Anita and Me (Guess Who?)

Member Name: stoffy

Product:	Guess Who?
Date:	31/12/02 (287 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very simple concept for children to pick up, pointless nostalgia

Disadvantages: gets boring quickly, you always end up picking Anita

This Christmas saw a glut of talking heads on TV prattling on about space-hoppers and other toys that they had when they were younger. When I was younger, I wanted a Mr Frosty the Snowman set (it crushed ice to put in drinks, for those who are unaware as to what one is) and a Soda Stream (which made drinks every colour of the rainbow and made you more hyper than Su Pollard on a Big Dipper), although never got either. Whether this was because they were expensive, bad value or conducive to bed-wetting, I’m not sure. However, one thing that I did receive at one Christmas was ‘Guess Who’, a game which I’m sure pretty much every twenty-something had at one point.

A game for two (nightmare scenario in 3-children families), each player has their own plastic board, each containing about 30 or so pop-up panels. Each of these panels held a playing card, each depicting the face of a person with their name stated at the bottom. The faces contained on each board are the same for each opponent.

At the start of each game, each player draws a card from a pack containing one card for each character, which remains hidden from the opponent. The aim of the game is for each competitor to guess who’s face is on their opponents card by process of elimination through asking alternate questions.

All questions must be able to be answered yes or no. For example, does your person have long hair? Is your person male or female? Does your person look like someone you’d avoid eye-contact with if travelling on public transport late at night?, that sort of thing.

Using their answer, you can flip down the panels of the people who’s characteristics don’t match what your opponent has said, and are therefore definitely not the card that they hold. The idea is to skilfully ask your questions eliminating as many people as possible as quickly as you can to be left with only one panel, which in theory should be th
e same one as your opponent has on their card. The winner is the person to get the correct answer first. Simple, eh?

Many of the characters depicted on the cards were a little scary. Big lipped Susan looked like an albino Joan Rivers, whilst Alfred looked like the bastard offspring of a Saxon warrior and your school caretaker. Also, for some reason unexplained by science or logic, you always seemed to pick Anita from the card-pack.

However, the makers had cleverly made each one different, so that there was always a question that would separate any two cards, even if it was a feature as simple as wearing glasses or having big ear-lobes.

In its favour, ‘Guess Who’ is extremely simple and easy to pick up, and is a good introduction to children to board games. However, there is always controversy as to just what constitutes curly hair, and the ‘no she doesn’t have black hair, it’s brown, you fool’ debate often marred many a game. And, after brief initial addiction, it doesn’t really stand up to repeated playing, and has a tendency to gather dust in the cupboard along with Buckaroo and Lego. It should also be pointed out that it’s also going to be of little interest to the over-8’s who don’t possess a nostalgia fetish.

Having said that, I remember it being entertaining as a child, and although it didn’t make up for not having a Soda Stream, it still more memorable than most of my childhood Christmas presents of years gone by. It’s also been extremely durable throughout the ages thanks to a few character facelifts, and can be found on the market in original and travel forms still for under a tenner from all good toy shops!

Summary: