Welcome to Purple Pawn, covering games played around the world by billions of people every day.
Last-but-not-least of my Toy Fair reports is R&R Games, which recently released Pants on Fire, a competitive variation on the lets-share-personal-stories activity. In the game, random cards determine the subject matter (for example, “an incident at a movie theater or play”) and players tell related stories. Only in this version, the story may be the truth or a lie, and other players vote on which they think is the case. Correct guesses earn points for the listener, incorrect earn points for the story teller.
Available later this month, Pressure Point includes an electronic doohickey that displays easy trivia categories but times out after just 5 seconds. Within that short time, a player will attempt to name as many matching items as possible. Before revealing the clue, though, all players will have bid on the number of items the naming player will get out in time. The naming player earns one point for each item. The other players earn points if they match the correct number, lose points to the pot for overbids, and pay the naming player for underbids.
Arriving in the summer, Ticked Off will be another party game where players attempt to name as many items as possible in various categories (for example, cable TV channels or American Idol contestants). In this one, however, all players submit a list of items and the highest bidder has to match his bid with unique answers.
Also scheduled for the summer is Hey Waiter. Not too heavy, and selling for still under $20, Hey Waiter involves a little more strategy than these party games. Each player starts with one waiter and 12 stacked dishes. The goal is to get rid of all the dishes by playing cards to add more waiters, split a stack of dishes, or deliver the food to waiting patrons. There are also cards that can be used to block another player’s waiter with a problem customer.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.