Alex and I are kind of board game snobs when it comes to what we usually like to play. In an effort to break out of our snobbish ways we’ve been trying to play a bigger variety of games lately. Enter Game for Fame.
Game for Fame is a team based charades/Pictionary/taboo high-bred. All of the classic games rolled into one where everyone is an actor trying to make it big and win the most money. Ultimately there is only one winner as sometimes team members are pitted against each other to win bonus cash.
Right off the bat the rules seemed a little too oversimplified. I do love a short rule book that gets you playing quickly, but the “bank of celebrity” wasn’t made entirely clear at the beginning. After teammates compete against each other, another team secretly selects who won and writes the appropriate amount of cash on a bank of celebrity card. That card is then put into a pile upside-down. It took a few turns of confusion to understand exactly what do to with this part of the game. Once we figured it all out the game became a lot more fun. It adds a level of mystery as to who actually has the most money as the game progresses.
The cards themselves range from super easy to really challenging in almost unfair ways. Sometimes we had to act out certain words in a story where it was super easy to just use context clues to figure it out. While other times we had to act out one animal while making the sound of another. I’m still not sure how a person acts out “ant.”
Yet all the confusion and occasionally challenging rounds aside, this game was a lot of fun in a larger group. We played with four people, but this could be lots of fun with larger parties and more people on a team. There were fun twists like people changing teams and hidden tasks people can perform to earn extra money. Rounds got people moving, writing creative poems, and laughing. It’s a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, in a good way.
Now if you don’t really like games where attention is on you while you’re doing incredibly silly things, I’d pass on this one. But it’s a great one for families with somewhat older children or adult parties who are just looking for some simple fun. I’d definitely play again and I’ll offer it as a recommendation if someone’s looking for a lighthearted game for family game night.
