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117 of 119 found the following review helpful:
 Children love it Dec 11, 2011
By The Crank
I am a programming/computer skills teacher at a high school. I bought this toy to show to the creative writing teacher at my school. Before I took it to school, however, I let my children try it.
Wow! My children, ages 12, 11, and 7, love this. It has become a dinner time staple. The rules and variations that come with the game are good but the children like to make their own rules. That's OK by me. This game is adaptable to any age group.
As an added bonus, my wife loves this game, too. She says, and I quote, "it is simple, takes as much or as little time as you want, and doesn't involve an electronic screen."
A big winner for us!
32 of 35 found the following review helpful:
We laughed so hard! Dec 15, 2011
By Iowan
Every time my daughters and I have played this game, we have just cracked up laughing! It is great to see their minds work as they come up with new ideas or a new way to tell an old story. They often choose Story Cubes as their first choice when friends come over, as well.
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Phenomenal for Creativity Dec 26, 2011
By Cuckoomamma
As a former public school teacher and now, homeschooling mom to a 10.5 and 6.5 year old, I'm always on the lookout for fun ways to educate our children. This holiday season my older daughter asked for a book of story starters and creative writing tips. We gave these story cubes to our younger daughter with the same intent. Because our younger daugher still isn't as fluent at writing as she is at imagining, creative writing can be frustrating for her. These story cubes have added the fun back in for her. We all take turns making up a story of our own, and then, the favorite of all, creating a story together taking turns choosing the cubes.
It's a wonderful way to model story telling and allow a child the freedom of creativity without it becoming a lecture or "lesson". These 9 cubes are well worth the money they cost!
Initially I had my doubts, but now having used them, really couldn't recommend them more.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 Nice addition to the original - but not as flexible Apr 16, 2012
By James Hebert
"yoda the gadget guy"
I'm a huge fan of the original Story Cubes. I've given them as gifts to several friends, and loaned mine to several others, all of whom have come back saying how much they too love the game.
I'm less an advocate of Actions, because the concept changed a bit and became more specific than open-ended. So while I advocate the original 110 percent, I recommend this expansion with more caution. You should be prepared for a significant change to the way you use the cubes. It will take more imagination on your part, and your approach to the images on each face requires more abstract thought about the "meaning" of the image, and not the using the image itself. I wish I had known that going into the purchase. Or maybe that I had had more information in this regard.
For example, in the original set, a star symbol could mean a LOT of different things. Nighttime, a shooting star, the sun, a star on the Christmas tree, a starfish, the star of a show, a goal far away, a guiding light -- lots of possibilities reflecting either nouns ("things") or verbs ("actions") depending on the story you invent.
Here, an image of stick figure trying to lift a barbell doesn't leave you with as many options in a story. It's quite specific. You have to be prepared to make its meaning more abstract so that it can fit more story possibilities (the image could mean something rather than show something, as in "it was so-o-o heavy" or "the task took all my strength" or "it wouldn't budge no matter how she tried"). This approach tends to give you the freedom to use Actions more freely.
Yet I find myself feeling more confined than freed by these images, and there seem to be fewer possibilities for each picture than I'd like.
I believe an expansion that included a mix of additional Things and broader Actions (like running, jumping, climbing, etc) would have been a better choice, and would be the product I'd buy next.
The original product is a 5-star no-brainer, buy it.
This is a cautious 4-star, or a solid 3-star. I'd recommend it IF you absolutely love the first, are prepared to put a little more thought into it, and don't expect quite the same experience.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Simple, elegant car-trip wonder Jan 02, 2012
By G70
The best toys are often the simplest and most elegant. The concept here is very straightforward: roll a set of nine six-sided dice (a small compartment for rolling is integrated into the box) and tell a story using the small picture/icons what comes up on the set. The box is slightly larger than a deck of cards, and has a magnetic closure on the top flap.
The directions suggest that one picture could be the basis or theme, and that one storyteller or alternating people could add to the narrative using the remaining images. The rules themselves are offered only as suggestions, so players could make up other rules of play as well.
My kids play a variation that puts the cubes in a line and requires that they tell stories about one another using all nine pictures in order. I play with them by telling a story using eight of the nine, and having them point out which I missed.
My favorite use so far is in the car (on a plane would work equally well). We set the story in our actual travel destination and ask the kids to use a particular "vocabulary" word in the stories they tell, and then let them play whichever variation they want.
The key is that the game is intuitive, even for a 4-5 y.o., is not language-specific, does not make electronic noises or require batteries, and is portable. I also don't see us getting tired of it anytime soon. And at less than $10, it is a bargain. This gets tucked away on my list of gifts for others, too.
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