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Monday, March 21, 2016

Sorry! (Game Review)

Bobble is a fan of all games, not just card games. I saw one of the older versions of Sorry! at a yard sale last summer, and I insisted we buy it. It was only $0.50. Hard to argue that price! Up until that point, Bobble hadn’t played many board games other than his Super Why game and Chutes & Ladders. The Sorry! board isn’t as animated or bright, but he didn’t care. He was just excited to learn the game.



Sorry! is a 4 player game that is recommended for ages 6 and up. The basic premise of Sorry! is to get your 4 pawns out of start and into home. The first person to get all 4 pawns into Home first is the winner. The rules of the newest version of Sorry! is quite different, and please keep that in mind while reading this. I am playing with an older version that had the same rules as I grew up playing. In the older version, you can only move a pawn out of start if you draw a 1, a 2, or a Sorry! card. You can only move a pawn from your start and take the place of an opponent’s pawn on the board (their pawn goes back to their start) when you draw a Sorry! card. If nobody is out to use a Sorry! card on, you can’t move. The 2 card lets you move and then draw again. The 4 card makes you move backwards 4 spaces. The 7 card can be split between two pawns, or you can move one pawn forward 7 spaces. A 10 makes you move forwards 10 spaces or backwards 1. An 11 has you move 11 spaces forward, or you can switch places with an opponent on the board. The 3, 5, 8, and 12 cards only allow you to move forward that number. If you cannot move that number, you forfeit your turn.


As you can see, some of the instructions cards have more information on them than simply moving a pawn forward that number. Because of this, I was concerned Bobble wouldn’t be able to play for a while since he can’t read.

… I was wrong.

We would read what the cards said to him when we first started playing, but you’d be surprised at how well he retained that information. He knows what every single card can and cannot do. He cannot read yet, but that doesn’t stop him from understanding the somewhat complex rules (well, complex if you can’t read the instructions on the card!) and even beating us.

The biggest challenge Bobble has with Sorry! is not the instruction cards, but strategizing. He tends to target one person, usually his father, and then do whatever it takes to keep knocking that person off. Even if his dad had just gotten his first pawn onto the board (none in home) and someone else has 2 pawns in home and 2 pawns on the board, he would sorry his father instead. Sometimes that would make the other person win, within a couple turns, but he was happy so long as it wasn’t his target winning.

He’s getting over that novelty of just attacking someone and sabotaging their game play (thankfully, because my husband is really sick of it!), and now he’s considering what might be best for him before he moves. He still tends to move the first pawn he sees instead of looking at all his options, but he’s getting much better about it as a general whole. It took about 2 months of game play before he started trying to strategize versus sabotage.

Classic Sorry! looks different than the one pictured above, newer versions of Sorry! look very different, and the 2013 version only has 3 pawns and some fire and ice power ups. I’ve not played the newer version, though I’ve read that one power up makes a pawn move much faster around the board, the other can freeze them in place. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this, but I’m quite content with this older version of Sorry!... especially since mine only cost $0.50.

Classic Sorry! and the newer version with original rules can be purchased at most retailers for about $20, and the newer version for about $10.


Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the contents of this post. All products mentioned were purchased by me, and all opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. 

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