Blink

• Key Stage 2: 7 to 11 yrs
• Key Stage 3: 11 to 14 yrs
• Key Stage 4: 14 to 16 yrs

The Multi-Award Winning Blink is the lightening fast game where two or more players race to be the first to play all their cards. Using sharp eyes and fast hands, players quickly try to match the shape, number of shapes or colour on the cards. The first player out wins! Combine two sets together and watch as the competitiveness unfolds...

A set of crisply printed and colourful Blink cards includes 60playing cards, presented in a tin case embossed with the Blink logo. Fitting perfectly in your pocket, they can be taken anywhere, ideal for traveling and holidays!

'Blink' Review by Ben Rainbird, The Actor

Blink is possibly the most accurately titled game I’ve ever played. It’s fast, very fast. Faster than the speed of light - almost! So fast that if you, ahem, blink, you’ll miss it...

Billed as a two-player game, although I see no obstacle to more people playing it, the basic objective of Blink is to lose all your cards as quickly as possible. At the beginning of the game, each player is dealt an equally sized draw pile, then the top card from each is placed face down between the players. Each player then takes the top three cards from his or her pile, and the game begins as the face-down cards on the table are flipped over.

The players, without taking turns, then race to play cards from their hands as quickly as possible, instantly replacing cards they play with cards from the draw pile, so that they always have three cards in their hand. Here’s the important part: all the cards have different symbols on them - stars, moons, thunderbolts, clouds and so forth, all in varying numbers and colours. A card can only be played if the shape, colour or number of objects on the card matches the one you’re going to slap it down on, and as everyone will be constantly playing cards onto the middle of the table, you’ll have to be very fast if you want to avoid falling behind. The players continue like this until someone runs out of cards and wins.

A good one to play with children, not least because they don’t have to take turns. I think adults will like it too (I certainly do), it’s an extremely quick game to play, lasting as little as 1 minute per round if the players are fast enough. Things can get quite competitive, sometimes with players slapping down cards at the same time, which makes me thankful the cards don’t have sharp corners, otherwise a roll of bandages would become necessary in more heated games. This game is definitely slanted more towards the fun side of the ‘Family Fun’ spectrum, although no doubt it would aid younger children in shape recognition, not to mention developing their reflexes.

As for presentation, the cards are crisply printed and colourful, and it comes in nicely solid-feeling tin case embossed with the Blink logo, which will fit nicely in a pocket. Ideal for travel and holidays. Suitable for people with dyslexia. All in all, a great fast-play card game that you can take anywhere, anytime, Blink gets a thumbs up from me.