The party game has evolved from the days of Charades and Trivial Pursuit. Here are a pair of games from Hasbro that are less “game” and more “party”, but should supply plenty of laughter.  Speak Out has players trying to pronounce words while their lips are spread apart, and Pour Taste simply challenges players to drink from a cup full of a little bit of everything.

Speak Out: Kids vs Parents 
Publisher: Hasbro
Players: 4-10 players
Ages: 8+
Time: 20-30 minutes
(Review copy provided by Hasbro)

One of those party games where embarrassment is a key part of the game. In Speak Out, one player tries to communicate the words on a card while the rest of their team guesses the answer. This should be easy, since they can read the card AS WRITTEN to their team. The problem is that the speaker must first outfit themselves with something akin to a dental cheek retractor, so they are unable to use their lips to speak. A player goes through as many clue cards as possible before time runs out. Teams alternate turns until everyone has played (or the retractors are used up.) The new “Kids vs Adult” version has different sized mouthpieces (4 larger and 6 smaller ones) as well as a “clue” deck for parents and a different one for kids. Typical “clues” that need to be read would be like “I like fuzzy peach navels” or “Monkeys don’t make marshmallows”, etc… While the two types of cards correspond roughly to things a parent or kid might say, they are mostly just zany expressions. I would guess only a few of them would be something someone would actually say. Most are simply silly phrases that are tricky to pronounce with a large piece of plastic in their mouth. The game is harmless fun. Some players will find themselves better at getting their meaning across than others, but no one will escape without looking entirely silly.

Pour Taste
Publisher: Hasbro
Players: 2-6 players
Ages: 8+
Time: 20-30 minutes
(Review copy provided by Hasbro)

Anytime a group of teens are regularly lumped together, sooner or later someone will come up with the idea of trying to mix up nasty liquids and dare each other to drink them. Pour Taste simply puts a bit of spit shine on the idea by wrapping the game with fun little accessories. The game starts with a variety of six different liquids – preferably at least a few of them on the less-tasty side of things.

The game boils down to spinning the “big wheel” to see what liquids will be mixed up into the drinking cup. A player can choose to drink, earning a token, or pass (earning nothing.) The goal is to win four tokens. In addition to mixing drinks, the wheel could also allow one to steal others’ chips or force another player to take a drink.

As one might expect, there isn’t much of a “game” here, but I applaud Hasbro from taking something from my childhood (my brother and I taking turns mixing gross concoctions from the fridge for the other to taste) and turning it into a full-fledged competition complete with bells and whistles.

Tags: Game Reviews, Uncategorized, Unplugged