Scrabble Flash {Review & Giveaway}

{This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Mama V!}

My husband will strongly tell you that playing board or card games with me is not really all that fun of an experience.

I can't help it, I'm a sore loser. I'll admit it, I really am.

Things will be going fine and dandy and then when they start going downhill for me, I just don't want to play anymore. Who wants to lose? I'm sure someday I'll be lying on a couch telling a therapist that it's all because I could never beat my older brother at games when we were younger and hopefully said therapist will tell me to just get over yourself and grow up.

Needless to say, the last time I played Scrabble it was years ago and it was online with a friend of mine. And, since I'm such a baby, here she was playing along nicely while I was sitting there being a Scrabble Cheater. Let's just say that sometimes the internet makes it far too easy to find the answers in a few easy clicks. I told you I'm not fun to play games with, right?

However, Hasbro has come out with a way to make it so that I'm having so much fun at Scrabble that even if I don't win, I'm still having a blast - and, better yet, there's even a one player option so that when I lose, it's just to myself. But now that I'm addicted to Scrabble Flash, losing is almost part of the excitement because that just means that I get to try again and again!

The winner of the Toy Industry Association's 2010 Game of the Year award, I consider Scrabble Flash to be one of those rare games that is just as much fun when you're playing solo as well as against someone else. It's all about the challenge!

Right out of the box, I was already interested in the cute little red tiles and the fact that there is no setup required before diving right in to play.

Simply line up the five electronic letter tiles so that they're touching in a row and, by pressing the button on just one of them, all five are powered on and ready to go.

Then simply choose one of the three solo or competitive games and you're set to shuffle, slide and swap the tiles around to form as many three, four and five letter words as you can in 75 seconds.

I love how the tiles flash and beep with each word that you make - there are times that I have put letters together on a whim and ended up surprised that they were something more than just jibberish!

When your time starts to run out, the tiles alert you so that you can hurry to get any last points accumulated. Within moments of the game ending, your score is displayed and then the maximum number of points that had been possible.

My first run-through I scored an eight, which I thought wasn't too bad... until I saw that the max had been 17. Well, of course I can beat that! Next time up...

There, that's better. 13 out of 17 isn't too shabby.

Oh, wait a second.

Well then, I just have to play again!

And again!

When I can finally take a break from having a blast trying to beat my score, I have also found that Scrabble Flash has been a really fun way to work on letters and spelling with Big Sister E.

She loves the way the tiles flash and make noise and the time limit on them seems to be just the right amount for us to talk about all five letters and their sounds and what words they might make before the game ends and we start over with a new set of letters. So not only is this a great game but an educational tool as well!

And, when you're finally able to tear yourself away from playing or learning with it, a huge bonus to Scrabble Flash is that all five of the tiles store conveniently away in their own small storage box.

It's so small and portable that you could bring this game anywhere and all you really need is a flat surface and you're ready to play once again - and it will be a new experience each and every time!

Designed for ages 8 and up, Scrabble Flash retails for $29.99 from Hasbro and is also available for $26.99 from Amazon. It comes with the letter tiles, storage box, rules and batteries, so all you have to do is take it out of the box and you're set to put your brain to work.

But as well as appealing to wordsmiths with Scrabble Flash, Hasbro has also launched a new Facebook page dedicated to all things Scrabble. Word lovers of all levels will find daily word challenges, words of the day, coupon offers, Scrabble news and tips, online gaming, and more. If you love Scrabble, you'll definitely want to check it out on Facebook!

Thanks to the generosity of Hasbro, one person will be able to try to see just how many Scrabble words that they know, because...

One lucky person will win Scrabble Flash from Hasbro!

To enter to win: Visit Hasbro and tell me another of their amazing items that you would like to own.

Extra Entries (available after the mandatory entry above is completed; please leave a separate comment for each entry in order for them to be counted).

1 Extra Entry (per method) if you follow Hasbro on Twitter and/or Like them on Facebook.
1 Extra Entry (per giveaway entered) - Enter any (or all) of the giveaways running on Thanks, Mail Carrier for the duration of this giveaway.
1 Extra Entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway by copying and pasting the tweet below and leaving me the link. Tweet daily for an extra entry every day!

WIN Hasbro's new Scrabble Flash (ARV $30), a fast-paced, quick-thinking great time! #thxmailcarrier http://bit.ly/dEP24r #giveaway #win

2 Extra Entries (per follow method) if you follow me publicly with Google Friend Connect, subscribe to my RSS feed, subscribe to Thanks, Mail Carrier by email or become a fan on Facebook.
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Giveaway will end on March 30th at 11:59pm CST. Do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile, I have to have a way to contact the winner. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

A big thank you to Hasbro for providing Scrabble Flash for review as well as for one lucky giveaway winner. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.