What's the least number of questions it'll take you to Guess Who? (Guess Who?)

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	Guess Who?
Date:	03/07/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to learn, quick to play

Disadvantages: Rather simplistic for older children

I can still remember the first time I heard about "Guess Who". From time to time my infants school had afternoons where pupils were allowed to take games in & we didn't have to do any work. Someone in my brother's class had brought the game in & my brother had come home full of this new game that he'd played & how much he'd enjoyed it. I had a birthday coming up so we decided that one of the things I'd tell my parents I wanted would be "Guess Who".


The Game:-

Each player has a gameboard containing 24 different people. There are men & women, people with different hair or eye colours, people with or without hats, people with or without earrings, men who are bald, who have a moustache or beard etc. The same 24 characters are shown on each board as well as the pile of character cards which is kept separately.


How to play:-

Shuffle the 24 character cards. Each player takes one card each but doesn't show it to their opponent. The object of the game is to discover which card your opponent holds. However you can only ask questions that can be answered with a "yes" or "no". So, questions like "Does you character have earrings?" or "Does you're your character wear a hat?" are fine but questions like "What colour is your character's hair / eyes / beard?" aren't. You can ask "Is your character male?" or "Is your character female?" which will narrow the field you quite considerably, although you can't make this the first question you ask. The winner is the first person to win 5 games.


Advantages of the game:-

This game teaches children about the face & about colours etc as well as basic elimination strategy.


Disadvantages of the game:

As the child gets older this will find this a rather quick, simplistic game to play.



Variations on the game:

As my brother & I got older & grew out of the "basic" game we decided to make things a little more interesting but using two, then three & finally four character cards. This not only helps the child to develop their elimination strategy a little further but also helps their memory. Playing the game like this means that the child, at least initially, can only eliminate characters that have received a "no" answer". If however you're using two cards & have received "yes" answers to, for example, "Does you character wear earrings?" & "Does you character have a beard?" you can see that there aren't any characters that have earrings AND a beard so you can eliminate everyone but the characters with earrings or a beard. Of course, this requires the players to remember which questions they've received "yes" answers to so that they can make the appropriate deductions.

All in all, a very quick game for children to learn. There are no complex rules for them to follow & they're unlikely to lose concentration because the game lasts too long.


The game is made by Hasbro & is currently available in all good game stockists.

Summary: Easy, entertaining game for 2 players