Apples to Apples is a conundrum for me. I should like this game. The game is simple and works like this:
Everyone has 6 or so cards, each with a noun on it. The nouns are like “Michael Jackson” or “socks” or Ethiopia.
The active player randomly flips over an adjective card from the adjective card deck. It has a single adjective on it. All the other players play a single noun card (face down) from their hand. They play one that they feel the active player will most likely select as relating to the adjective. The player whose adjective card is selected by the active player gets a point. Five points wins.
Let’s say the active player flips the adjective card: “smooth”. The other players play “Snake”, “Vodka”, “The little mermaid”, and “Silk”. Now the active player has to choose which one best fits “smooth.” Let’s say “Vodka” is chosen. The player who set down “Vodka” gets a point.
There are lots of positives. The rules are so simple that anyone can play. It takes seconds to learn. People can start and stop the game without interrupting play. It’s relaxed and lighthearted.
Games tend to last somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. All the games I’ve played tend to have 3 phases of about equal lengths:
Phase 1: Everyone’s excited to play and folks match up nouns and adjectives. There’s some experimentation and discussion about choosing things.
Phase 2: Folks run out of their obvious cards and begin playing randomly. Most of their hand of cards is made up of nouns they don’t really want to use. Active players get sick of being thought “obvious” and begin basing their choices on things other than matching to the adjective. In attempts to be less predictable, players sometimes even choose antonyms matching “Sour” with “Sugar” or something like that.
Phase 3: Players are now all aware that entropy has invaded the game. Someone usually comments but it’s too late and the game begins to wind down.
This game has two problems.
Firstly, I like games where the more you play, the more enjoyable the game becomes. Generally games of skill are like this but lots of games of luck are also fun for long periods of time. Apples to Apples, however, has diminishing returns: the longer you play the less enjoyable the game, not because you’ve solved it like you’d solve tic-tac-toe, but rather because the wheels come off the game and people start behaving more and more randomly.
This is a perfect game for people who do not enjoy most games. If it were a food, it would be junk food. It doesn’t fill you up, but eventually you just want to stop eating.
Apples to Apples | Image | BoardGameGeek