Grab & Go games from Hasbro

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

There are some games which are just totally timeless in my opinion.  If they happen to be games that can be enjoyed with just two players as well, then quite frankly, they are likely to go down well here.  I’d spotted the Grab & Go games from Hasbro when I was queuing up at our local Post Office recently and the titles just called out to me instantly.  When Hasbro contacted me to see if we’d like to review them the very same day, I couldn’t say yes please quickly enough.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

The range of Grab & Go games from Hasbro includes all my childhood favourites – Monopoly, Battleship, Connect 4 and Guess Who? Each game has been designed with a nifty case to make them perfect for holidays and outdoor adventures this summer.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

The games really are compact and I wish we’d discovered these travel versions before we went to Portugal at the beginning of this month.  But we will definitely be making good use of them going forward, as each of the Grab & Go games from Hasbro would fit easily into a handbag or backpack.

My eight year old son and I were in need of a quiet home day recently so we decided to put each of these games to the test.  We started with the Grab & Go Guess Who? game which is aimed at players aged 6 years and over and is a 2 player game.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro - Guess Who?

When you play Guess Who? for the first time you will need to slot the red and blue character cards into the correct coloured trays.  But once you’ve done this initially, there’s no further set up required for future games.

In case you aren’t familiar with Guess Who?, each player picks a mystery card from the pack and pops it into the card slot at the front of the playing tray.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

Players then take it in turns to ask each other questions to try and identify who the other player’s mystery person might be.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

You can only ask questions that can be answered with a yes or a no.  For example “does the person wear glasses”?  If the answer is yes, then you push down all the character cards who aren’t wearing glasses and vice versa if the answer is yes.

When you think you know who the other player’s mystery person is, when it’s your turn, you ask if it’s that person.  If you are right, you win the game but beware, if you guess incorrectly you lose the game.

Once you’ve decided that you’ve played enough games of Guess Who, the mystery cards slot in between the game trays, which clip together for storage.  The next time you want to play a game, you just unclip the trays, push the character cards back up and you are ready to play.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

Another classic in the Grab & Go games from Hasbro is Connect 4, and I can remember playing this particular game with my brother for hours.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

Aimed at children aged 6 years and over, the only first time set up required with this game is to place the counters in the pillars in each side of the playing grid.  This is also a 2 player game.

The idea of Connect 4 is to be the first player to get four counters of the same colour in a row – horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The first player to do so wins. If neither player gets four in a row, then just play again.

To start playing make sure that the slider tab at the bottom of the playing grid is in the middle, then each player takes turns in placing one of their counters into the columns to try to create their rows.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

You pull the counters out from the bottom of the storage columns as you need them.  My son may not have noticed that his mother had beaten him on this round!

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

Battleship is another game that I remember fondly from my own childhood, with tactical battles against my brother.  The Grab & Go Battleship is a two player game aimed at those aged 7 years and over.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

There is a bit of preparation required before playing Battleship for the first time, but sorting out the various play pieces only takes a minute or two.

Each player takes a game unit and half of the red and white pegs. Red pegs will signify hits and white ones, misses as the game progresses.  Each player has one carrier with five holes, one battleship with four holes, one cruiser and submarine, both with three holes and a destroyer with two holes.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

The idea of the game is to be the first player to sink all of the other player’s ships.  You place your ships on the base grid of the game unit and then take turns to work out where your opponents ships are hiding, using grid references, such as F5.

If you call out a coordinate and your opponent tells you that you’ve hit one of their ships, you place a red peg in the corresponding coordinate on the grid in the lid of the game unit.  If you’ve missed, then you use a white peg instead.  When the other player tries to guess where your ships are, you place the red or white pegs on the base of the unit/on the ships, depending on whether they hit or missed your ships.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

My son got a bit confused the first time we played Battleship with the Grab & Go games from Hasbro.  He kept putting his pegs in the wrong grid, but once we’d figured out where he was going wrong he soon became a dab hand at sinking my battle fleet!

Monopoly is my favourite board game of all time.  That’s not to say that I’m a champion winner, but I just love the challenge.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

It’s not a game I’ve ever been able to persuade my son to try before, so I wasn’t sure he’d try the Grab & Go version, but he surprised me by agreeing to try it.  Aimed at players aged 8 years and over, this is a 2-4 player game.

There is a bit of preparation work to be done before you play the game for the first time and you are meant to stick the main playing board to the travel case, but my son decided he’d prefer to have it just sitting on top of the case.

As this was the first time my eight year old was playing Monopoly we agreed to play a timed game, seeing who was the richest after a couple of hours maximum.  But in the proper game you would play until only one player is left, having bankrupted everyone else.  You can also play a quick game where the banker shuffles all the deeds cards and hands two to each player, who then have to pay the bank for them, before the first dice are rolled.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

My son quickly grasped the basics of the game and as soon as he realised he could buy train stations, he was on a mission.  Of course it almost all went horribly wrong the first time he landed on the ‘Go to Jail’ space on the board.  He was not happy at all, and I guess at that age, I was probably less than impressed to be in jail, not get my £200 and then have three chances to get out of jail before I could play again.

But he did have an uncanny knack of getting all the good deals from Chance and Community Chest with either me or the bank paying him out on numerous occasions, whereas I always seemed to have bills to pay.  Just like real life!

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

It soon became clear that I had a property tycoon on my hands who’d sussed out that Mayfair and Park Lane were the golden tickets and that he really should build houses on them as quickly as possible.  His mother didn’t stand a chance.

Grab & Go games from Hasbro

Certainly he’d won hands down by the time we decided to call time on our game of Monopoly.  But he loved it and has already challenged me to a longer game when we have a free weekend.  Lucky me!  As with all the other Grab & Go games from Hasbro, all the playing pieces fit neatly inside the main playing case when you’ve finished your game.

The Grab & Go games from Hasbro are great in our opinion.  They are perfect to take on holiday and we can thoroughly recommend them all.  I’ve included my Amazon Affiliate links below in case you’d like to purchase them for yourself.


Which one would be your favourite?

disclosure:  we were sent the items mentioned in exchange for an honest review

4 thoughts on “Grab & Go games from Hasbro

  1. I’ve been eyeing these up for a while now – we need to upgrade our games selection ahead of our camping trip this summer.

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