UNDEFEATED Magazine
Dave Gross
March 2004
USA

Most game fans have known for years that the award-winning Apples to Apples i s something special. Because it doesn't fall into a popular genre, however, too many gamers—including this reviewer—passed it over as "just another family game." With the release of the deluxe Apple Crate Edition, everyone has another chance to check out one of the best party games ever devised.

Apples to Apples consists of two sets off cards: red-apple cards labeled with noun phrases—anything from "William Shakespeare" to "my love life" to "hockey"—and green-apple cards labeled with adjectives from "cold" to "realistic" to "appetizing." Players take turns being the judge, who begins the game by dealing everyone seven red-apple cards. The judge then draws, reads, and reveals a green-apple card. Immediately the other players slap down a red-apple card from their hand that they feel best matches the adjective. If there are more than four players (including the judge), the last red-apple cards played doesn't make the cut.

The judge then chooses the red-apple card that best matches the adjective on the green-apple card. The winning player keeps the green-apple card, the judge discards the unused red-apple cards, and the next player becomes the judge and deals everyone enough cards to increase their hands to seven.

The real friction of the game i s not in playing the cards; it's in playing the judges. What a judge considers a match depends in part on that person's personality, and players are free to campaign, kibitz, bicker, threaten, cajole, or whatever it takes to persuade the judge to see things their way. The easy-to-understand instructions include several simple rules variants for the fast (you can play more than one red-apple card), the slow (the judge takes everyone's red-apple cards into account), and the perverse (switch the red and green decks).

The Apple Crate Edition includes 749 red-apple cards, 249 green-apple cards, and 10 blanks ready for your own clever additions all in a pair of sturdy plastic trays, which come nestled in a spiffy (and rather aromatic) wooden crate. There are plenty of expansions available, a collection of them already destined for the deluxe treatment. Apples to Apples is a brilliant game that deserves a spot at the top of your game shelf, no matter what kind of gamer you are.

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