danielsaddress's Full Review: Cranium: Cranium Board Game
My wife got this game a long time ago but basically never played it. Recently I discovered the game and have played quite a few times recently, and have found it to be great fun.
The game can only be played with teams, so a larger group of people is required. Generally you get 2 people to a team, with up to 4 teams (You can play with 3 people per team, but results aren't quite as good). Each time gets a game piece that does the typical thing in a game, advance to the finish line, with the first person making it winning. Each team takes a turn, and to advance you must get something right in one of the four categories. Teams start on a purple space, meaning they can choose any of the four categories, and only upon winning can a team advance to the next space by rolling a die. Most spaces rolled on force a category to be played, while others allow the team to again choose a category. The game is won when a team reaches the finish and wins one final purple space (purple being the space where you choose the category). The following is an overview of the four available categories:
Creative Cat: This is my personal favorite. Creative cat contains primarily drawings much like pictionary. One player on a team must draw an item from a card, while the other player tries to guess what is being drawn. A Twist comes when you do a "Sensosketch" and have to draw with your eyes closed, which makes it very interesting. The team member must guess before a timer runs out to get it right. Also, there are "Club Cranium"s where all teams get to go head to head and compete, with the first team member guessing the drawing winning the round and getting a bonus role. Another thing on Creative Cat is where one team member must mold objects with cranium clay (Purple clay that is VERY hard to work with), while the other team member guesses what the object is.
Word Worm: Word worm is my least favorite area, and is great for people who love words. You have a few various puzzle types, but No club Cranium (where all team members compete). One Task is to spell difficult words. Another has team members try to spell words backwards in one try. Another takes words you've never heard of and let's both team members choose a multiple choice answer on what the word means. Another puzzle, the "blankout", is a "fill in the blanks" where players try to find what word fits in a given subject and given empty spaces. Still another puzzle has Players unscramble letters to make up words.
Star Performer: This is another area I enjoy, where you do various performances under the pressure of the timer to win. In a "CopyCat", players can act like and talk like a famous person, and the other team member must guess who the person is. There is also charades, where team members must act like random things. Humdingers have team members whistle or hum out famous songs, which are surprisingly hard to guess. Star Performer has many "Club Cranium"s available, which make it very interesting as you have up to 4 people playing out the same character.
Data Head: Data Head is very simple, basically a trivia game. I find this fairly boring, but others like it a lot so it's a good addition to the game. There are no Club Craniums in data head, just multiple Choice, guessing definitions facts, etc.
Gameplay seems to take about an hour for 2 players, 1.5 hours or so for 3-4 players (as more players = longer gameplay). The game has clean questions so kids can definitely play, though they will have a hard time competing with adults, which is fine if you team up younger players together with adults. The game has decent replay value until of course you start hitting the same cards over again (takes probably 10 or so times playing to do so, I'm not 100% sure because I have not gotten that far yet). If you ever do, you can always purchase extra pieces from their website. I recommend this game as it is well worth the money and will provide hours of fun with your friends.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 20 Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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