Customer Reviews

ThinkFun Smart Mouth

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This game was tons of fun...I purchased it for my 15-year old daughter for a birthday gift. I ordered Smart Mouth from Amazon.com after reading about it in an issue of Real Simple magazine. We opened it up at her party and everyone from my daughter to her 7- and 9-year old nieces to her aunt and myself just loved this game. It was fast-paced and the youngest girl had the quickest answers. Best of all, they had a blast while spelling words!!! A great game, both educational and fun.

I had recieved this game for Christmas and I find it quite enjoyable. The concept of the game is very simple:

You slide the box forward and then back again revealing two tiles. You must think of a word that begins with the first letter and ends with the second. Example
Letters are:A L
Word Possible: Animal

Who ever yells out a word first that works gets the tiles. When the tiles dispencer is empty, you count up your tiles and whoever has the most wins.

If you are looking for a good travel game I do not suggest this one because the tiles can be lost easily. I do suggest this game for kids ages 7+ because you have to have a good vocabilary of words.

It's a shame this is lumped in with educational games. Although I can see it has great potential a as a vocabulary builder, it is one of the most fun adult party games I've ever played. It's similar in dynamic to Jenga, but requires a loose tongue instead of steady fingers, so it's a better choice after partaking of adult beverages. You can set the rules however you want--minumum 4 letters, only 3 letters, only place names, pick another language, anything!

I work with children from preschool to high school, and kids from 3rd grade up LOVE this game. Even when they aren't good at it, it becomes addictive. It is great fun for college and adults, too. You can also play where everyone writes as many words as they can think of and the duplicates don't count (like Scategories).
Let the little kids find 3 letter words, but quickly make the minimum 4 letter words!!

Smart Mouth is the perfect name for this word game in which players must make words using the pairs of first and last letters. Though you really do not need the game pieces to play, having the tiles and dispenser helps ramdonize the letter choices and reloading the dispenser gives younger kids a kick. The instructions are clear and offer a variety of options for playing so that the game does not get stale too fast.

Thought the concept is pretty neat, the game itself it poorly designed. Once you dispense a pair of tiles, you have to remove them from the base, and then you loose them---all over the car, the floor, the table. It would have been simple and useful just to create a bigger base for the game.

The packaging is wasteful and ridiculous. The game comes in a large box, but it would easily fit in a box one third the size. There is no excuse for wasting this much cardboard or ink.

I bought this for my 7 y.o., whose spelling skills lag her math/logic skills. I was looking for fun ways to practice spelling. She finds the game fun, and enjoys the challenge of the hard letter combinations that come up (though we added our own rule that we can "pass" if we both agree). I believe it does help reinforce spelling skills. However, the letter dispenser sometimes sticks, which is annoying. Tip: make sure you separate the letter tiles really carefully before you stack them--if they are stuck together, they will jam.

My 9-year old and I love to play this game. Like Scrabble, it helps to stretch one's vocabulary and requires quick thinking. It would also be fun with a group of adults. Other than the letter tiles that get stored in the main compartment of the game unit, there are no other small parts. With bags for each player to keep "won" tiles, it would be a good travel game.

Word games are typically fun but don't play with someone who will just dominate the game. We had somewhat of a good time with this one but we rate games by how easily we are distracted by things other than the game. The premise of the game is to quickly make a word from the two dispensed tiles that begins with one of the letters and ends with the other, e.g. "D" and "L" are dispensed you could say "drill". "Deal" would not work because the word has to be at least 5 letters. I'll tell you one thing, you never realize just how many four letter words there are until you play this game and you are guessing but you can't score.

It is a thinking game, and unless you are an English buff or just love words, it is a game that can have you stumped quite often.

This game is terrific for kids. They love the dispenser and the resulting surprise of the letters each turn. It has turned out to be a fantastic way to get my son thinking and forming words quickly; something he has difficulty with usually. I gave one to his teacher and they use it in the third grade with great success, and fun, regularly.

There are many ways to vary the game such as requiring a minimum number of letters in each word (for example,no three letter words).

A great way to encourage children to make firends with language.

I often play this with my 10 year old son at bedtime instead of a story. It has helped him build his vocabulary. Sometimes if we are stumped I will grab a dictionary and really search to find a word he would understand. Then I read him the definition and have him spell it for me. Then we put a pencil mark by that word so in the future we know we already used it. It is not easy using the dictionary to find a word but it is very educational once you come across a new word for your childs vocabulary. Enjoy!