Customer Reviews

Hands Down

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Our family played this game a lot during the 60's. We had a blast with it. I didn't think much about it until this year when my son turned 6. It's a blast for family fun!

Hands Down is another game that has lasted generations. Originally created in the 1960's, it was so much fun that it has remained on toy store shelves and in family rooms since. It seemed when I was growing up that my parents always included at least one game when we were children. Hands Down was the game left by Santa Claus one year.

As my younger brother and I looked at the box, we wondered if it was a dud or if it would be a really cool game to play. We found it to be a blast, especially if we could talk someone else into playing with us.

Hands Down is a cross between a card game and a board game. There is a slapping machine (which has a lever facing each of the four players) and is make of sturdy plastic. When the lever is pushed down, a plastic hand that is the same color as the lever goes down on the card, which is placed in the middle of the machine. Luckily for most parents this machine is already put together so there is no assembly nightmare! A deck of cards is the other component of this game.

The play begins by each player choosing a colored hand (blue, green, yellow or red). Then the cards are dealt - each player receives four cards and the remaining cards are placed face down in a "draw" pile. Each player takes turns drawing a card from the pile - if you get a match, you slap your colored hand down. The last person to slap gets one of his cards taken by the first person that slapped. The slapping machine decides the order because the lever and colored hand are color coordinated and the "hands" lay on top of each other in the order they were depressed. So the colored hand on top is the one who gets a card taken away.

Here's the tricky part - if you draw a card and it doesn't match, you can fake out your opponents and pretend to slap the machine. If one of the other players slaps the machine, then you have succeeded in faking them out and get to draw a card from them. Boy was my brother good at faking everyone out - he was the master faker! The card taken from the one who was faked out is placed on the bottom of the draw pile.

The winner is the one with the most matches at the end of the game. The end of the game is when there are no more cards in the draw pile.

But let us not forget those special cards that have been added to keep the game interesting. The happy joker card is a wild card and can be matched with any other card to form a pair. The sad joker card will cost you points at the end of the game, so if you have it, hope someone draws it out of your hand!

The simple game concept is fun but can get quite loud. When you're slapping the machine, laughing, yelling and carrying on, the neighbors can hear you at times. If you don't mind the high noise level and want to play a game that children as young as six-years-old can play (but older "kids" like it too!), then this is the game for you! If you have quick reflexes you might even be the Hands Down champion!

A friend brought this to our house to play with my daughter and her daughter. I'm not much of a game person so I sat out the first round while the three of them played - and laughed a lot! Then they drafted me into the second round - it was so much fun I couldn't wait to play again.

It's primarily a game of luck, but you do have to be quick on the "hands down". You don't need any skill, and it's not what I would call an educational game, but for a VERY fun game with friends or family, it's a sure winner!

We bought this for our 8 year old son and he LOVES it! Very fun and the game goes fast! Great for the family game night!

I got this game for my daughters (now 10 and 14) and it is a riot! You do have to have 3 or 4 players to play but you can't beat the fun! Even Dad, who does NOT play games joined in on this one. The concept is very simple, you try to get matches, if you do you hit your hand down (last one down picks a card) if you don't you can try to fake out the others so you have to pay attention. Helpful hint, put it on a cutting board to save your table because it gets a little wild! 5 stars all the way!

We bought this game a while back, and the kids love it.. it is fun to play, and kids as young as 4 and as old as 50 enjoy it equally.. a highly recommended..

A good fun for the whole family. My Kids aged 5 and 10 love to play this game. We tried it with kids of older age and with our friends, but it was not preferred by them :-)..

THE GAME ITSELF IS FUN TO PLAY HOWEVER, THE PLASTIC CENTER WITH HANDS IS CHEAPLY-MADE, "CHINTZY", OF COURSE, I'M COMPARING IT TO THE SAME PIECE 35 YRS AGO WHICH WAS OF MUCH BETTER QUALITY!

Kids love to play this game. It does help develop hand/eye coordination, reaction time, competitiveness, and happiness. The price is good for the quality of the build.

We got this as a Christmas present and played it once, and the kids and I were bored with it. To us, it wasn't really much of a challenge and the game ended way too quickly. Also, the game does not look like it could stand rough play, which I think can definitely happen with this game. Honestly, playing "Go Fish" with regular playing cards is more fun than this game.