Jackaroo is three things working together: a wooden board, sixteen marbles in four colours, and a fifty-six card pack. F...
Most people buying Jackaroo for the first time think they are buying a board, when in fact they are buying three things that work together: the wooden board, sixteen marbles, and a pack of cards that moves those marbles. A shortfall in any one of the three stops the whole session, which is why the first thing to check in a box description is neither the size nor the price, but what comes inside the box and in what number.
Jackaroo is three things: board, marbles and cards
The board is what you see in the photograph and it is the part that varies least between boxes. The marbles come four per player in four colours, and the cards are a pack of fifty-six, each one read as a move. The boxes on this page arrive complete with all three except one, which is cards and marbles with no board at fifteen riyal, meant as a replacement or an addition to a board you already own. So read the contents in the description before you pay.
Four players or six
Jackaroo is a team game rather than an individual one, so four play in two teams and six play in three, and an odd number disables the game at its root. Most of our boards are built for four players, which suits the home holding a father, a mother and two children. If your gathering is usually six, look for the board that states as much in its description, because a four-player board cannot take two extra players under any arrangement.
Size: forty-five or sixty
The boards on this page come in two sizes: around forty-five by forty-five, and around sixty by forty-eight. The larger is easier on the eye, clearer in following the run of squares, and suited to a long session at a steady table, while the smaller is enough for four and slips into luggage and a bedroom cupboard without effort. Measure your table first, because a sixty board wants a table no narrower than seventy, so that space is left for the cards and the cups.
Folding boards and cupboard space
Half the boards on this page fold at the middle, so the board becomes half its size and slides between books on a high shelf. That is a real advantage in small homes and in travel, but the hinge is the weak point, so inspect its quality before buying. A thin hinge comes apart after a year of daily opening and closing, a strong one lasts ten years, and the price difference between them is ten or fifteen riyal.
And if your home allows a board to stay open on a side table, buy the non-folding kind, which is stronger in structure, cheaper in price and far less likely to come apart.
The carry bag and who needs it
Two boxes on this page arrive with a cloth bag holding board, marbles and cards together, and they cost around fifty riyal more than the rest. The bag earns its price for anyone carrying the game to the family house every week or taking it on a desert trip, because the marbles are the first thing lost when a board travels uncovered. For someone who plays at home on the same table every time, though, the bag is money spent for nothing.
Cards alone: when they are enough
Buying cards and marbles without a board is the right decision in two cases only: you own a sound board whose cards have been lost or whose marbles have run short, or you want a spare second set to live in the car. In any other case it is a purchase you cannot use, because cards without a board play neither Jackaroo nor anything else. If you want cards that play on their own, their place is the card games aisle, where cards are a complete game in themselves.
For another game played with cards alone in the same session, the choices are arranged in our table games range, and for what trains arithmetic and memory, look through the boys thinking games section.
Sixteen marbles and what happens if one goes missing
There are sixteen marbles in four colours, and losing one of them stops play, because a team is down a quarter of its strength with no substitute from another colour. So buy the box with a fitted place for the marbles inside it, or buy a small pouch to keep them in, and count the marbles after every session before you fold the board away. That habit takes ten seconds and saves you buying a whole new set two months later.
From six years to adults
Age labels on this page open at six and stretch to nine, and the page also holds cards aimed at adults alone. A six-year-old plays Jackaroo with an older partner guiding him, since he understands leaving home and moving by the count but cannot yet read his partner's move. A child of nine plays as a full partner and plans for the team, and that is the age at which the game turns enjoyable for everybody.
This page also holds a pack of baloot cards labelled six years, which is in truth an adult card game for four players, so read the box description before buying it for a six-year-old.
What to check on the board before paying
Check five things in the description: the player count, the size in centimetres, whether it folds, the number of marbles and cards, and whether a bag is included. Add a sixth question about the material, since solid wood is heavier and longer lasting than thin pressed board, which swells if water reaches it. Once the game has settled with you, the next step sits in the group games page, the group play aisle or the chess aisle.
