What Came First? Game Review (Age 10+) Sent by Big Potato Games

What Came First? is a light-hearted game where opponents wager tokens on their ability to correctly identify when things happened. If you are also someone who struggles to remember what you had for tea 2 days ago, believe me, it's trickier than you'd think..

As ever with Big Potato games, it is beautifully presented in a modern looking box which is useful for storage for the lifetime of the game, and you can play instantly. No tricky rules and everything is fairly obvious.

Inside the box are the Game Board, Question Cards and plastic Chips, and cardboard Playing Pieces, Time Tokens and a Starter Token.

You'll need 2 minutes before first play to press them out and then you're good to go.

The aim of the game is to correctly guess between the two options on the Question Card - which came first? This earns points which are used to travel around the Game Board - first to the finish wins. There are hundreds of cards and you'll never learn them all. The answer is on the back of each card.

You can win or lose either 1,2 or 3 points each card, depending on the number of chips you wager. If your answer is wrong though, you move backwards around the board. As a bonus you can wager 1 chip on the exact year, earning 5 points if you are correct. All the chips are returned for each new question card.

Suitable for 2-8 players, you can split into teams, preferably with 2 players in each, but you can also play individually - which we preferred. I've found teams is a more competitive and considered game, solo is quicker and you go more with gut instinct. Each team or player has their own 80's-tastic neon colour counter and chips.

Before you start, each player or team takes a Time Token and places it on a vacant space on the board, face side down. If you land on a Time Token, turn it over and either gain a reward or a penalty - these can affect anyone playing depending on the token.

Everyone plays each card together (unless you are under a Time Token penalty) You can have a time limit, but we didn't need one as everyone wagered pretty quickly. As soon as a couple of people pick, anyone who is wavering does start to get a better idea of which answer is correct - or if you are better at being poker-faced than me, you can try to deceive the other players a little...

Biggest laugh of our game was this tricky and somewhat random card. Unsurprisingly no-one guessed the answer would be Thorpe Park. Just for clarity though, Betty White is considerably older than Alton Towers. 97 at her last birthday and doing well, bless her.

No need to be embarrassed, I've found some fantastic errors in some really popular and classic games we've reviewed in the past - including answers that simply weren't true. I'll always wonder who Betty White is older than though...

We really really like Which Came First? and some of the answers are really surprising. You can learn a lot, and realise just how much you've forgotten too! I felt that older players would have an advantage, but really it wasn't so big. Different cards suit different generations better and there's a lot of history - even I wasn't around in 1895. My boys at 9 and 11 love playing, and "learning all about the olden days" (anything before 2003) as much as my 21 year old and myself...

Which Came First is made by the brilliant Big Potato Games and is suitable for 2-8 players aged around 10+. Great for playing with your grown up or teenage kids, but be prepared to discover just how bad your own memory timeline really is! Available from all good games stockists, rrp £20. Affiliate link below:

We've reviewed a lot of games for Big Potato Games and they have several among our favourites - especially for playing with our teenage and young adult children. You can find all of our Big Potato Games reviews here...

We were sent our copy of Which Came First? by Big Potato Games for review. Amazon links are affiliate, which will earn me a few pence to buy bulk beans and loo roll if you buy through my link, but you never pay any more.