Time’s Up.
http://www.funagain.com/control/product?product_id=019337
Thanks for all the suggestions.
We ended up getting “Loaded Questions” and “Apples to Apples”
We liked them both, but we enjoyed “Loaded Questions” better.
Regarding “Apples to Apples”, it was not clear what the best strategy is. The judge seems to be the ultimate arbiter, and they can simply choose the card based on any criteria they want, which makes it hard to find out what the best card to play is. Also, if people “lobby” for their card, they make it obvious to the judge which one is whose, and they may then simply pick the card belonging to the person with the least amount of wins so far or to the person they like the most. If people don’t lobby for their cards, though, the game is not as lively or interesting.
So, for people who’ve played “Apples to Apples” before, how do you go about playing? What’s the best strategy? Do you lobby for your card or not?
Lobbying for your card is a two-edged sword; it’s hard not to do it, but it often works against you because it tends to make the judge judge your answer more critically. The only time it works for you is if your answer really is undeniably better, but they just don’t know it without you telling why - and it’s hard to make your case unless it really is undeniably the best card. You can try to be sneaky and not let them know it’s yours, but that’s hard to do, too. Both ways of lobbying make the game comical because it so seldom works in the lobbist’s favor. And if the judge is showing favoritism, it will work against them when they are not the judge. I’ve never played where the judge showed obvious favoritism.
I love that the game allows adults and children to play together without the kids being at a real disadvantage. I’ve had 8-year-olds playing partners with their parents who have come up with some great plays.
Honestly, its one of those games (Catchphrase is another) that are fun to play, but the actual method of determining who wins and who looses is kind of broken, since a competitive judge could just choose the player who’s furthest from collecting enough cards each time.
So basically we just have fun playing, and trust judges to just choose based on merit, since no one cares who wins/looses anyways.
I’ll recommend the card game Bang! as a good group game for more competitive types, though I’m not sure if its still in print.