While a game of charades is a well-known way to have some good old-fashioned fun, it tends to induce a bit of stage fright in some people. You certainly need a bit of courage to get up in front of a group of people and pantomime your way to success. And, of course, some of us are more coordinated, creative, and non-verbally effective than others. But, now, USAopoly has taken all of the embarrassment out of the classic game with a new way to play.
Reverse Charades allows players ages 6 and up to act out in groups with just one person doing the guess-work. That’s an entire group of people making fools of themselves together, instead of just one person! Players split into two teams of three or more and set a point goal. Then, each team selects the first guesser and the rest of the team collectively acts out a word printed on the card. Players then have one minute to act out and correctly guess as many words as they can. For every word guessed correctly, that team collects a point. The first team to reach the point goal wins the game.
As with classic charades, no talking, humming, beat-boxing, whistling, onomatopoeia-ing or any other form of noise making you can invent is allowed. Though not specified in the one-page rule sheet, laughing is probably okay—since it’s literally unavoidable.
The cards are double-sided so there are hundreds of words to get through before you start repeating. Some cards are more abstract and difficult, such as “New York City” (For this, we had one player posing as Lady Liberty; one portraying a crazed taxi driver; and one imitating a member of the Rockettes, performing jazz hands and a rather uninspired kick-line routine. As you can image, we did not earn the point.), while others are pretty simple, such as “Titanic” (the scene at the front of the boat where Rose puts her arms out and Jack holds her waist—unmistakable).
The more players you have, the more fun the game becomes and the more you can do with each word. For “bridesmaid,” we were able to pull of a small (and silent) wedding ceremony with four people in just under 10 seconds (sans Priest, though, can’t have everything). Other cards that produced amazing results included “ultrasound,” “sink or swim,” and “tooth fairy,” but I’ll leave those to your imagination.
Make sure this gem is nestled snuggly under your coffee table the next time you’re hosting a get-together, and prepare to harness your inner dramatics for a night of team bonding fun.
This product and more from USAopoly will be on display at The Big Toy Book’s Sweet Suite 14 event in New York City on July 17. Part of Blogger Bash, a two-day conference connecting bloggers and brands nationwide, Sweet Suite will feature the hottest toys and games for the upcoming holiday season. Visit thebigtoybook.com for more info, and follow the conversation on Twitter!
