Time's Up! Party Game Review (age 12+) Sent by Asmodee

Time's Up! Party has been sent to us by Asmodee for review, and it's another game which is great for a party or larger group, but it still works for 4 of you. Suitable for 4-12 players aged around 12+, in 2-4 teams.

It is familiar as this is a party game which is far older than you or I, but it's a genuine classic reworked, and guaranteed to create more than a few laughs... 

The game is well packaged in a really sturdy box. It's not far off single-use-plastic-free, and a great size and shape for storage. Inside the box you have a sand timer, 220 cards, rulebook, biographies book and a pad of scorecards - and a drawstring cloth bag to keep everything in. 

This is a really quick-fire game, with a very short timer, and it leads to quite frantic gameplay at times. It's played over 3 rounds, and on each round you can answer as many cards as you can manage. (We are not doing as well as this implies, 3 is our current record!). 

This game has a genius part to the gameplay which really makes it stand out and massively increases the fun. 

Players split into 2, 3 or 4 teams, and choose an 'active player' to give clues. 40 cards are dealt out between the teams. Each card depicts a character - real or imaginary, live or deceased. The active players look at their own team's cards, and if it's a character you don't recognise, you can check the Bibliography to find out who they are. You can keep the cards you've been dealt, or swap any or all out with the main deck. Once everyone has chosen their cards to keep, they're piled together, shuffled, and an active playing deck is created.

This means that someone among you has chosen every card, so even if your teammates don't recognise your clues, the other team might. When you are playing with younger players, you can be fair and swap out cards they won't recognise, and when you want to be truly competitive, you can attempt to use cards your opponents won't recognise! 

The timer begins, and the active player from the first team has just 30 seconds to try and give word hints as to the character on the card. You can say whatever you want, as long as you don't mention the answer in any language, or say something very similar or otherwise cheat. Whenever any guesses are correct, you win that card. Once the 30 seconds are up, pass the stack of unused cards to the active player in the other team, who continues with the same top card, and gives hints to their teammates. 

Second round is trickier, you can only give a one-word clue. This is where our 12 and 10 1/2 year old children got out of their depth. The suggested age range is 12+, and unless you choose your cards carefully at the beginning, younger players will struggle. Ours hadn't  even heard of Madonna! 

Scoring is on a cute pad of scorecards, which bizarrely seem to have designated the teams as Sailors, Wizards, Rich People and Mexicans. That's what we call them anyway... 

Third round we think is a bit easier, and a lot funnier - Mime. As long as you forget your decorum, you'll be fine. And it is hilarious watching someone attempt to depict professions or facial expressions when you have no idea who it is. Turns out 'Banksy' is really guessable, but Pudsey Bear is virtually impossible. I can't even remember who is being shown here... 

The team with the highest score at the end are the winners, although our scoring was pretty low, and we all laughed so much at some of the clues, that I think we all won and no-one really cared about the score. 

Time's Up! Party is a twist on a classic, and it's great fun that anyone can easily join in with. There are no complicated rules, there are no wrong clues or wrong answers, and you will definitely have an advantage if you team up with someone you know well. or who thinks in the way you do. 

Time's Up! Party is made by Repos Productions, and distributed in the UK by Asmodee, Suitable for 4 -16 players aged around 12+, rrp £19.99. Available at all good independent games stockists, including Amazon (affiliate link below): 

We were sent our copy of Time's Up! Party for review by Asmodee, for the Blogger Boardgame Club. Amazon links are affiliate, which means I earn a few pence if you bu through my link, but you don't pay a penny extra. This review is not paid.