Articulate has been a firm favourite with my family for many years, being dragged out of the cupboard whenever other families come to visit, and being taken on holiday as evening entertainment. It is a competitive describing game that is played in teams, and relies on quick thinking and extravagant gestures. The beauty of the game is that teams can be formed which combine a variety of ages. In this way the youngest and the oldest can contribute equally, with nobody feeling silly or left out. Articulate is a fast moving, shouting, competitive team game that can leave you helpless with laughter.
Articulate is currently sold on Amazon for around £35.

~~Equipment~~

The game consists of a circular game board with a black spinning arrow which slots into the hole in the middle. The board folds into quarters so that it can fit inside the box. On the board there are different coloured segments which radiate out from the centre. These segments have the words Random, Nature, Object, Action, Person or World on them. The Object segment is light blue, the World dark blue, the Person yellow, etc. The words Start and Finish are written on two adjacent segments, and there are also random white segments with an ace of spades symbol. These are Control segments.

There are also four conical counters (blue, yellow, gold and red), an egg timer and a set of question cards which are kept neatly in their box. On each question card is a colour coded word which corresponds to the coloured segment on the board. A typical example would be P(person) Take That; R (random) heartbreak; N(natural world) Mercury; W (world) Westminster Abbey. Every segment on the board has a corresponding word on the question card.

The questions can become a bit dated or the players get to know the answers, so upgrades can be bought to keep the game fresh. I recently bought Extra Pack number 2 from Amazon for around £15. This helped a lot, as the children looked completely blank when asked to describe Harvey Smith or Tommy Cooper. The new pack includes a much more current and broader list.

The game is made by Drummond Park, and is of good quality. Over years of use, the board, arrow and timer have not suffered any wear and tear. The cards are thick with a shiny surface so that they do not become dog eared or dirty.

~~Game Play~~

The guidance on the game is that it is suitable for 4 to 20+ players, aged 12 and over. I would judge the age range to be pretty accurate; I have played with younger children but they find the game too fast and the questions too difficult.

The object of the game is to work in teams, placing your counter on the start and correctly guessing the answer to the questions that your team mate is answering. The counter is moved around the board, and the first team to reach the finish wins.

Teams can consist of 2 people upwards, but the game is most enjoyable when there are 4 to 6 people in each team. Each time nominates a describer - the rest of the team are guessers. The arrow is spun round until it points to a category; a card is taken out from the front of the pack and the appropriate category is read by the describer.

The opposing team turns the egg timer upside down and shouts Start. The describer must then describe the appropriate word on the card as quickly as possible until their team members guess the correct answer and they can move on to a new card and describe another work in the same category. When the timer runs out, the team counts the number of correct answers and moves their counter around the board the corresponding number of segments.

The rules of describing are that you must not say the letter the word starts with, you may not say the word or any derivative, you must not use Rhymes with or Sounds like clues. You can only use gestures, acting or miming to get your team mates to guess correctly.

If the counter lands on a white control segment, the describer describes the word in the white category to everybody playing and play passes to the first team to shout out the correct number.

The more desperate a team becomes to win, the more hilarious the frustrated describer becomes. Describing words like Bart Simpson ... or Damp ...or Jerking lead to some frantic acting.

~~Opinion~~
This game has been worth every penny I paid for it over the years. It has grown up with my children, and they love it just as much now (as adults) as they did when they were 12. I have seen it brought out when they have their friends over, and we have equally played it with groups of adults at parties. It really is a game for all ages, and after a couple of drinks the describers can come out with some hilarious and desperate gestures which are even more amusing for the opposing teams.