Word on the Street is an educational tabletop game for two to eight players, split into two teams where players need to capture letters to win.
Dann’s phone is full of spelling games. He can spell so many different words and basically is a walking dictionary. So it was only a matter of time until he found a tabletop game that used spelling and quickly knowing words to his advantage. The board for Word on the Street is actually quite different; it’s a long board that divides the group into two. No matter how many players you have, you will be split into two teams, which are then pitted against each other. In the middle of the board, there are all of the letters in the alphabet, except vowels, X and Z.
When it is your group’s turn, they will pull a card out of the box and then read what the card says. This is the category for your round. These cards say stuff like “something that hops” or “a vegetable” or “a famous actress”. Your group needs to decide on a word that fits that category that they then can spell. They then start moving the letters of the word towards your side of the board. Letters can move two spaces from the middle, and on the third move, fall off the board into your points area. The other team, however, is in charge of a 30 second timer. Teams need to be able to come up with the word and spell it correctly within that time to move the letters.
Then, the card box and timer switch sides, and the other team needs to do exactly that. These letters will move back and forth, sometimes hitting their starting middle box, and other times falling out of play. You can still spell words if they do not have letters left to move, however, you will not be scoring those letters that are already scored. The winning team is whichever team gets eight letters first.
Word on the Street is a challenging game. There is something about a timer ticking down that makes you lock up and suddenly you can only name a footballer as something that would be on a football pitch. Often, I found myself spelling words that scored me no points, but as the timer ticked down, I didn’t have anything else come to mind.
Word on the Street has two different difficulties, with the yellow side of the cards being easier than the blue side, in case you want more challenging categories to play around with. Dann seemed to really enjoy his time playing Word on the Street, as we played against each other, but if you don’t know many big words or how to spell then it’s tough playing against such a smart player! I did get to learn a few new words though, and had a good time playing. It’s a great educational game to add to your board game collection.
You can find Word on the Street on Amazon.
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