 11 and 21 depending on the number of players – 1 to 8 people can play), and once a player calls out "Split!", all the players turn over their tiles to reveal the lettered sides. Each player races to create their own word grids by arranging the letters to form words connected in intersecting or interlocking manner (words should not be separate from one another). You may rearrange your grid as many times as you like – the name "Bananagrams" is a play on the word
anagram
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...
s, as one must often rearrange the words one has already formed in order to allow newly drawn tiles to be placed into one's grid. When a player uses up all of their tiles, they call out "Peel!" and each player must draw a new tile from the pool of remaining tiles ("the Bunch").
If at any time during play a player gets stuck with a tricky letter, the player can announce "Dump!" and exchange any letter for three tiles from the "Bunch".
When there are fewer tiles in the "Bunch" than there are players, the first person to use up all their letters shouts "Bananas" and wins, becoming Top Banana if all of their words are valid.
The letter distribution is as follows:
*2: J, K, Q, X, Z
*3: B, C, F, H, M, P, V, W, Y
*4: G
*5: L
*6: D, S, U
*8: N
*9: T, R
*11: O
*12: I
*13: A
*18: E
Comparison with other games
Bananagrams uses elements of both
Boggle
''Boggle'' is a word game invented by Allan Turoff and originally distributed by Parker Brothers. The game is played using a plastic grid of lettered dice, in which players look for words in sequences of adjacent letters.
Rules
One player begi ...
and
Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...
. It is similar to Boggle in the sense that gameplay is simultaneous, yet players build interlocking puzzles similar to those in Scrabble.
Because Bananagrams can be played by players at any (English) reading level, the game is useful for children who are learning to spell, and has been touted as both educational and popular among consumers. An independent psychologist reviewed Bananagrams and expressed her recommendation of Bananagrams as a positive example of creativity stimulation because, perhaps unlike Scrabble, the goal is to play all of one's tiles, which generates a need to configure and reconfigure one's word grid to accept all of the letters.
Other tabletop word games that are played without a board include ''
Anagrams,
Dabble
''Dabble'' is an anagram word game designed by George Weiss, who was 84 years old at the time, and published by INI, LLC in 2011.
An app version was Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as p ...
,
Perquackey
''Perquackey'' is a word game played with dice, produced by Cardinal Industries, Inc. of Long Island City, New York. It was previously produced by Lakeside Toys, a division of Lakeside Industries, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and originally by ...
'' and ''
Quiddler
''Quiddler'' is a card game and word game created by Set Enterprises. Players compete by spelling English words from cards in hands of increasing size, each card worth various points. The game combines aspects of ''Scrabble'' and gin rummy. Th ...
''. Bananagrams is also similar to ''Syzygy'', a letter-tile game released in 1997, and the 1999 game ''Double Quick''.
Awards
Bananagrams has won numerous awards for its innovation, popularity among consumers and educational value:
*Game of the Year 2009 by TOTY Awards
*Gold Award, ''Good Toy Guide'' (
UK 2006)
*Best Toy Bronze Award, ''Right Start Magazine'' (UK 2006)
*Top Toy of the Year Award, ''Creative Child Magazine'' 2007
*NAPPA Honors Award, ''Parenthood.com''
Online gameplay
An
online version of Bananagrams was developed by
Large Animal Games
Large Animal Games was an independent casual game developer, known for their game ''Color Zen''. The company was founded in New York City, New York during 2001 by Wade Tinney and Josh Welber, and Large Animal Games released over 100 games for a va ...
, in partnership with
Majesco Entertainment
Majesco Entertainment Company (formerly Majesco Sales Inc.) is an American video game publisher and distributor based in Hazlet, New Jersey. The company was founded as Majesco Sales in Edison, New Jersey in 1986, and was a privately held company ...
. It ran from 2008 until 2012.
The online version adhered to the same protocol as the tabletop edition, but certain gameplay adjustments and social features were also available. Players could play live games or send challenges to friends, and share completed games with one another. The game also included solitaire modes and "Banana Café", where the objective was to beat one's own best time.
The
online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...
game version offered players the opportunity to customize the game with "Banana Chip" credits. Banana Chips were earned by playing games and by issuing and winning challenges. They could be spent in the virtual store to purchase new tiles and playing boards, and to buy in-game hints and bonuses to gain an advantage over other players. Multi-tier achievements were also awarded to players in recognition of outstanding skill, and a leaderboard contained information pertaining to other players.
References
External links
{{Commons category, Bananagrams
2019 – Open Source Bananagram Online Solver (Multi-language)2018 – Bananas for Bananagrams (Stanford University paper by Saahil Agrawal and David Kwok)
Bananas in popular culture
Board games introduced in 2006
Multiplayer games
Party board games
Word games
Tabletop games