We love to play board games, card games and tabletop games, and as you have landed here, you probably do to. They are a perfect way to spend some good quality family time together, chat and catch up with others whilst having laughs and fun. We love to play a variety of games, and we also like to play games that educate as well as well as entertain. One such game that we have been enjoying playing is a maths game called Möbi from The Happy Puzzle Company. Möbi is a tabletop game that uses numbers and operations tiles to create basic maths equations, a game that puts basic maths skills to the test.
As I said, Möbi is a maths game, an educational game that focuses on basic maths skills whilst still having fun gameplay. It is a fun, fast-paced numerical tile game where young children can learn and apply basic maths skills whilst playing with their friends and family. Think of it as Scrabble combined with Bananagrams, just with numbers instead of letters.
Most games are supplied in a box of some sort, but Möbi is supplied in an extremely cool zippered pouch that looks like a blue whale.
In the whale pouch:
- 162 Tiles – number tiles, operation tiles and wildcard tiles
- Instructions
Möbi is a game for 1-6 players, aged 6+ with a playing time of around 15 to 20 minutes. It is a quick-thinking numeracy game that puts maths skills to the test in a crossword pattern of mathematical equations. Whether you use simple or complex equations, rules of operation must be followed (BIDMAS/BODMAS). To win the game, you must be the first player to use up all your tiles once the tiles in the middle of the table have been used. And, of course, the equations you create must have the right answer!
With no playing board to play on, Möbi can be played anywhere – all you need is a flat surface. That makes setting up to play very simple. All you need to do is unzip the whale, remove the tiles and place all the number tiles (blue tiles) face down in the centre of the playing surface and place all the double-sided operation tiles within easy reach of the players. Depending on how many players there are determines how many number tiles each player has:
- 2-4 players, each player takes 7 number tiles
- 5-6 players, each player takes 5 number tiles
No player has any operation tiles, they are accessible to everybody and can be used when needed.
There is no taking of turns in this game, all players play at the same time. The idea is to build pods – a collection of equations that looks like a crossword grid. Players must build functioning equations with the correct answer with each equation having at least one operation sign (+, -, x or ÷) and an = sign, and the answer to be correct (e.g., 2+2=4, 2+2=3+1, 2+2=9-5 etc.). When building equations with more than one operation tile, the correct order of operations (BODMAS or BIDMAS, they both mean the same thing) must be followed – so 2+2×3 would equal 8, not 12 (you do the multiplication first and then the addition so it would be 2 added to 2×3). When a player has one tile remaining in their pile they shout out “Flip” resulting in All PLAYERS taking 3 more number tiles from the communal pile in the centre. If a player can’t use a number tile they can shout “SWAP” and change that number for TWO other tiles from the communal pile. Play continues until there are no tiles left in the communal pool and the winner will be the first player to use all of their tiles. The first player to use up all their tiles shouts out “MÖBI” bringing the game to a pause whilst their equations are checked – if all their sums are correct, they are the winner, if any sum is incorrect then they are disqualified, and their played tiles are placed back into the communal pool and play continues with the remaining players.
The above is the standard way to play Möbi but there are also five other fun ways to play, from solo play to team play, maths beginners to experts:
- Möbi for Children: Want to make Möbi more kid-friendly? Remove the multiplication and division tiles from the game. In addition, feel free to take out the number ‘11’ and ‘12’ tiles if you wish. Follow traditional game play once these tiles are removed.
- Möbi for Experts: Want to make Möbi more challenging? When ‘FLIP!’ is called, adjust the number of tiles picked up from THREE to ONE or TWO. This will ensure that with each ‘FLIP!’, all players must rearrange at least one of their existing equations.
- Solo Möbi: Want to play by yourself? Challenge yourself to a time challenge. Start with 7 tiles and follow traditional game play. Take new tiles (‘FLIP!’) only once all your tiles have been used. Time yourself to see how fast you can complete your ‘Pod’! Feel free to remove a portion of the communal ‘number’ tiles to speed up the game if you wish.
- Chill Möbi: Too much stress with all this ‘FLIP!’ and ‘SWAP!’ business? Try starting the game with all the ‘number’ tiles distributed equally among players. This way players don’t need to ‘FLIP!’ or ‘SWAP!’ throughout the game. Players compete to finish their ‘Pod’ first.
- Team Möbi: Prefer to play in a pod of your own? Form teams of two or three. Each team takes 7 tiles. One player from each team starts the team’s ‘Pod’ upon ‘GO!’. Once the first ‘FLIP!’ is called, the second player from each team jumps in and takes over. If there is a third player, they take over after the second ‘FLIP!’ and the team cycles through turns until the game is complete. Note: Each team is only working on one ‘Pod’ throughout the entire game.
Overall, Möbi is an excellent fun and educational game. It is fantastic to play and helps to improve and reinforce basic maths skills – not just the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division but also BODMAS. We have loved it, despite the kids not wanting to do maths (once they started playing, they really got into it).
We love that it is a quick game to play (around 15-20 minutes) and that it can be played almost anywhere – with no board needed and the zip-up pouch it makes it an extremely portable travel game. No turn-taking and everybody playing at the same time speeds up the game and there are no arguments as to whose turn it is or who starts first.
The rules of the game are simple to understand and the game is easily adapted for different age groups, skill levels or even a single player. The number tiles range from 1 to 12, so you can’t make massive sums which does somewhat limit the equations you can make but makes it easier for children to work out the correct answers (although you may want a calculator present just to check when answers are in dispute).
When playing as a family with a variety of age ranges, adults and more confident players may have to make some allowances for the youngest players as their maths skills might be at slower pace. You can easily adjust the rules to suit your family needs.
We have loved playing Möbi. It really is a fun, fast and fantastically entertaining game. It is lots of fun when playing as a competitive game between family and friends and it is also excellent to use as a teaching tool or getting children to practice their maths skills.
An excellent addition to the games cupboard (see what I did there? Maybe I should just stick to games rather than comedy). A great game for family game nights and a fantastic learning tool as well.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £19.99
Available to buy from www.happypuzzle.co.uk or Amazon here.
