Compatibility is a very cute board game that attempts to test the compatibility between two people.  While the game is designed to have two-person teams compete against each other, so that one team can say "ha ha - we're more compatible than you are", it's just as much fun when only two people play, to see how compatible they are, without competing against other teams.  Teams can be spouses, friends, roommates, or even complete strangers.  But I think it's most fun when significant others form a team.

The basic idea is for a word to be read, and both members of the team associate pictures with that word.  The pictures are displayed on 52 image cards.  (There are six identical sets of images, so each player is looking through the same 52 images).  There are 100 topic cards, each with six words, for a total of 600 different words.  Thus the basic play is for one of the 600 words to be read, and both members of the team go through 52 pictures deciding which of the images best describe their associates with the word.

Some examples of the words: boss, force, visual, unity, adult, heaven, illusion, calm, satisfaction, study, lonely, fear, revenge, accused, capture, defensive, doubt.  As you can see, the words can easily evoke many different emotions and associations.  The question is, do you associate to the word "calm", the same images that your partner does?

The 52 images are extremely varied, and some are just pictures of words.  Here are some examples: a picture of the White House, red rock canyon, a plain red square, a crowd, a pelican, the word "best", a skyscraper, a red rose, teenagers kissing, a lion, fresh fruit, a telephone, a statue, a palm tree, a church, an ashtray, a sports car, a stop sign, a baby, a globe, little kids, jewelry, and a teddy bear. 

As you can see, the images are extremely varied.  Continuing with our example of the word "calm", perhaps you see the image of the red rose as "calm" because you love flowers and feel serene when surrounded by them.  Or, perhaps the palm tree is calming for you because you associate it with being on vacation.  For some, the ashtray might be associated with "calm" because they feel calm when they smoke.  There are no right or wrong associations here, it's all a matter of how you think about the words and the images.   

The real question is, how do your associated images match with your teammate's?  Even if you disagree, it doesn't mean one of you is wrong.  It simply means that your thought processes are different.  It's interesting to hear why your partner chose the words he did.  For example, when the word "fear" is being used, it might be interesting to see someone choose the picture of the baby, perhaps because the person is worried about becoming a parent.  To others, the crowd might be associated with fear, or the skyscraper if the person is afraid of heights.  Someone else might choose the picture of the White House, fearful of what policies might come from within.

The actual play is simple.  All teams play the same word at the same time.  Teams earn points by matching images.  And you earn extra points by matching images in the same order.  Meaning, you not only choose five images to associate to the word, but you order them from strongest association to weakest.  Thus if you and your partner match the image in the same position, you get three points.  If you match an image in a different position you get two points.  Points allow you to move your marker around a board where you're traveling from the start position to the finish, along a spiral.  There are no "tricks".  No "skip ahead", "move back" or "lost a turn" rules. 

The only gimmick is that teams are choosing anywhere from one to five images during a turn depending upon the number in the square on which their marker resides.  Obviously, the more images you get to pick, the more points you can possibly achieve.  If you're only picking one image, you can only hope to match the one image.   Picking five images gives you the opportunity to make more matches, thus earn more points.  Note that team members are always choosing the same number of images, but the other teams may be choosing a different number, depending on where their marker resides on the board.

Each player chooses their images, ordering them from strongest to weakest.  Players keep their choices hidden until all players are finished.  Then one by one, each team reveals their cards and points are tallied based upon their matches.  Once you know your team's total points earned for that round, move your marker along the track.

It's a simple game, but the discussions that can accompany the revealed images are the interesting part.  I played with a friend of mine a few years back and was quite surprised at the level of incompatibility we displayed.  Not that it affected our friendship, it simply led to some fascinating revelations about how we think about certain topics.

I'm glad there are 600 words - that's certainly enough so that you don't run out quickly.  And 52 seems like a good number of images to go through.  Not so many that it's overwhelming, but not so few that you have to struggle to find associations.  The cards, themselves, are high quality, plastic-coated.  They're similar to decks of playing cards, but of even higher quality.  I've played this game many times over the years, and none of the cards appears damaged.  Because they're plastic-coated they're slippery.  This is a good thing - it makes it easy to browse through them as you're making your choices.  The folded board is also sturdy, and shows absolutely no sign of wear.  A slotted plastic container inside the box easily holds all of the cards and the markers.  The directions are clear.

The only silly part is that they actually expect you to color-coordinate your teams.  Thus the directions will tell you that one team should be the "red-white" team.  One player gets the red-backed cards, one gets the white-backed cards.  Similarly, there's the purple-green team, and the yellow-blue team.  Even the markers are designed to snap together.  You're supposed to snap, for instance, the red and white markers together to represent your team.  The only thing is silly. There is no reason to coordinate colors that way.  Each player can choose any deck of cards (they're all the same, after all) and any colored marker can represent your team.

I recommend this game for adults.  While they say it's appropriate for kids 12 and over, I think the discussions that ensue could be adult in nature.  Topics such as religion, sex, and violence could certainly come up.  For this reason, my preference would be to play this game with adults, only. 

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 20
Type of Toy: Board Game