When Garden Games contacted me way back in October to ask me to review their ‘Giant Jenga‘ game, I laughed and laughed and laughed before replying, “You know I live in Scotland where it rains 364 days of the year, right?” by way of a response. I mean seriously, who in their right mind would buy a garden game when you live in a country with permanent rainy season?!

Luckily, the folks at Garden Games were happy with an indoor review. Phew!

I must admit that when the bag arrived I had a, “Is that it?!” moment as the bag looked significantly smaller than it appeared in the product listing

Caution: Objects on the internet may appear larger than in real life.

but once unpacked, it was clear that this would be a sufficient amount of solid wooden weapons at a perfect size for my little savages to clutch in a single fist.

We tried – repeatedly – to get the kids to settle nicely and play a FUN FAMILY GAME together without the TV or laptop on. They quickly realised that the fun was to make the pieces collapse as quickly as possible for maximum carnage and injury to siblings/parents/pets and so made a point of pulling out pieces from three or four rows from the bottom. The first time they did this I thought someone had driven a truck through my living room wall, the noise of the wooden blocks hitting my hardwood floor made me soil myself. Two black eyes, a possibly broken nose and an entire family relationship severed later we decided that perhaps this might be better as an adult game. Of course, having the giant pieces of wood lying attractively in a bag within reach of the kids meant that a variable slew of imaginative games was created utilising the blocks as props. My personal favourite was ‘Cowboys and Indians’ where #2 son (as the Indian) threw a succession of blocks at #1 daughter (as the Cowboy) in lieu of axes. Luckily we think it was only concussion, at least the dent in her head seems to be filling back out and she was only unconscious for about 15 minutes.

After removing the bag to somewhere far from the reach of little thugs, we decided that perhaps we should indulge in a game of strip jenga. Removing one item of clothing every time you made the tower collapsed was indeed a time-consuming method of titillation and by the time I was down to my bra, I just wanted to go to sleep. Also, my neighbours complained about us stripping in the garden too so all-round bad times on that front. We settled for naked twister instead which was a far more fun event for all the family. (Note: Not ALL the family. Just Bob & I.)

At £50 for the ‘Mega hi-tower in a bag’ it’s a pricey bit of kit and I think if your children were the Waltons or the Von Trapps, if you frequently have BBQs with friends – or God forbid, neighbours – where everyone wears checked shirts and sandy-coloured slacks with creases down the front then this is absolutely the game for you.

If – like me – your children are wild, your climate is wet, your floors are not carpeted and £50 is a bit of a stretch then I’d steer clear.

I was not paid for this review. Garden Games provided a free-of-charge Mega Hi-Tower in its bag in exchange for a review and a link to the product page.

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