Casus Belli
News Brief
Edition 12, No. 5
March/April 2000
The Netherlands

Fruit Salad

A small American game publishing company Out of the Box Games had a game Bosworth reviewed in a recent newsletter. In 1999 they brought out a game which almost immediately won prizes: Apples to Apples won not only the Mensa Select award, but is also Games Magazines Party Game of the Year.

What is this game about? The game comes in a card shoe, in which there are 432 cards-in total 108 green apples and 324 red. The green apples give a describing word, like beautiful, masculine or dull or violent. Each word is again described through three synonyms on each card. On the red cards there are objects, people and so on. This object is also described and often contains a funny sentence. Things that Americans would not immediately recognize are expanded on a bit by the description, for example, Jacques Cousteau or the Eiffel tower. The players try to match green apples, chosen by the luck of the draw, with red ones.

Each Player has seven cards. One player per turn is the judge and takes the top green apple, the other players play red cards which they think match especially well, the judge shuffles them and then turns them over. After that, the judge-player chooses the card, which, to him/her, seems to fit best. The player who played it gets the green card and that is a point. This is the end of the turn and the cards are given to the next player. The winner is, naturally, the first to get to a determined amount of points, but this amount can be adapted arbitrarily.

The game does not demand great tactic or strategy. Fast reactions and humor are much more important than an analytic understanding of situations. But, that is good for a game that is not trying to be anything more than a party game. And it is indeed very effective as a party game.

Apples to Apples is a game that for a children's- but also a grown up -party can serve as and icebreaker and it brings the players to a rather goofy mood. This occurs not only because of the sometimes hilarious combinations of green and red apples when someone takes the wrong card or doesn't have a appropriate card (What is more masculine? A changing room, Michelle Pfeiffer or a used car dealership) but also because of the definitions which are sometimes (most of the time) given on the cards.

Out of the Box plans to come out with new red apples - generally themes - such as Hollywood or sports. If these contain equally funny comments, we can only recommend purchasing them.

Back to Apples to Apples Reviews page