In 1984, the Tribune first rated the best new board games of the year. We’ve done it every year since.
We employ a highly unscientific method in which Tribune staffers, with invited friends and relatives, congregate on one long Sunday afternoon and, fortified with free pizza, play games into the wee hours. Players rate each game, and their evaluations are used to select our Top 10.
Every year, gamemakers hit the market with the hope that their product will become the next Trivial Pursuit or Pictionary. We’re not predicting that will happen, but these are games that most everyone is sure to like.
Some of these games are available from major retailers, such as Toys “R” Us, FAO Schwarz, Kmart and the like; others can be found at specialty retailers such as Gamers Paradise (10 Chicago-area locations) and That Games Store in Lombard.. Or use the provided numbers to call the manufacturer directly.
– Bamboozle (Parker Bros., $25). A two-team game in which each team selects five words beginning with the letters chosen by the game’s random shaker. The lists are then shared with one member of the opposing team, who tries to get his teammates to guess each word — using only as much time as it took the opposing team to pick the words. The strategy is in choosing your words — do you pick simple words quickly, or take more time and think of more obscure words? The more time you take, the more time the opponents have to guess. A special device tracks both teams’ time.
– Baseball Tycoon (LaForest Products, $30, 313-274-5700). It takes a little time to get started with this somewhat complex game, in which players are baseball owners trying to assemble a winning team, but once you get rolling, the game is easy and absorbing. As an owner, you acquire players while carefully managing your money (play is similar to Monopoly in that respect). As in real baseball life, the more you spend, the better players you acquire; but also as in real life, player performance does not necessarily equal pay. You need the right combination of luck and skill to win, but baseball knowledge is no factor at all.
– Clichebles (Clichebles, Inc., $22, 716-723-3848). If you’re worth your salt and can cut the mustard, you’ll be happy as a clam with this good as gold game of cliches and everyday sayings. The easy-as-pie game is a breath of fresh air, though there’s a danger you’ll be madder than a wet hen when an opponent guesses faster than you — even when the answer’s on the tip of your tongue.
– Cranium (Cranium Inc., $35, 877-CRANIUM). On successive turns in this entertainingly unpredictable game, you might be required to sculpt dreadlocks out of clay, hum a song (so that a teammate can recognize it), spell a word backward on one try, mimic a famous person and mime an action. You don’t have to be great at anything to succeed, but it helps to be reasonably good at a lot of things. An uninhibited personality is a plus too.
– Mars 2020 (Aristoplay, $30, 800-634-7738). Aristoplay has a well-deserved reputation for intelligent, absorbing games, and this latest effort, which poses more than 500 multiple-choice science and planetary questions, is another impressive creation. Preteens through adults should find this game fun and challenging.
– PersonaliTEASE (Endless Games, $28, 212-673-7383). This is a cute party game in which players write down answers to provocative questions — say, “What song reminds you of your own life?” — and then try to guess which player answered “Jailhouse Rock” and which answered “Tears of a Clown.” Answering questions with strict honesty is probably not a useful strategy, especially with highly personal questions (“What do you admire most about the person to your right?”), but with the right group of people, this can be very entertaining.
– Say When! (Winning Moves, $26, 800-578-2468). Each of the 1,000 questions in this easy-to-play game has a numerical answer, but you don’t have to know the exact number; indeed, you don’t have to be very close. Just be closer than your opponent (or opposing team) and you’ll score — though you’ll score more points if you know, for instance, that the average weight of a 1954 Miss America contestant was 132 pounds, or if your guess is at least within the designated range of 115-150 pounds.
– Tug of Words (Tiger Electronics, $25, 888-TIGR-SOS). In this fast-paced, two-player (or two-team) word game, players square off on opposite sides of a teeter-totter device. The electronic voice announces a word, such as “boat;” players take turns coming up with compound words using boat, such as “lifeboat,” “fishing boat,” etc. Naming a compound word enables you to tip the teeter-totter toward the opponent, who must pick a word before time runs out. The game has a 100-word vocabulary, but a second game mode allows you to select your own words.
– Wadjet (Timbuk II Inc., $60, 800-863-9053). Comparatively expensive as board games go, this archeology-themed adventure justifies its price with high-quality components and excellent game play. There are four players, all archaeologists with a dual goal: Acquire $40,000 in Egyptian treasures and deduce, by process of elimination, what the mysterious hidden treasure must be. There are the expected pitfalls and reversals, and this game takes some time to complete. But like archeology itself, there are rewards for the patient.
– Wise and Otherwise (wiseandotherwise.com, $40, 800-662-1088. In this very clever variation of Balderdash, players take turns reading part of a little-known old saying (“When the bag gets full”), which other players complete with bluff answers. All answers are read, along with the correct one (“leave it alone”), and players try to select the correct response, scoring points for correct guesses or for any votes cast for their bluff. The 500-card deck contains hundreds of obscure Irish, Chinese, Bantu and other sayings.
WINNING GAMES FOR BIG PLAYERS
These games scored high among our players and merit mentions:
– Initialize (Acromania, $30, 800-349-6451). A fast-paced game in which players race against a timer to decipher movies, song titles, cartoons, sports teams and more by their initials. Guess correctly in the first few seconds and you earn a bonus chip; delay and you’ll get a helpful clue (but no chip). The game’s obnoxiously noisy timer adds to the pressure.
– Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus the Game (Mattel, $25, 800-524-TOYS). John Gray’s best-selling book has been converted (with his blessing) into a team game in which the guys and gals answer multiple-choice, gender-related questions. Teams advance by correctly predicting their teammate’s answer (in the manner of Scruples). Questions range from communication issues to desert-island fantasies to “in the flesh” topics; some questions are funny, while others are over-obvious and simple — which, come to think of it, is what some critics say about the book.
– Namesake (Pressman, $25, 800-800-0298). A simple general-knowledge game in which you match first names, drawn from a card deck, to a category on the game board (stars, musicians, athletes, etc.). On some squares all players participate, naming, for example, famous Georges until all but one fail or run out of time. Easy to learn and play.
– Riddles and Riches (R & R Games, $30, 888-8RIDDLE). A treasure-hunting game in which cryptic riddles (“A triangular piece of metal. A simple beast, they say. And all I do the whole day through is hold fast to my prey.”) are clues to objects scattered among 17 rooms of a mansion. The game board is a vertical structure with tiny color photos of each room; when you move into a room, you can examine a full-sized picture for objects that fit the riddle. The race is to solve two of the three riddles; you need a good memory, an eye for detail and, most of all, a fondness for rhyming riddles of this type — without which this game is nearly intolerable.
