Minneapolis Star Tribune
Friday March 9, 2001
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
USA

Are you game? Rating new board games
It's not terribly hard to bribe Minnesotans to stay inside and play board games in January and February. All we needed was an unlimited supply of pop and hot-out-of-the-oven, artichoke dip. A dozen or so testers, all professed game lovers, eagerly dug in and helped us test and rate the six fairly new games below. And we only spilled a bit of dip on the boards.

Apples to Apples

Purchase info: Out of the Box Games, $19.95.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The basics: Forget fancy boards and elaborate pieces. This simple card game was the overwhelming hit with our crowd. There's a deck of green cards -- all adjectives. There's a bigger deck of red cards -- all goofy, pop-culturey nouns. The judge begins by playing a green card, and the others quickly play a red card that seems to match it. Play fast -- the last person to throw in a card has to take it back. The judge, chosen by rotation each turn, then sorts through the red cards and chooses the one that he or she thinks matches best. The person who matched is given a green card; collect enough green cards and you win.

Play of the day: When the green card read "wicked," I threw down "hangnails," but my husband beat me with "Saddam Hussein."

Tips: You can allow the judge to pick the best opposites. Those were hilarious -- we ended up with "Barney" for "sensual" and "Canada" for "radical."

Audience: The noun cards are very heavy on pop culture. Someone who doesn't know who Celine Dion is might not enjoy the humor of the game. For kids (7 and older) there's Apples to Apples Junior.

Final words: If you add only one new game to your household in the next few years, make it this one. It's fun, creative, fast and simple, and our players adored it. Apples to Apples has it all.

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