Wordical — A Fun Word-Building Game — Our Review

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If Scrabble Frustrates Your Child, Go Wordical!

We love reviewing Educational Insights’ games and toys because they are always so much fun and educational. Wordical, the radical, dice-rolling, word-building race game is no different.  Think Scrabble but made easier.

My 8-year-old has attempted Scrabble a few times, but in Scrabble, it’s easy to get frustrated while playing. For kids still learning to spell, to be given 7 letters, sometimes all vowels or all constants, and then they have to create a word — it’s just too much for them. I don’t know about your kids, but games that my kids feel they can’t win aren’t popular in our house. Wordical gets rid of those frustrations with vowel dice and constant cards. It gives you a game that is manageable, yet still challenging for kids and adults.

The Wordical Game

• Is for ages 8 and older, but younger kids can team up with a parent
• Is for 2–8 players
• Comes with 108 consonant cards
• Includes 2 vowel dice (that have a wild side)
• Has an easy-to-read instruction guide
• Is self-contained and stored in a tin

How to Play Wordical

• Each player starts each round with 5 constant cards.
• During each turn, a player rolls the vowel dice. All 5 vowels are represented along with a wild side.
• After the vowel dice are rolled each player tries to create a word with his constant cards and the vowels shown. If the wild side is shown you can use any vowel. The vowels shown can also be used more than once in a word.
  • For example, in our picture, the E and wild are shown. Player one is using the letters H, N, and D, and will have the wild be an A to form the word HAND. Player 2 will use the H and R with the vowels E and I to form the word HIRE.
• Ddd the point value of the letters to determine the score for each player during that round. You do not need to use all 5 cards, but your word must be at least two letters. You can’t use proper names, abbreviations, or contractions.
• The rules say that there is a race element to the game. If you are the last player to present a word, the word doesn’t count, and you only get 1 point. Since my kids are younger and still learning, we counted everyone’s words at their full value.

Why We loved Wordical

• The game builds kids’ problem-solving skills, creativity, and spelling skills in a fun way.
• It doesn’t matter what their reading level is, kids can still play. Even early readers can form simple three-letter words like can, dog, she, and others. You might have to help them for the first few rounds to show them that, but then they will get the hang of it.
• The difficulty level adjusts to the players. While younger kids will create simpler, shorter words. Older siblings, teens, and parents can try to outdo each other by using all their constants in one round.
• When they are adding up their points they are practicing math. The constants all have single-digit values making the adding easy.
• The dice make the game more interactive. What kid doesn’t love to roll the dice?
• You can control how long you play. Play until you run out of cards or play a certain number of rounds or until someone reaches a certain score.
• And of course, the self-contained tin makes clean-up easy and means the box will hold up better than traditional cardboard game boxes.

Note: We think Wordical is one of those gifts that’s great year-round, but especially during the candy-inspired holidays when you are looking for candy-free gifts. Why not fill your kid’s Easter basket with a Wordical game?

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