Are you looking for a fun, engaging way to learn the different states and US geography? You’ve come to the right place! Scrambled States is definitely the most fun way to learn where different states are, and their capitals, too.
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Gamewright Games made Scrambled States, and I have yet to meet a Gamewright game I don’t like. In fact, everything I’ve heard about nearly every Gamewright game is positive – they’re just that good, and Scrambled States is no exception.
How to play
There are two kinds of cards: ones with blue backs and ones with red backs. There are 50 cards with blue backs; these are the cards with the states on them. Each card has the state name, a picture that turns the outline of the state into a face (they’re really cute!), the capital, and the nickname.
Everyone is dealt five of the state cards. The premise is that the states all had a party and got all mixed up, but now need help finding their way home.
The cards with the red backs are the ones you’re using to determine which state you get to send “home.” Some of them are about where the states are located, like “North of Nebraska” or “Touches Tennessee.” Others have to do with the capital or the nickname. Some are just about what color the state is colored on its card and on the map, or whether it’s showing teeth. There are enough that are geography-oriented that everyone is going to learn where the states go, but enough other cards to keep it fun.
Some of the Scramble cards are “Go the Distance” cards. When one of these is flipped over, flip over one of the State cards that’s in the stack. Whoever has a state that’s closest gets to send that state home.
Now that my family has been traveling the US for a bit and actually visited several states, we need to play this game again. I bet we’ll all be better at our geography!
Scrambled States is easy to modify
They also include rule modifications to use for younger players and non-readers, removing a lot of the competition. (Usually, it’s whoever finds a matching card first gets to send that card home, while in this modification, anyone with at least one matching card can send that card home.) They also have some suggestions for house rules to try. I love that Gamewright acknowledges that people do create their own house rules. They don’t get uptight about whether the published rules are followed like some game manufacturers.