Party Games

Ever wondered where those crazy infomercials got their bright ideas?

I am Jonathan Albin, the Game Market Guru, and this is the first installment of "The Closet Report," my in-depth and detailed analysis of tabletop games of every stripe. The Closet Report captures and outlines the merits, values, and details about these games in terms that a casual player or a die-hard veteran will appreciate, providing not only the "straight skinny" on the product in terms of the big 3 (Class, Character, and Creativity) but also in terms of Materials, Marketing, and Mechanics, as well as identifying areas of imagination, innovation, and ingenuity.

Have you ever noticed that easy tasks can become very difficult when you're under pressure? Anomia is a game that drives this pesky truth home, as it pits players against each other to come up with words in a particular category as quickly as possible. It is a card/party game we recently had the opportunity to play that left us, somewhat literally, speechless.

Gameplay

There are many different word games on the market today, and with good reason: we all are ingrained with vocabulary from the earliest days of our childhood. Turning what is already in our heads into a game has brought immense success to the publishers of Scrabble, Boggle, Bananagrams and others. WOW: World of Words is one of the latest additions to this genre, and we were recently given the opportunity to evaluate it. We wanted to know: does it hold its own?

Party games and casual gamers are usually a great fit for each other. We at Casual Game Revolution love a good party game when the occasion calls for it. We recently had the opportunity to evaluate Ticked Off by R&R Games, which has some similarities to games like Scattergories and Outburst while also adding in some unique game play elements.

Casual games are a great way for singles to break the ice without having to worry about pick-up lines or awkward conversations. Fortunately, the executives at Match.com have picked up on this and have recently begun hosting game nights as part of the Match.com "Stir" events.

I have always been fascinated by magnets. When I first got a set of (recently recalled) Buckyballs, I was entertained for hours. Thus, the strong magnets that come with AttrAction, by R&R Games, are interesting enough by themselves — but do they also make a fun game? Thanks to the publisher, we recently had the opportunity to find out for ourselves.

Spot It! Party is a new game from Blue Orange Games that expands the popular Spot It! card game to include some new variations of play, a hand mascot, and other additional components. We were recently given the opportunity to dive into the game for the first time, and the results were surprising.

To celebrate our new forums, we are giving away a brand new copy of Wits and Wagers Party! There are many ways to gain entries, including posting new forum topics and commenting on existing ones.

What do you think is "probably a bad idea"? Giant cyborg boogers? An unholy cockroach temptress? Or maybe a super bad exploding unicorn? In Word Whimsy, by Cryptozoic Entertainment, you get the chance to decide which of these often random and nonsensical answers is best. In the right atmosphere and with the right people, this can lead to a ton of juvenile laughter that will make you feel like you're in middle school again.