ThinkFun Zingo
by ThinkFun
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Toys and Games Reviews of ThinkFun Zingo
Customer Review: SFC 4 star review
Summary: 4 Stars
Reviewed by: Stories for Children Magazine editor, VS Grenier
I'm sure you've played Bingo sometime in your life, but have you ever played Zingo? Zingo is Bingo, but with a Zing instead of a Bing. Well that is what the box says anyway. In fact, I found Zingo much more fun then regular Bingo. We got this game as a present last Christmas. Ok, I know what you're thinking, "Why did it take you a whole YEAR to play this game if it's really that much fun?"
Well the truth is, I have a lot of board and card games. We do play games a lot as a family and we tend to play our favorites more than anything. What made me finally take the shrink wrap off the Zingo game and open the box was my two-year-old daughter. Yeah, yeah . . . I know that the box says for ages 4 to 8, but believe it or not, my daughter was able to play the game and enjoyed it.
So how do you play the game, right? Well each player has to take a Zingo (Bingo-like card) card. What makes the Zingo card different is . . . it's two-sided. One side is for easy play and the other side is for harder play. Ok, now each player has their card. You need to decide if you want to play the easy or hard side of the cards. ALL players have to be on the same side. Now you pick a dealer. That's right . . . a dealer. But the dealer isn't dealing cards. This dealer is dealing the chips you place on the Zingo card. How this works is with the Zinger. The deal slides the Zinger back and forward to reveal the two picture/words. Each player must call out the name of the picture on the chip they need before they can take it to be placed on their card. This then covers a space on the Zingo card. You play until one player has "black-out" . . . meaning all spaces are covered by Zingo chips.
So now you know how to play, get out and Zingo!
Customer Review: Great For Pre Kindergarten and Non Readers
Summary: 5 Stars
How many bingo games are there for little kids? Not a lot that are as fun as Zingo!
We have used our game over and over. The red case is filled with hard yellow tiles that are hidden until slid forward into slots.
Two tiles show at a time.
Each player has a Zingo card filled with pictures. Each card is two sided, one red, one green. One color set of cards contains more shared items on a card. The other set has fewer shared items.
The object of the game is to have the dealer slide the tiles forward for show and any player that has a matching picture on their card yells out the name of the picture. If they are the first to call it out, they get the tile. The first person to cover all the pictures on their Zingo card gets to yell (and in our house it gets rather loud) ZINGO!
Two or more players may have a need for the same tile but it is the first to call it out that gets it.
We always start by reading off the items on our cards. That gears the kids up to thinking about what they will need to look for and reinforces the picture/word relationship. Each picture has the matching word underneath on the cards as well as the tiles.
It does become a little mundane for parents but it is an easy game to play in 5 minutes and can be played over and over before a child gets bored.
I would recommend this for children ages 3-7.
Customer Review: Great Intergenerational Bingo Game!!
Summary: 5 Stars
My kids loved this bingo game, particularly my younger son. It is mostly a game of luck, but also reflexes, because the first person to call out that they have the picture on the chip on their card, gets to keep the chip.
We used to take this to a nursing home to play with the seniors. It is perfect for that situation (a 4 year old and a couple of seniors), because it is a simple, familiar game, and the graphics are simple and easy for everyone to identify.
And, for my son, half the fun of this game was setting it up (stacking the chips in the dispenser) and sliding the dispenser forward and back to reveal the chips.
Highly recommended for the preschool/early elementary set. My son is 6 now, and he still pulls this out sometimes, but he has a hard time convincing his 11 and 9 year old siblings to play.
An option for older children, which has the same type of dispenser (and the dispenser is what makes this game) is "Smart Mouth", which dispenses two letters and players have to shout out a word that begins with the first letter and ends with the second.
Customer Review: Bingo with a Zing
Summary: 5 Stars
My four year old daughter received this game for Christmas and we've played it at least everyday since then. Zingo is a unique twist on Bingo that uses picture (and word) tiles instead of letters and numbers. One player is the dealer and calls out what the two tiles are (example: Panda, Cat) and the first person who has that picture on their card to call out "wins" that tile. This is where the game gets fun and in our case a little loud, with everyone calling out to try and get the tile before someone else. The first person who fills in their card and yells ZINGO wins. It's nice to have a lot of beginning reader words/pictures and the game cards are very sturdy and are two sided. The tile slider is easy to load -- even for kids. I hope that ThinkFun comes out with supplemental cards and tiles, as I could see that these tiles might get a little old after awhile.
My four year old and my seven year old nieces really enjoy this game -- the older girls don't think it's a "baby" game and my four year old is recognizing words and is "reading" like her older cousins. ZINGO is a great addtion for family game night.
Customer Review: Great game for kids 3 and older
Summary: 5 Stars
Sat down to play this game with my 7 & 5 1/2 year old boys and an almost 3 year old (B-day next month) girl and they all thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a very durable game - cards won't bend and the pieces are big enough and made of sturdy plastic that won't easily break either. Game is listed for 4 and up, but my little girl had no problem playing and keeping up. They all took turns running the Zingo machine to dispense the tiles and all helped with reloading the tiles. A previous reviewer said that was tedious, but if you let the kids do it it's a great way to improve fine motor skills. For older kids, they can play more than one board at a time. I didn't notice a big difference btwn the red and green side of the boards. This is even a game that a child could play on their own, by just matching. Game also helps to improve memory so that you can get tiles before your opponent. Another plus is that the game isn't too big, so you won't lose storage space. Highly recommend for ages 3+. My older kids (11, 9 & 7) love playing this with the younger ones because it is straight forward with no complex rules.