Top It Game Review

DISCLOSURE – THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER’S OWN.

Reviewed by Linda Curtain

Cheatwell Games | Board Games, Toys, Puzzles & Gifts – Since 1986

As a family we love to have a new board game to play each Christmas.  Despite living in such a digital world with youngsters constantly playing and interacting with on-line games, my grandchildren still love to play an actual board game.  I was therefore delighted to receive the game ‘Top It’ from Cheatwell Games to review.  Technically it’s a table top game as there’s no board, but it is still fully interactive and engaging for the whole family.

The game arrived packaged in a very sturdy box with simple but eye catching graphics.  A brief description on the back of the box gives the general idea of the aim of the game and the fact that it is described as a ‘fast-thinking game that’s stacks of fun’ soon became evident when we started playing.

On opening the box we discovered:
18 double-sided letter discs
60 top it cones in 6 different colours
75 double sided topic cards
A sand timer plus a score pad and pencil.

I was immediately impressed at how sturdy the Top It cones were.  Each person starts the game with 10 cones of their chosen colour.  After shuffling the letter discs, nine of them were randomly selected and placed in a 3×3 grid on the table with either red or blue side uppermost.

When the game started, the topic on the top of the pile of topic cards was read out, the sand timer turned over and play commenced.  Everyone had to race to shout out an answer which had an initial letter matching one of the letter discs.  They then placed one of their cones on the letter disc.  Extra cones could be piled onto the first cone if there were more than one answer with the same initial.  Play continued until the timer ended.  The score was then calculated according to the colour of the cones on the discs – if there are several cones on a disc only the top cone gets the point! Scores were then entered onto the score cards before the cones were collected, a new topic card chosen and play recommenced.  It is recommended that the first person to reach 50 points is the winner but this could be varied according to how long you wanted the game to last.

Some topics were certainly easier than others and it was interesting during play to see which answers came up!  The recommended age of 10+ was probably about right although our 9 year old was able to cope well with answering albeit not as fast as the other players.

I thought this game was great as it was simple to set up and the instructions were very straightforward.  The fact you can download extra score sheets was good as well as these often run out when playing games.

The Cheatwell company – which was founded in 1986 – produces a variety of fun, bright and quirky products.  In addition to some superb board and table-top games, they have a great range of jigsaws, toys and other gift ideas.  A look on their website at www.cheatwell.com will show you the full range of their products.

Cheatwell have certainly come up with another great family interactive game with Top It.  A game that I’m sure will be played many times over the Christmas holidays.  Thoroughly entertaining for all ages.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £30

This product can be purchased direct from Cheatwell at www.cheatwell.com here or from many other high street or online retailers.