Dad's Gaming Addiction

Before “Say Anything!” was brought into our house, “Apples to Apples” was probably the most requested game to play on family game night. That is extremely high praise seeing as how we have over fifty board games in our living room closet. I’ve often referred to this game in previous articles, but today we’re actually going to address it.

Apples to Apples (Junior Edition): 4-10 Players, Ages 7+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes (Varies)

It’s important to mention that “Apples to Apples” has many versions, but don’t let that confuse you. Each and every version plays the same way and is family friendly. You wouldn’t go wrong by picking up just one of them, though it wouldn’t hurt to pick up all of them. For the purposes of this review, we’re going to look at the Junior Edition…which is the version we happened to be playing at the time when I took the pictures.

In “Apples to Apples”, players will be trying to earn the most green cards. The player with the most green cards by the end of the game wins. Yes, that’s it…very simple.

It’s so simple, even a cat can do it…sort of.

Let’s take a quick look at the components and gameplay before going into the review.

Components

Red Cards – These red cards will make up a player’s hand. Each card has a unique noun listed on them. A noun is a word that is either a person, place, thing, or event.

Green Cards – These green cards will make up a player’s score pile. Each card has a unique adjective listed on them. An adjective is a word that describes a person, place, thing, or event.

The red cards have funny description on the bottom and the green cards have synonyms listed in case players aren’t familiar with the adjective.

Setup & Gameplay

Shuffle both the green cards and red cards separately into their own decks. Give each player five red cards and choose a starting player to be the judge.

The judge will draw one green card from the deck and read it aloud. The other players will then choose a red card from their hand that best matches the green card. It’s okay if you don’t have a red card that best fits the green card…some judges will pick the funniest red card as opposed to the best red card.

Hmmm…I guess a cattle ranch is silky.

All players except for the judge will put their chosen red card face down and give it to the judge. The judge shuffles them, looks at them, reads them aloud, and picks the one they like the most that fits the green card. The owner of the red card that the judge picked gets the green card and then THEY become the judge. The red cards that weren’t chosen get discarded.

Players who played a red card get to draw one from the deck to refresh their hand. Play continues like this until players decide that they are done, or until they run out of red cards. The player who won the most green cards at that point wins!

The Review

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, we all really like this game. Play is simple and it allows us to be as silly as we want to be. You will eventually run through the same red cards after a few playthrus, but that doesn’t take away from the overall fun that can be had. If you have other versions of “Apples to Apples”, you could rotate them out to minimize how often you see the same cards.

While the instructions say that the game is for four players or more, you CAN play with three if you are willing to be creative. Each non-judge player can submit two red cards instead of one to the judge, for example. Play time can be changed to fit your needs, depending on how long you have to play. You could stop halfway through the red card deck, after a player acquires so many green cards…the options are endless.

I like that this game appeals to players of all ages and gamer types. As a result, it succeeds as a staple family fun night game and even works well at parties. It’s difficult sometimes to find a game that everyone in a family of five will enjoy…but this game manages to come through for us in spades.

Thumbs up for “Irresistable” “Mr. Spock.”

Bottom Line: If you don’t have at least one version of ”Apples to Apples” in your collection, then I suggest you rectify that situation immediately.

Final Verdict: 9/10