Game Night: Apples to Apples

Welcome to the Game Night Blog Carnival for June! You can get more information about the carnival at the main Game Night site.

Described as “the game of hilarious comparisons,” Apples to Apples is a relatively simple but incredibly fun party game. It was originally published by Out of the Box, but it’s now available from Mattel. The game is available in several different versions (I own the Apple Crate Edition that comes in a wood box), but each consists of two decks of cards. Each card in the red deck has a noun and a short humorous saying about the word, and each card in the green deck has an adjective and several synonyms.

You can play the game with as few as 4 people or as many as 10. Each player gets a hand of seven red noun cards to use during the game. To start a round, one player, known as the judge, draws a green adjective card, reads the word, and then lays it down face up. Each other player than chooses one noun card that they think best matches the adjective and plays it face down. Once all of the players have picked a card, the judge shuffles the red cards before looking at them, then picks the one that he or she feels best matches the adjective card in play. The player that played the red card chosen by the judge wins the round and gets a point. The game then continues with a different player as the judge each round until someone has managed to accumulate enough points to win the game which usually takes about 30-60 minutes.

While those rules are pretty simple, the mix of cards ensures fun combinations such as Mudslides, Bad Dogs, Bill Clinton, and The Statue of Liberty all being played for Dirty. Because the judge’s decision is subjective, the game isn’t really about finding the best literal match for the adjective cards, but instead in knowing which of your nouns is most likely to get picked by the judge for the adjective. It’s that metagame thinking combined with the fun of laughing together at card combinations that really makes the game a blast to play with friends.

If you’re looking for a fun party game, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Apples to Apples as it is easily one of the top few party games I’ve ever played (Balderdash gives it some serious competition though).

List of blogs participating in the carnival

Previous blog in carnival: Undergopher Central (Forbidden Island)

Next blog in carnival: Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity (Bananagrams)