At our house, we love math games and we love card games, so a game that is both gets pulled out and played every single gameschooling week!
THE GAME is an addictive, cooperative, race to the top (and bottom…) number game for 1-5 players. It plays in about 20 minutes and the box says for 8+, but my 6 (almost 7) plays just fine with a little bit of help.
Players each get 6 cards to begin and MUST play at least 2 cards on their turn.
The Game is set up with 4 piles plus the draw pile. Two piles of number cards will go in descending order (from 100 down to 1) and cards placed there MUST ALWAYS BE LESS than the one before. Two more piles of number cards will go in ascending order (1-100). The numbers on these cards MUST ALWAYS BE GREATER than the one before.
Because every player has to play at least 2 cards, some numbers in other players’ hands are going to get skipped. It takes some solid strategy and quick thinking to figure out a way to play these cards on other piles! Players can communicate any information EXCEPT the exact numbers in their hands, working together to use as many cards in the deck as possible.
There is one trick that helps A LOT in this game and also adds to the math aspect. Players can place a card on an ascending pile when the number card is EXACTLY 10 less than the number on the pile OR EXACTLY 10 more than the number on a descending pile.
The deck is organized by 10s – each set of 10 number cards has the same design, which helps younger kids with number recognition and fluency. The cards are so bright and colorful, the design is excellent!
The game ends when all the cards are played or as soon as a player can’t play the minimum number of cards on his turn.
How well did you do?!? Less than 10 cards left over is an excellent game. If you’re able to play all 98 cards, you beat THE GAME!
The Game is a fun quick family card game that doubles really nicely for a math game as part of “school.” It’s addictive and fast, and so much fun to play over and over!
Thanks to Pandasaurus Games for sharing with us!
