The Big Bang Theory: The Party Game
Sent to us from the nice folk at Esdevium, The Big Bang Theory: The Party Game is a card game designed for 3 or more players ages 15+.
Components:
- 180 blue ‘Theoretical’ cards.
- 4 blue ‘Bazinga’ cards.
- 75 red ‘Experimental’ cards (a mix of basic and ‘experimental formula’ cards.)
- 12 blank cards (used to write your own ‘theories’ if you so wish).
- 60 point chips (12 each numbering 1 to 5)
- 6 cardboard envelopes (Used for submitting 2 blue cards).
The Gameplay:
Gameplay is really simple and easy for everyone to pick up. All the blue ‘theoretical’ and ‘Bazinga’ card are shuffled and 7 cards dealt to each player. The red ‘experimental’ cards are shuffled and stacked in the middle of the play area. You then chose someone to start as ‘referee’. They turn over a red ‘experimental’ card from the top of the deck. This will have on it a phrase such as ‘can create complex situations’ or ‘could cause me discomfort’. The other players then have to take a blue card from their hand which they think most closely (or entertainingly) matches the phrase on the red card. It’s then the referee’s job to assign points to the responses as they see fit. 5 going to the best, 1 going to the worst. So for example, if the ‘experimental’ card was ‘Often leads to disaster’, players could response with ‘theoretical’ cards such as ‘Flamingo on Ritalin’, ‘Drastic Heartbreak’ or ‘Awkward Accidental Grab’.
If the red card is an ‘experimental formula’ card it requires 2 blue cards to create a response – e.g. the ‘experimental formula’ says ‘made for each other’, so, depending on the cards the player has in his hand, they could combine ‘Personal Robot’ with ‘Lonely, Bitter Old Man’.
Bazinga cards can be played after everyone has submitted their blue ‘theoretical’ cards to force the ref to draw a new card from the deck, thereby replacing the original ‘experiment’ with a brand new one, giving potentially hilarious answers!
Everyone takes turns being the referee, and the winner is the person with the most points once all the chips are given out.
Is it any good?
In a word, yes! Great fun and extremely funny! We were only playing with 4 people, which I would actually say is really the minimum you should have to make the game entertaining. It’s very easy to pick up, and you don’t need to be a fan, or even have seen the show, to understand it. If you are a fan though, each of the blue cards has entertaining little quotes from the show to make you laugh too! As it says in the title, it’s a party game, and I think it does that job brilliantly. The more people playing, the more entertaining it’ll get.
In terms of build quality, the cards are perfectly fine, although I’m not sure how well the cardboard point chips would hold up against the potential spillages in a party environment!
Although the game says 15+, that’s really to do with the content on some of the cards. With a bit of parental editing (i.e. removing cards you deem inappropriate), you could probably lower that age limit to allow younger people to play along.
Buy The Big Bang Theory: The Party Game here!
