Jenga

Everyone’s heard of Jenga, and not just because it’s been around since 1983! For many of us, Jenga will have been the dexterity game we grew up with. Playing this tower-building game is almost like a rite of passage…

The rules are so simple, it’ll take you longer to set the tower up than it will to explain them! The tower consists of rectangular wooden blocks, packed together in a tight formation. They sit three to a row, thus making the shape of a square, if you view the tower from above. You stack the tower so blocks always sit 90° above each other. (So one row faces north to south, and the next east to west. Then north to south again, and so on.) It starts out as a rather sturdy design. But not for long!

On your turn, you have to remove one of these blocks. You can pick which block to take, providing it’s not one from the top-most completed row. Tapping blocks to see if any are looser than others is legal. In fact, if you nudge any, you can opt to leave them in disarray (at your own peril, of course)! You’re only allowed to use one hand to remove a block. Cue everyone around the game wince as the tower threatens to lean to and fro. You’ll wiggle… and wriggle… will the tower remain in one piece?

If you’re successful, you place your block on the top of the tower, obeying the stacking rules. If the tower falls? You lose! Jenga is a timeless classic, published by Hasbro.

Player Count: 1-8 Players
Time: 20 minutes
Age: 6+