Board game Jenga Boom (Tower)
Hello, dear friends! Today I want to tell you about an extremely exciting and at the same time very simple game with wooden blocks.
It's called Jenga and has many varieties. The popularity of this board game all over the world is due not only simple rules games, but also 
many other advantages.
But more about this below.
My review of the board game Jenga
What is Jenga?
Jenga is a board game of skill and ingenuity. The standard set consists of 54 wooden blocks, not varnished or painted in any colors. Also included with each play set is a sleeve for building a tower and a booklet describing the rules of the game and various options complicating or simplifying the gameplay. We had the version with 45 parts, but the game was no less fun!
Rules of the game "Jenga"
At the beginning of the game, participants build a tower using all the blocks in the set. This can be done independently or using a special sleeve, which allows you to make the structure as even and stable as possible. There are three bars at one level of the tower, and the parts of the next floor should lie perpendicular to the previous ones (crosswise)
After the tower is ready, players take turns removing blocks from any part of it and moving them to the top. The main requirement is that when the part is removed and installed at the very top, the building does not collapse. Also, in most versions of Jenga, it is necessary to remove the bars with one hand, no matter whether it is right or left. The goal of the game is to make the tower as tall as possible.
The participant whose actions caused the tower to collapse is considered the loser. The winnings are calculated based on the number of successful moves for each player: whoever has the most successfully moved bars wins.
Why is Jenga so popular and why do we like it?
Despite the simplest, if not primitive, rules of the game, Jenga can drag on for several hours. Reading the description, it seems that it’s easy to play, but as soon as you sit down at the table, your opinion changes dramatically.
Firstly, choosing the right block, the removal of which will not damage the tower, is not so easy, especially after other participants have already made more than one move.
Secondly, it is very difficult to carefully remove the part from the building - one wrong move, and the tower collapses.
Playing with wooden blocks develops qualities and skills such as:
- fine motor skills (this is why it is useful to play Jenga with preschool children);
- agility. You train this quality by trying to pull the block out of the structure as carefully as possible;
- attentiveness;
- spatial thinking;
- ingenuity and logic. These skills are needed to correctly calculate which block can be removed from the tower without the threat of its collapse.
I would also note the following advantages of this board game:
- fascination. It is very difficult to tear yourself away from an unfinished batch. And even after the tower collapsed because of some player, you want to immediately build it again and resume the game;
- universality for all ages. This game will be interesting for both children from five to six years old, and adults up to retirement age;
- no restrictions on the number of people. If most other board games can be played by no more than 6-8 participants, then in Jenga the number of players can exceed this number. Moreover, the more players take part, the more interesting the process becomes;
- durability. Wooden blocks do not break, do not wrinkle or wear out, and therefore one set of games can serve the family for many years;
- compact packaging sizes. Thanks to this, Jenga can be taken with you on trips or to visit.
True, you can’t play it on the road, because for stability wooden tower requires a fixed surface, such as a table or floor.
Today, the rights to publish the game belong to various global companies, including Russian manufacturers. This will allow you to choose the right option for your family in terms of price and completeness.
Who created Jenga?
Do you know how this fascinating board game was born, and who became its creator? Even before 1983, no one knew about such a simple but brilliant game. But everything changed thanks to a woman from Britain named Leslie Scott.
As a board game designer in those years, Leslie decided to temporarily move away from the canons of complex role-playing and turn-based board games that were so popular in America and Britain. Wanting to create something as simple as possible, but at the same time very exciting, she remembered her childhood. Then her whole family enjoyed playing with simple wooden cubes, building towers and other structures from them. Leslie remembered how much she enjoyed this activity and decided that this process could be varied by extracting parts from the structure.
Initially, cubes were considered as parts for Jenga. But for variety and greater variability in the gameplay, it was decided to use rectangular blocks. Having released her creation on the market, Leslie did not even expect that it would be so popular. In the very first year, the entire circulation of the board game was sold out, and then companies who wanted to purchase the rights to publish the game reached out to its creator. Today it still continues to sell out in thousands of copies, and a new generation of preschoolers is developing fine motor skills for such an exciting activity as building a tower.
How to diversify the gameplay in Jenga
Despite all its fun, over time, the standard version of the game Jenga can become a little boring for a friendly group. In this case, you can diversify your pastime by slightly changing or supplementing the rules. For example:
- Playing Jenga with forfeits. Write different tasks on pieces of paper, for example, “Close your eyes” or “Tell a rhyme.” The player who has to get the block from the tower draws a forfeit, and during his turn completes the task.
- Game until the last block. Here, players will not place the bars removed from the tower on the upper level of the structure, but will simply begin to pull out parts from it and put them next to them. Whoever managed to remove the most bars before the building completely collapsed won;
- Jenga with numbers. Side faces bars can be marked with numbers from first to tenth or from first to twelfth. Now all you have to do is take the dice and roll them before your turn. Whichever number is dropped, under that number we remove the part from the tower. There are no bars available with the required number? It's sad, but you'll have to skip a turn.
- You can also discuss additional options for complication in the company, for example, alternating the right and left hand for removing bars, and so on, as your imagination tells you.
As for the quality of this game, there are no complaints about the manufacturer. The bars are dense, smooth, and pleasant to hold in your hands. Plus they are very well polished, which means there is no risk of getting a splinter in your finger while playing.
Jenga is a fun, interesting and exciting game of dexterity, attentiveness and ingenuity. It will allow you to spend pleasant and useful time with your family, colleagues or a group of friends who appreciate such entertainment.
You can buy the Jenga board game using the button below in an excellent store without cheating or overpaying. You can engrave the box and write any name, for example, if the game is purchased as a gift.
This game is very simple and at the same time can bring many pleasant moments to both children and their parents. The number of players is practically unlimited: you can train alone and hold tournaments for 2, 3 and 10 people! First you need to buy a special kit from 54 wooden blocks.
Rules of the game "Jenga"
First, a tower is built from a set of blocks on a table or floor. To do this, the blocks are stacked three in a row and the resulting layers are stacked on top of each other, one across the other. This turns out to be a tower of 18 levels. As a rule, a cardboard guide is included in the kit, which will allow you to level the tower for its exceptional evenness and verticality.
As soon as the tower is built and the order of the players' turns is determined, you can begin!
Each player, on his turn, tries to pull out any block that seems free to him. This must be done using only one hand. You cannot work with both hands at the same time, but you can use your hands in turns if it is convenient. After the block is released from the tower, it is laid on its top so that construction continues according to the rules: 3 bars per layer, each next layer across the previous one. You cannot take bars from an unfinished top layer and the next layer below it.
As soon as the block is placed, the turn passes to the next player in turn and further in a circle. The player on whom the tower collapses with a roar is considered the loser, and the game starts over. You can organize a knockout game.
Tricks:
- First of all, you need to look for loose bars. They can be either on the edge, and then they can be “picked out” from the side, or in the center, then they must be pushed out with a finger on one side and then pulled out on the other;
- It is very important to pay attention to the tilt of the tower: sometimes, after a new block is placed on one side of the tower, on the other side it becomes possible to pull out the block that was previously clamped;
- You can set up “traps” for the following players: taking into account the tilt of the tower, aggravate it by placing your block on the same side. But the main thing here is not to overdo it!
- Although you cannot use both hands, you can use several fingers of one hand, for example, grab the block with your thumb and forefinger, and carefully rest against the tower with your middle one so that it does not fall. Well, use your hands in turn.
Jenga video game:
Be the last player to place a block without knocking down the tower.
Progress of the game
Winner
The last player who manages to remove a block from the tower structure without knocking it down wins. The player who knocks down the tower builds it for the next game!The word "jenga" is imperative from "kujenga", a Swahili word meaning "to build". What are they building in this game? Tower! Until she falls...
It would seem, what kind of game could there be with wooden blocks? Well, build something using it as a constructor, that’s probably all. However, the game developer, Leslie Scott, approached the issue of construction from a completely different angle. You will have to build wisely in Jenga. The idea of the game itself originated in the Leslie family in the early 1970s, and initially it used ordinary children's wooden blocks. Special play blocks were then made: each block was three times as long as it was wide and about half as tall as it was wide.
To reveal the intrigue of the tower, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules of the game. So, the game involves 54 wooden blocks. To start the game you need to build a tower 18 floors high. Each floor consists of three blocks placed closely and parallel to each other. The blocks of each next floor are placed perpendicular to the blocks of the previous floor.
Once the tower is built, the game begins. Players have the right to move. The one who built the tower goes first. A move in Jenga consists of pulling one block from any level (except the one directly below the unfinished top one) of the tower. The pulled out block must be placed at the top of the tower so that it can be completed (you cannot build floors under an unfinished upper level). Only one hand is allowed to remove the block; the second hand can also be used, but you can only touch the tower with one hand at a time. The blocks can be pushed to find the one that fits loosest. Any moved block can be left in place and not continue to be removed if this will lead to the fall of the tower. The game has a lot of dynamics: the turn ends when the next player touches the tower, or when 10 seconds have passed, depending on which event happens first.
Using the tower from this game, experiments are carried out in physics lessons in US schools.
The end of the game is marked by the fall of the tower, that is, the fall of any block other than the one that the player is trying to place at the top of the tower in a given turn. The loser is the one whose move caused the tower to collapse. However, if only a few blocks have fallen, players can continue playing if they wish. Rest assured, your tower will fall very quickly the first time.
The rules seem simple, but it’s not without reason that the game has spread throughout the world over more than 30 years of its existence and won thousands of fans. Because Jenga is a game of manual dexterity, ingenuity and balance. Children can build a tower too. This game is especially useful for them, as motor skills are involved, the ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships is developed, and perseverance and accuracy are instilled. You can also play in teams, which will help 
merge an unfamiliar company.
Experienced players have developed more than one system: which bars to pull out in what order to win. But the general pattern is the same: it is better to pull out the blocks along the entire height of the tower, without concentrating on one of the parts.
Despite her British citizenship, Leslie Scott was born in East Africa and speaks both English and Swahili. That's why she gave her game such a catchy, unusual name for the ear.
In addition to the classic version, players have come up with many additional “chips” to diversify and complicate the game. Those who have achieved enchanting heights in tower construction write numbers on the side faces, take a die and move only the block whose number appears on the die. Others, for the sake of fun, depict tasks on the edges (such as playing forfeits), for example, “Tell a joke,” “Imagine a sad rabbit.” The player, moving any block, is obliged to complete the task inscribed on it.
Of course, the manufacturers, seeing such a passion, did not bypass the game with various “replicas” and variations. So, Jenga appeared with multi-colored blocks, a game with an increased number of blocks, a game in which the blocks are increased many times (the tower reaches one and a half meters!), and, of course, application games for all kinds of mobile devices: where blocks are pulled out one at a time movement of the finger.
The article was prepared based on materials
Game description
Video review of the board game Tower from Igroveda!
Reviews and comments (31)
Review | IGROKRAD | 02/23/2019
Stealing the game Jenga, slightly changing the parameters of the blocks (“significant design differences”) and replacing the name with the original Russian one is a worthy response to Obama from a thousand-year-old superpower.Review | Tatyana, Tolyatti | 22.03.2017
About the cubes. Our game also has 4 dice and numbers on the blocks. So, in order for all the blocks to be used, we agreed to arrange them in a random order and pull out a block not only with the number of the amount from the dice, but also with any combination that fell on the dice.Review | Anna, Orenburg | 02/07/2016
There are 4 dice in the set, even if the number 6 comes up in each when thrown, then there will be 24. There are 54 blocks, that is, the maximum number of blocks that can fall is 24, and the rest remain unused, is this how it should be?Answer from the Igroved store: Anna, hello. We assume you have the numbers version of the game. It is probably implied that the lower floors with the bars remain stationary during the game.
Review | Anna, Orenburg | 02/06/2016
How to manage there are 4 dice and 54 blocks.Answer from the Igroved store: Anna, good afternoon. Please clarify your question.
Review | Sergey, Orenburg | 29.11.2015
I saw the same one among my friends, only with a cube and a colored one, you have the same colored one, but there are 3 bars in a row, but I saw exactly 4 in a row, 6 colors and with a cube, I would like just thatAnswer from the Igroved store: Sergey, hello. IN at the moment Our assortment includes only one version of the color game Jenga.
Review | Anastasia, Moscow | 20.11.2015
Hello!Please tell me the sizes of the blocks and their number, for a tower of 3 bars per floor.
Thank you
Answer from the Igroved store: Anastasia, hello! In our assortment there is a game Tower (with a rectangular section of the bars) - beech, in which you need to build 3 blocks per floor. It consists of 54 bars, the size of one is 7.5 cm x 2.4 cm x 1.5 cm.
Review | Dima, Sverdlovsk | 15.05.2015