Board Game of the Week: Word Sweep!

As the shift to electronics and videos continues to increase in pace the need to understand larger and complicated words starts to dwindle due to sources like the thesaurus and the dictionary. However one way to increase your natural dictionary and have a fun time doing so is with the game called Word Sweep!

Word Sweep is a standard and simple game to pick up and understand. To start off, all the players set up their characters at the beginning. Then, after deciding who goes first, the player picks which difficulty they want; Everyday, Intermediate, or Challenging. Then, the player to the left picks the first card within that category and reads off the words and their corresponding definitions. The player who picked the difficulty then has to guess the words correctly, for each word guessed correctly that player get to move one space. The enjoyment of this game lies within the extra rules, The three words on the card appear within dictionary order. Players only get one guess for each word on the card and for each word guessed incorrectly the other players have a chance to steal the word. If all three words are guessed correctly, the player gets to move forwards a space for themselves and must choose a harder difficulty for the next round. Finally guessing all three correctly for intermediate difficulty allows the player to move four spaces instead of three, and guessing all three correctly for challenging allows for five spaces.

The game is simple in nature, really testing each player’s understanding of words and definitions. It however shines because of this simplicity. Having three different categories allows for everyone to enjoy the game, but because of the extra rules everyone will always end being able to guess some words correctly and move forward.

It’s a fun game that tests and expands your word base for people of all ages, and if you’re an English enthusiast this game fits right up your alley.