Absolute Brilliance! (Absolute Balderdash)

Member Name: esthersmile

Product:	Absolute Balderdash
Date:	22/12/03 (584 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Humourous, gets the party going

Disadvantages: Complex rules, Takes a large number of people to work well., Not suitable for very young children

I'm not a great fan of board games, since my boyfriend is a complete control freak and can't stand losing. He therefore takes them far too seriously. However, having played this game at a friend's house i decided to buy it as I had such a good time playing it. If you read the rest of the review you'll find out why...

What's in the box?
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1 Board
1 spinny thing
1 Set cards
lots of paper for writing answers on
counters
instruction leaflet

Gameplay:
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Players take it in turns to be the 'reader' who has the card with the questions and definitions on it. He/she then reads out the question (which isn't really a question, but a word/title/abbreviation) according to which category their counter is on (this couldbe a film tile, word, obscure law, famous person or abbreviation) and the other players then write down what they think the answer is. For example, if the category is films, the reader might read out "The attack of Mad Fat Sheila 2" (not a title from the game, but one very similar to the one we had whilst playing the other night!). The other players write down a quick synopsis of the plot and give their answers to the reader. The reader writes down the correct answer and then reads out that and the 'bluffs' in random order, so as to conceal who has written what answer. The other players then must try to guess which is the correct answer.

Players get one point if another player thinks their bluff was the correct answer, two points if they correctly spot the right answer, and the reader gets two points if no one identifies the right one. Players then move around the board and the first one to get to the end wins.

There is also a rule about some sort of spinner which moves you back or forwards, but I didn't really understand that rule so we played it without and the game seemed to work quite well without this e
lement of luck.

It will probably take about 2 hours to play with a decent number of people (between 5 and eight is ideal), so plan ahead.

Is it fun?
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Actually, despite the rules being rather complicated and thus difficult to get the hang of, once it gets going the game is great. The secret is that all that has been provided are the tools of the game, how funny, rude or skillful you want to be depends on the players. You get the boring people who always try to imitate the right answer, the comedians who try to be funniest, and then people who just write rude words to be funny. The trick of the game is to account for this and thus the actual right answers are a real mixed bag. This means that picking the correct answer is more a skillful psychological deduction dependent on how well you know your friends than an attempt to 'figure out' the game.

Conclusion:
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There isn't really a great deal more to say, other than that this a a really fun game.
Its suitable for ages 13 and upwards in my opinion, due to the slightly adult nature of some of the definitions, and the complex rules. It can also be good as an ice breaker at a party as it makes for lots of laughs.

So all in all I'd definitely recommend this one for christmas parties (although I know it's a bit late for that now) and other get-togethers.

Hope everyone has a great christmas, and a wonderful new year, whatever you are up to!

Summary: