LEGO Creationary Game (3844)

So I tried to jam three or four of the large, flat pieces into the XBOX's DVD tray. I kept getting read errors. Tried the Wii, I couldn't even get the pieces to suck into the media slot. I even pulled a couple of the old cartridge-based gaming systems out of the basement, built the appropriate sized cartridge out of LEGO bricks, and hooked it up to the TV. No luck there, either!So I finally called support. I was on hold FOR-EVER. Probably like, 30 seconds. That's ridiculous enough, but when the tech finally picks up, I'm connected to some Scandinavian call center out in who-knows-where. First thing's first, I ask the guy about his accent. He says it's *Danish*. Dude can't even put down his breakfast pastry to answer a support call?! Someone's DEFINITELY getting an anonymous flaming blog comment post about *that.* So I tell him about the problems I'm having. He keeps interrupting, clearly trying to follow some canned support script for beginners. DUDE, I'm TECHNICAL, OKAY? Skip your basic troubleshooting and let me tell you what I think the problem is!Anyway, so he says it won't run on ANY console or computer system. I say EXACTLY, that's why I'm calling. It won't run. He says right. I say so what do I do now? I already spent like, two hours trying to figure out where to install the batteries, so I know it's not THAT kind of game. He says it doesn't take batteries. I say yeah, I just said that, so I must be missing the power adapter, and I ask if he can overnight one to me. He says there's no adapter, I say right, there's no power adapter. Then silence. Hello? I ask...You still there? Yes, he says. I say great, so can you send me a power adapter. He says "sir, there's no power adapter for this game." I say yeah, we've established that, you gonna send me a new one? He says there's not one to send. I say okay, how long's the backorder for replacement parts? He says no, they'll never get one in stock, because they don't exist.Don't exist?!? Place sounds more like "SCAMdinavia" if you ask me!I tell him as much, and ask to speak to his supervisor. After two more escalations and another 137 minutes of this whole "who's on first" routine and the next guy asks if I even read the manual! Again...I'm TECHNICAL. We don't NEED manuals!So anyway, I guess I'll keep an eye on their support site, see if they release new firmware or something. Meantime, we're playing with all the pieces. It's actually kind of fun...They've got these little picture cards in there (probably for some sort of TCG promotional tie-in) and my kid got the idea of trying to use the pieces to make little abstract versions of the pictures on the cards, while others try to guess at what the builder is making. Sometimes it's pretty easy, like a little house or a sailboat. Other times, it's a bit tricky, like a Taj Mahal. (Here's a little recommendation if you try that one: don't build to full scale. Five or six hours in, and you'll be out of space in your living room.)But either way, it's quite a bit of fun for the whole family......Unless one of your family members would choke on small parts. Or if Uncle Carl doesn't have enough manual dexterity to manipulate LEGO blocks. I mean, he'd probably still have a *little* fun, but only the guessing part, not the building part. Unless he's also recently lost his vision because he was looking at the sun during that eclipse even though the TV news guy said not to look directly at the sun or you could permanently damage your vision...then I suppose the guessing part would be pretty difficult for him, and since he also can't build, then the whole game would probably suck from his perspective. Why did you invite Uncle Carl to play, anyway? Didn't you realize how uncomfortable it'd be for the rest of us??So in summary: Doesn't plug in. Doesn't take batteries. Not a computer or console game. Fun for everyone who won't choke on it, except for Uncle Carl.

Though some of the fun in picture guessing games is seeing how bad people draw and still manage to guess the right answer, this game helps those who are constantly excluded for their poor skills. Its basically look at the picture card, build it with legos the best you can, and have a blast. It may just be a chance for the tables to turn on the great drawers! Kids and adults alike can play and all cards are appropriate (with some funny potty humor but no innuendoes). Love this game!UPDATE: I noticed that some of the newer critical reviews mentioned that it doesn't come with "alot" of LEGOs. Believe me, when it comes down to it, you don't need a lot. And if you do need more(and you are presumably someone who has access to more LEGOs because you bought it), just add more! Can you imagine how big of a box you would need to fill EVERYONE'S desire for that one part? The fun is in guessing, not how great of a master you are at making a LEGO masterpiece. Its supposed to be challenging to guess or it would just be called "make a lego design game and then its your neighbor's turn."

Keeping it short and sweet, this set has been great. My 5 year old isn't really interested in the playing the game, but she LOVES the idea of looking at a picture and then having to recreate it in lego. Of course you don't need to the game to do this, you could just pick up a magazine and point to a picture lol, but the cards have hundreds of things on them. For sure at her age she needs help with them so it's a great way to buddy system. Usually she has me make the main item and then she makes whatever supplements we'd need. like if we pull a house out of the stack she'll make a stove and microwave while i build the house. Kind of nice extension of the game really, pulling things she's not familiar with and letting her figure out some things that object might be complimentary to.Definitely there's not enough pieces to make anything grand but honestly the point of the game is to be quick and small but accurate enough that a teammate could guess the object. So in the context of the actual game the number of pieces are probably ok, but for the variation we've been playing i needed to order one of the generic brick supplements.This is really a great toy though.

Another couple brought this game over to play yesterday. I've never built anything with Legos before, so I was skeptical at first. But it was a total blast. Don't get too caught up in accurately portraying what's on the card. You just need to do it good enough so other's can guess. (Guessing is half the fun.) For us, choosing the color of bricks we used was one of the most important clues to our build. Someone had a nature category and they started building with green legos and already we were shouting out..frog, alligator, leaf...etc. The little man lego is very helpful for building context around your item too. Believe me, none of the things we built actually LOOKED like the things on the card, but it was a riot. We played very quickly and only spent more than 5 minutes on a couple of builds (andwe used mostly the hardest category cards.) I do agree sometimes the categories don't seem right. For instance, none of us thought 'alarm clock' should be on the EASY card, but it was. I'm already buying this game for my 11 year old nephew and I look forward to playing it with him and others.