Quick! Name something you find in a toolbox. If you said "hammer", then you've hit the nail on the head with That's It!, a fast-playing "word for word" party game.
Draw a topic card, then race to shout out answers until someone says the exact word written. Get the most right and – that's it! – you win!
Can you name a movie with two sequels? How about a music group with three members? Those are the types of challenges you'll face in Joe Name It.
On a turn, you draw a category card, then roll the number die. If the category is labeled "Any Joe", the first player to shout an answer (or answers) to the category wins the card; if the category is "Just Joe", then the active player is the only one who can answer. If no answer or not enough answers fit the category, be the first to yell "No Joe" to claim the card. The first player to collect ten cards wins.
3… 2… 1… Sync! Meld your minds in Think n' Sync, a party game of quick connections. Pick a partner and then, at the same time, shout out an answer to the chosen category. Can you both name a movie princess? An ice cream flavor? How about something orange? Your answers may be great, but they score only if they're identical! So think quickly, think cleverly, but most importantly think in sync!
The game is for 2 teams, divided into two approximately equivalent number of players and takes about 30 minutes to play.
It could remind you of the classic word game known as Taboo, but this one has an interesting twist on gameplay – the opposing team is the one who chooses the words you cannot use. With you having no idea which words are "traps", it’s like dancing on a minefield, when you’re trying to describe your assigned word to the rest of the team.
You take the role of a group of adventurers crawling through a fantasy dungeon full of traps and curses, with a Boss waiting for you at the end.
You have to successfully guess a word that one of your teammates is trying to describe to you. Sounds simple, but it is made fiendishly difficult by not knowing which words you can't say. Because both teams are simultaneously preparing secret traps for each other, words that you can't use. And further you get, the more trapwords you might expect.
Let's see the example of one possible turn when you are trying to give clues for the word "Axe":
You: "It is a thing that a dwarf can…"
Opponents team: "A-ha, dwarf! Gotcha!"
You: "How did you know that? Was it obvious I will use that?"
Or when you would try another approach it could look like this, the successful turn of your team:
You: "This thing is used by a man with a beard, in a checkered shirt...."
One of your teammates: "A coffee maker?"
[Everyone laughs]
You: "He uses it for work in nature."
Another teammate: "A chainsaw!"
You: "He makes smaller pieces from a big plant with it."
Any of your teammate: "An axe!"
You: "Yes! Very good!"
Could you avoid your opponent's trapwords when you don't know what you can't say?
Codenames: Harry Potter features the gameplay from Codenames Duet, with players working together to reveal all the right cards before they run out of time or summon Lord Voldemort or another dark wizard.
The cards that players need to guess feature a word or phrase on one side and an image on the other.