Considering how often I profess that I love dexterity games, I’ve never really liked Jenga. Even that’s an understatement. Jenga stresses me out and makes me want to leave a room. So imagine my surprise when I found Jenga Maker on clearance after Christmas at my local Canadian Tire. Perhaps it was the brightly coloured pieces that drew me in, but at rock bottom prices, I figured worst case, it’ll be a toy for my toddler to play with.

You’re supposed to play Jenga Maker with 4 or more players, split into two teams. One player on each team is the director, while the others are the builders. Each director draws a card, then dictates to their team how to build their structure. The first team to do so, snatches the crown piece, places it on top, then once the other team checks for accuracy, claims a point. The first team to 3 points wins.

It’s a treadmill

Oh. That’s how I knew I’d like Jenga Maker. Real time and dexterity. Love both of those mechanisms right from the start. The Jenga Maker box is thin and doesn’t waste much space. The pieces fit snugly within, but not too snugly that it becomes a challenge to put away at the end of the day. Each of the pieces are hefty and chunky wooden shapes, brightly coloured and really, a joy to handle. There are some interesting shapes beyond the normal tetromino shapes I come to expect.

I don’t recommend playing Jenga Maker with more than 4. Having extra people on each team doesn’t really add to the experience, as you’re still only building one structure per team. The dictator will tell you how to manipulate the yellow piece, one player will grab the yellow piece and start putting it in its place, and the other player(s) just watch the game unfold. Perhaps with lots of practise, directors could give directions to two players at once, but doing so isn’t going to add to the game experience.

A Canoe and a Sword

So, my fallback plan of “being a toy for my toddler” worked tremendously. Lately, she’s taken an interest to my board games, and will often say “I want to play a game”. Having a game like Jenga Maker is the perfect solution. Sometimes she loves drawing a card and just following the recipe, creating whatever is depicted. And sometimes she’ll just want to stack all the pieces together to create a boat or a castle. Either way, the wooden pieces are fun to manipulate, are weighted and balance well, and when she joyfully collapses whatever has been built up, there’s no harm to any of the pieces.

I can’t recommend Jenga Maker for much. I paid ~$10 for it, and it was a worthy investment for me. That said, I recently saw it again at a different store for $25, which is a bit more than I’d be willing to pay for it if I were looking for a gift. Jenga Maker does make a great gift for any child who likes stacking blocks, as they’re fun shapes to play with, and come with decks of ideas for what to build, if you can find one at the right price. I do love playing this with my toddler, and she loves it too. It’s kinetic, colourful, and nearly indestructible. But as a frowny face ‘serious’ board game, it’s a fine activity.

A “castle”, according to a 3-year-old