That magical time of year is approaching once again. No, not Christmas. No, not Easter, And no, definitely not your birthday. It’s the End-of-Financial Year sale time! This is the wonderful time of year when retailers try to sell off as much stock as possible so they have fewer sales to make in July. It is always a struggle to figure out what deals to jump on and which to let pass you by. Some deals you should absolutely not avoid are board game deals. To make it even easier, fellow contributor Rohan and I have put together a list of some of the board games you should add to your collection.
If you’re anything like me, you tend to stutter when trying to explain something. This is especially the case when you need to explain something on the fly, and it can often result in you flubbing the words entirely. Now, if you wanted to turn those embarrassing flubs into a game, then You Can’t Say Umm is right up your alley. The game involves two teams of two, and the goal is to reach 20 points first.
One team member has to draw a card and explain it to their teammate, who has 60 seconds to guess what it is. However, every time you say um or other similar words, the opposing team gets to ring a bell. Each bell ring is a point for the bell-ringing team, while each correctly guessed word is a point for that team. The teams swap roles every 60 seconds until one reaches 20 points. This is usually a pretty quick game, with either one team smashing out 20 words like it’s nothing or only being able to talk in umms and ahs. I would highly recommend you play this with competitive people, as it is very fun to watch them get frustrated when they can’t seem to talk right.
Now this isn’t a weird board game about one of my favourite English rock bands but about building blocks and having someone try and guess what the fuck you’ve managed to cobble together in a set time with points for correct guesses… reminds me of my days in kindergarten when I had to prove I was able to move into pre-primary.
The game is simple. Use the blocks available to build an object listed on your selected building card. Then, whoever has been unlucky enough to be designated as the guesser has to try and use their combined knowledge to guess what the pile of multicoloured blocks is supposed to be.
Now, with the state of the construction industry in Australia at the time of writing (not fun), I was hesitant to venture into block construction. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun the game is. I was rubbish, obviously, but that seemed to be more fun in trying to convince people that what you came up with was anywhere close to what’s written down on the card. Definitely, one to check out if you’re looking to brush up on your construction skills or pine for younger days.
Do you like burritos? Do you like throwing things? Do you like throwing burritos at people? If yes to all three, you should give Throw Throw Burrito a shot. This game is a dodgeball card game that involves trying to get the most points possible by collecting sets of cards. Everyone has their own draw pile, and players draw cards at the same time. If you get three of a kind, you get a point. But if you get three of a Burrito Brawl, Duel, or War card, it’s time to start throwing some burritos!
Each type of burrito-throwing battle has its own rules, but it always boils down to grabbing one of two burritos and throwing it as hard as you can at another player. The first person to get hit loses a point, and the cycle repeats. It’s a fun time, but I’d highly suggest not to play this game if your pet is inside or if there are too many breakable objects near your playing area. I’m not speaking from experience here as I totally didn’t nearly knock over picture frames or have my dog nearly run away with a burrito. I’m not that stupid and irresponsible, um yeah.
This box is by far and away my favourite of any board game I’ve ever seen. Very tactile, very soft, so smooth on the face… um anyway, let’s moo-ve away from the box and focus on the game itself because it’s quite amoo-zing.
The aim of the game is to think like everyone else and answer questions to earn cow tokens. Eight cow tokens, and you win the game! Here, individuality is dangerous because every time you’re the odd one out, you get custody of the ultimate false god… THE GOLDEN COW!!!
This one took a little bit of time to adjust my thinking in going with the crowd as I try to be as unique as possible with my answers because I need to make people laugh to fill the dark gaping hole in my soul. That and the golden cow is just so squishy and cute; I will do anything to get my hands on it, points be damned.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes, I want to smack someone with a sword. Lucky for me, the game Let’s Hit Each Other With Fake Swords scratches that itch rather nicely. This card game is all about gathering three sets of three cards to win. In each round of the game, a player becomes the Fight Boss.
This player draws two more cards than the number of players in the game (if there are four players, you draw six). The Fight Boss then arranges these cards into piles in any way they wish as long as there is one less pile than the number of players (five piles for six players). Once that is done and after a three-second countdown, each player points to the pile they want. If only one person points to a pile, they get the cards. If no one points to a pile, they are discarded. But if more than one player points to a stack, it’s time to duel.
The Fight Boss decides which of the players that pointed to the pile get to fight if there are more than two. Then, another card is drawn to determine the rules of the fight. Some cards involve you spinning around three times, some have you throw your sword away before the fight, and others give advantages to the shorter player, such as needing to be hit twice. Whoever wins the fight gets the cards, and then the title of Fight Boss moves on to the next player (also, only one fight can happen per turn, so the Fight Boss also chooses that).
This game is a great way to release some of your pent-up anger in a fun and safe way. It’s also fun to play with your 6’ 5” brother-in-law, who has flaunted his height for TOO DAMN LONG.
We’ve always got questions for our friends – “Where did you get that shirt?” “Did you get up to much last night?” “What are you doing in my house?” and the like. However, there are even more dumb questions we can’t bear to ask our friends that would normally dwell in our subconscious, stewing away until they burst out in the middle of, up until then, a perfectly pleasant baptism.
Now, you can scream out questions and answers to your friends in the more socially acceptable context of game night. To play this game, all you need is two eyes, some ears, and the ability to guess. If you’re picked as a guesser, you need to select a category, then close your eyes as the others pick five cards and make fun of your outfit that you spent ages putting together. Then, once that’s done, they shout answers at you and you have to put the five cards in order of probability.
The players then let the guesser know which dumb question they were answering, and after taking the piss out of your guess then you get some points. Then, the winner is the one with the most points or the one who can put up with the ridicule the longest.
These are just some of the fun board games you can pick up this End-of-Financial Year. Between June 13th and July 10th, these games will be a part of the Toy Catalogue promotion, so be sure to snag them before it’s too late. If you’re in Australia, JB-HI-FI will have discounts on all board games from the 20th to the 30th of June. Be sure to keep it locked to Couch Soup for more board game content to feed your hungry nerd soul.
Are you going to pick up any of these board games? Did any catch your eye? Do you also want to throw a burrito at someone? Let us know in the comments where we can chat about all things board games.
