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I was introduced to this game yesterday when some of my relatives came over for dinner with a new game they'd found. The game looks neat - colorful, fun cartoon characters, play-doh™ like substance, lots of questions in four different categories - it looked like it had something to keep all players interested. Nine of us sat down to stretch out our brains and give Cranium a go.

We played the game for about an hour and a half - finding the game both fun but slow at times.

How the game works:

1. Up to four teams of players compete by moving around the board answering questions from four different categories:

creative cat - sketching / sculpting
star performer - charades / humming & whistling / impersonations
word worm - spelling / guessing definitions / fill in the blank / unscramble words
data head - multiple choice / true or false / knowledge questions / identify what is in the picture

Each category has its own cartoon character to accompany, be it an artistically inclined feline (with requisite beret) or a lexicographer nematoda (with a FEZ!).

2. The teams start out on one of the four crania on the board. The team can choose the category of it's first question. If the team answers the question correctly, it can roll the 10-sided die and move to space corresponding to color rolled. If they get the initial question right, the team can move on the inner route - the aptly named Fast-Track - which is half the length of the outer track, until they come to the next cranium, 1/4th the way around the board. If they get the question wrong, the team stays where it is and tries to answer a question their next turn and must take the outer track - you guessed it - the Scenic-Trail. Every team must stop at every cranium they come upon, where they have the ability to take the Fast-Track if they can answer the question or guess the person/place/thing correctly.

3. This goes on, one question at a time until a team gets to Cranium Central - the middle of the board - where they have to answer a question from each color and then one from a color selected by all of their opponents. If the team completes all of these rigors, they are thought of as the best craniums of the bunch and are hailed in the annals of Cranium history.

We had fun playing the game, but after a while, the game started to drag. The reason for this is that each team is can only answer one question per turn. The only reason I can see for this is a team could reasonably complete half of the game board on their first turn. The questions are fun, but not overwhelmingly difficult. This brings me to my other big gripe about the game:

There is nothing original about this game! The authors of Cranium must have sat down with all of their board games not far away, as they took all of the question / card ideas from other games. Sketching from Pictionary (though there was the occasional twist with eyes-closed drawing), charades from ... charades, humming and whistling from Songburst, guessing definitions from Dictionary (I know there is a corresponding board game, but we play the low-rent version with only paper and a dictionary), data head questions from any of a number of other games - trivial pursuit comes to mind. I am not saying this makes the game less fun, it just was running through my mind for most of the game. On the positive side of this point, if you have a group of people who can't decide what game to play, this will make everyone happy!

Components & Instructions

The instructions included with Cranium are clear, concise and easy to use. The playing pieces are plastic, little-people sized tokens which will undoubtedly last the lifetime of the game. The 'cranium clay' (play-doh type substance) included should also last for quite a while, though if left open for too long (weeks +), I fear could dry out and become useless.

Overall

Cranium is a fun game. I want to say that outright. While not perfect in every aspect, it will certainly keep a crowd entertained for an hour or two. I would say give Cranium a test drive before you buy it. You'll probably like it!



Recommended: Yes