Game Review

Concept:

Players have a list of topics and must name one word that relates to each topic starting with a specific letter -- The same letter is used for all topics.

Gameplay:

To begin, a topic list is chosen. Each player is given a game pad and pencil.

The game is played in three rounds. To start a round, the 20 sided letter die is rolled, and the timer is started. Players must write down one word associated with each topic that begins with the letter on the die. When the timer stops, players must stop writing and put down their pencils. The round is then scored.

Scoring is done by the players comparing their written words. If any two players matched words, each player with that word crosses it off. One point is awarded for each answer that was not matched by any other player.

All three rounds are played using the same topic list, but rolling different letters.

Winning Conditions:

• The player who has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Our Opinion:

This is a game for people with a good vocabulary -- lateral thinking is also very helpful. This game feels like a hybrid of Boggle and Outburst. It relies upon a larger group to be fun or competitive, but better scores are gained by having unique answers.

The Zombies were surprised by this game. We actually expected to dislike it. Instead, we found it much more appealing than we originally thought. The game's fun lies in comparing answers -- feeling outsmarted by some players, and being dazzled by word associations that some players can write down for a given topic.

There isn't a lot of strategy here, except to choose words that are unlikely to be matched by the other players. That strategy sounds simple until you get a topic like "Presidents" and you roll a letter like "D". (We only had two successful answers -- "Dwight Eisenhower" and "Dick Nixon".) Clever answers tend to score better, and also amuse all of the players.

In general, this is a quieter party game than average. The players are concentrating so hard for a minute or so that the game can seem to have a calming influence on a group of people -- unlike Outburst. The rules are extremely easy to learn. We felt that the best feature of this game was the noisy timer. Because you can actually hear the timer wind down, players can focus on writing the words instead of watching the timer.

The game is a bit expensive for our taste, but it is fun nonetheless. If you have a group of friends like likes word games, this is a good choice.

Where to buy:

Any local toy store -- including Target or WalMart. New copies cost about $30.