Melissa & Doug Flip to Win Hangman

Sure you could use a paper and pencil to play hangman, but this board is just more fun to play the game on. It's very durable and solid and the pieces (except the pen) are connected to the board with elastic bands, so you don't have to worry about missing parts.

The pen slips into the two loops located on the right side of the board (why not a snap-on?) and the writing area is on the bottom. Because the tiles are connected by the elastic, the players simply flip the tiles over as the game is played.

At the beginning of the game, all the letters are face up and all the hangman pieces are face down. The first player draws the dashes, representing each letter of a word, on the bottom portion of the board.

As the letters are called, they are flipped over and, if they are part of the mystery word, the dashes are filled in. If they are not part of the word, a hangman tile is flipped over.

The game continues until the word is guessed or until the hangman is completely visible.

I like how sturdy the board is and how easy it is to see the letters that you have guessed and the amount of time you have to get the word right. It definitely makes it easier to teach a youngster how to play this game since they can see everything in front of them.

At first, I thought that the board was too big to take in restaurants and such but, as my 5 year old son was playing it, I realized that the size made it easier for him to see the shape and form of the letters so it's sort of a good thing.

I don't like how difficult it is to flip the letters over but I suspect that time will ease it a bit. The biggest con was that the ink in the pen is completely dried out so we have to use another dry-erase marker to do the job and a tissue to erase the board when the game is over.

Other than that, this board is perfect and I highly recommend it!

A friend's child had this and I had to get it for my nephew. It's durable, easy to use, and teaches simple spelling. I should have bought one for my own children. Makes a great gift!

This is a lot of fun for families who enjoy playing Hangman. My 8 year old and I play this whenever we are stuck somewhere waiting. We love it!
The only thing negative I have to say about it is that the tiles are hard to turn over initially. However, once you use it a few times, it's fine.