Crew Review: Fractazmic

The Crew reviewed a game from I See Cards last year and so many of them were having such fun with the game (Pyramath) I knew that when they showed up on the Vendor list again this year I had to give them a try! This year they offered Fractazmic for review.  Fractazmic (if you haven't figured it out from the name!) is a fractions card game.

The 60 cards are brightly colored and sturdy (good for little hands!) with cute graphics that reinforce the learning of fractions. The game is intended for 2-4 players, ages 7+. The cards are divided into three sets, (with different colors, fraction sets, and graphics):

• Blue - twelfths (using an egg carton)
• Red - sixteenths (a ruler and cute little bugs)
• Green - tenths (a water bottle)

The game comes with a set of basic instructions and more instructions and game ideas (along with videos of game-play) can be found here. Basically, for each round of play, you try to make "hands" of cards, with the fractions totaling up to 1. Nick had to make me a cheat sheet because my fractions skills are very rusty! (Sometimes it's nice to have a mathy guy around the house!) The game was difficult for TJ but I found instructions for another game (Fractazmic Trap) and was able to come up with a simplified game to play with her. I think you could also just use those cards your child knows (like 1/4s and 1/2s, etc.) to play a game on their level.

Our thoughts: We struggled a bit when we first received this game - the directions weren't as clear as we would have liked. Thankfully, we found some videos on youtube and the visual helped us figure out how to play. The game is very fun once you know what you are doing! TJ isn't ready for the full version of this game - it's too advanced for her limited understanding of fractions (goodness, I need a cheat sheet for it!) but we played a simplified version of the Fractazmic Trap game using just the blue cards and she could easily play that.

I do like this game (aside from the awkwardly written instructions - I do think that those could have been much clearer) and will certainly be using it much more when TJ is older. I will definitely be using this as a reinforcement when she starts working on fractions.

Fractazmic can be purchased online for $6.95. My Crew Mates had fun with this game - be sure to read their reviews at the Crew blog.


Now for the fine print… I received this product free of charge in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was provided.