Even without the fun banana-shaped packaging, Bananagrams is one of those classic board games that will be around as long as Monopoly and Scrabble. You need a pretty big table to play it on, though, which is why when traveling you might want to bring Zip It instead.
Instead of the letter tiles that Bananagrams players use, Zip It comes with 24 letter-covered cubes that two players split and each use to assemble their own crossword-style grid. The first to arrange all 12 of their cubes, using letters from any of the sides, into connected words wins that round and advances the zipper on the game’s carrying case that cleverly doubles as a scoreboard.
The first player to win ten rounds claims victory, and because each player only has to wrangle and arrange just 12 tiny cubes, the $13 Zip It is compact enough to even be played on a plane’s cramped tray table. You’ll just want to keep your trash talking quiet lest an air marshall gets suspicious. [Bananagrams]
