Spot it! is one of the best games that we’ve ever received without knowing anything about it beforehand. Yes, my kids have been given great games in the past such as Mouse Trap and Operation. But either my husband or I knew about the game beforehand.

Spot it! was completely new to us and a brilliant brilliant discovery.

It’s one of the few games that I’ve encountered where you can have a child beat an adult without an adult actually having let them win. My kids constantly beat my husband at it and their grandpa is so bad at it that he tries to cheat!!

Seriously, it’s a really great game.

A quick note: Spot It! is also known as Dobble! So if you know that game, this is just the same.

SPOT IT!

What it looks like

Spot it! comes in a small round red and yellow tin, the tin is as small as the palm of an adult’s hand. Inside the tin are lots of circular cards with pictures on. 55 cards to be exact.

You’ll see that there are consistently the same type of pictures – 50 all in all. But they feature on the cards in different groups featuring 8 objects in different sizes and different orientation.

One card may have a chicken, a heart, an igloo and a question mark (and 4 others) while another card may have a four leaf clover, a spider, lightening bolt and an exclamation point (with 4 others).

While editing the pictures for Spot It! I just realised that there are different versions of the game. We own the original one but I’m quite keen to get my hands on two of the others.

How you play

Our version of the game

The following is the only version of the game that we play but I have seen in the booklet inside the tin that there are 5 “mini games” that can be played too.

Any amount of people can play, each player just has to be able to see the cards.

One person, either a player or an observer, must deal two cards and then turn them over at the same time.

All the players have to try spot the one image that appears on both cards.

Whoever spots the item and calls its name out loud first gets both the cards.

I promise that:

1. it’s not as simple as it sounds; and
2. every card combination has a matching image on both.

Deal two cards again and repeat the game until all the cards are gone.

I’ve seen Spot It! at most of the toy stores that we visit.

The mini games

There are other games in your instructions but these will vary depending on the version you’ve bought and potentially which country you’ve bought it in.

Generally you’ll find instructions for Tower, The Well, Hot Potato, The Poisoned Gift and Triplet.

I’m not going to explain all the games, I’ll leave them to you to discover and just touch on two.

1. The Tower

In The Tower (which is quite similar to the way we play) each player is handed a card and the remaining cards are placed in the middle. On the count of three, players turn their cards up and look at their own cards and the top card of the middle stack for a matching symbol. When someone calls out a match they get the card. That card goes on top of the winner’s card. The other people who didn’t win retain their cards face up.

Ultimately the person with the most cars is the winner.

2. The Poisoned Gift

Personally, I would rename this game if we were playing it with the kids!

Shuffle the cards and deal one card to each player, face down. Put the rest of the cards in a pile face down. Count to three and flip over the cards and the top card on the pile. Try find a match between any of the player’s cards.

The player who finds a match must yell out the name of the object and then hand the top card from the middle pile to the person whose card they found the match on. Essentially the winner is handing the person a “poisoned gift”.

Keep the same cards and flip over the top card of the pile. Again, whoever spots the same symbol on two cards gives the other player the top card again.

The person with the least cards when the middle pile is finished is the winner.

There is also a tournament point system included in the booklet if you want to get really competitive.

Age suitability

For our game that we play, any age can play as long as the person can see the cards and articulate what they’ve seen. Really! We played it with my daughter as young as 3 and my father in law in his 60s and at both ends of the age spectrum they have enjoyed it.

The only problem, which actually doesn’t affect the game at all, is my little one mis-identifying items. She calls the Igloo a Ice Gloop and the bomb a floating balloon. This opens the door for challenges from her brother which ultimately leads to a fight. 

When my youngest is 5 we will try some of the mini games, especially poisoned gift which takes that little more understanding.

Varying editions of Spot It!

Spot it has Sport editions include MLB, NHL, and Golf, educational spin-offs and even an animal themed version.

I love that there is an road trip version called Spot it! On the Road. We just take our normal version when we go away.