Customer Reviews

Cranium

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This game is hysterical! Our family has so much fun playing this game, from tweens through grandma. The younger kids love to play too, if you explain some of the older references.

My bf and I had so much fun playing this game over the holidays. We had fun playing it with his 16 yr old daughter and her friend, we had fun playing it with a big group of people at a New Year's party. Mostly I think we had SO MUCH fun because we are very good at it and are the undefeated champions, but even people we played with who never got past the first 1/4 of the board had a lot of fun playing it.

On the plus side, this game is a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.

On the minus side, the rules of the game are a bit complicated. In some ways they seem quite counterintuitive. Like, people assume that you roll the die, move, and then read a card. But noooo, another team reads a card for you, then you try to complete a task or answer a question or guess a charade or whatever and IF you get it right, THEN you roll the die. But, a lot of the cards are for ALL teams to play, and then you have to keep track of which team got that card and who gets to do what when that card is played out and whether a team gets onto the inside track or not when they landed on "cranium" and...well really I think the rules are complex, especially with a room full of 12 people playing the game, and you may find people get confused about whether it's a card everyone plays so they should be trying to guess the answer or whether it is only another team playing and they should be quiet. You may also find that it is very hard to play charades or something similar when there are four people trying to act out the same character or thing.

Oh, and another thing to note, you probably want to set aside the cards you've already used. If the cards you've already used get mixed in to the boxes it can be a pain to have someone start reading a card and then "oh, we already had that one!", although with the more artistic ones it could be fun to have someone get the same one again and actually use it. Also, you need to be careful when reading a card for another team because the answer is on the back and if you don't have your hand over it, they may see it.

Childbirth? Flash dance? Nope--volcano. This particular Cranium moment has become immortalised in our family's Hilarity Hall of Fame, thanks to the wonderful, charades performance of my brother-in-law... Kudos to Cranium for creating this game--and a whole family of other great games (many of which we also own).

While Cranium is easy to learn and easy to play, it is also provides a variety of tasks that should prove challenging to the average game team. What is your strength? Spelling? What is your weakness? Trivia? And your teammates? What about the other team(s)? Where one team looses ground, they are sure to pick it up when the tasks turn in their favour.

Although the game can be played with several smaller teams, our experience has been that having only two groups with larger team sizes often produces some of the most enjoyable rounds. Cranium has been a hit at small family gatherings, large family reunions, and at parties full of relative (and total) strangers. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes to express themselves and just have fun!

Do not play this game or it will cause your relationship to suffer!

We had a neighborhood party about 6 weeks ago and someone said "lets play a game" There were four couples there and someone came up with the great idea to make it men vs women. Big mistake. Huge mistake. My life will never be the same.

I ended up on the men's team, which is good because last time I checked I am still a man, so naturally I tried to do my best to support my team. Things were going pretty well the first game, but obviously one team had to win, which left one team that did not win. Without saying which team won or lost, all I can say is all of a sudden the women's team got kinda mad and started getting very confrontational. I said "lets stop playing this game and play something else" but they wanted nothing to do with that idea and demanded a rematch. The night ended with one team winning 3-0. Not a good week at my house.

A week goes by and the women want a rematch. Against my better judgment we played again. Another couple joined us this time. After three more games we end up at 6-0, and I prepare for another bad week at home. Aren't these games supposed to be fun? Aren't they designed to bring you closer to your friends and spouse? Why isn't it working?

A few more weeks go by and we could not avoid a rematch any longer, so we played again. One couple did not make it, but still another couple joined in. Much better result because of the three games we played, the women won 2 of them. It was kinda weird because they wanted to reset the games counter and kept saying the new score was women 2, men 1. But really it was men 7, women 2. Why is it that they could not see this?

New years Eve rolls around and my birthday is on new years Day, so I ask my wife, who happens to be the Queen of baking, to make me a cake so we could take it to the new Years Eve party with our friends. I told her what I wanted and she refused! Can you believe that? She would not even make me a birthday cake. I ended up having to bake my own birthday cake. I tried to post a picture in this review, but could not, so I posted it under the customer images at the top of the page. Hope you like it, it took a lot of work to get it that way. It may also be the worlds first Cranium cake! Pretty impressive for my first time ever using fondant.

A few more weeks go by and someone comes up with the brilliant idea of having another "game night" I was so against it I had to feign illness to avoid going to play. How bad is that? This game is causing me to lie to my family and friends. It was a sad day for me. Good day for the women, because they won 2 out of the 3 games played bringing the score to 8-4. Also had another couple join in the game. Pretty much every family we know has now joined in to play this stupid game. Our happy neighborhood is not too happy anymore.

Well enough about my personal problems caused by this game, let me actually talk a little bit about the game. It could be a fun game, if people played by the rules. An example would be trying to get your team to guess a song title but you are only allowed to hum the song. Sounds easy, if you know how to hum. Since when does anybody hum with their mouth open and say words in a very muffled tone? I am not a linguistics expert by any means, but that is not humming! But who am I to call someone a cheater?

I am also a little surprised the women's team does not win more games. They seem to have an almost psychic connection. One of the clues was to guess a famous person with saying names, places, or things. Angie gets up and makes believe she is throwing a leg over something like she is getting onto a horse. Well my wife yells out "John Wayne" and she was correct. Women get the point. Then my wife asks Angie "why were you climbing over a fence?" What? How the hell did she guess John Wayne when she thought Angie was climbing over a fence? I have never been able to understand women, but now I am even more confused.

This game also has questions where you need to get your team to guess the answer but you only get a lump of clay and must shape it so they guess the answer. Seriously? Now I have to be a friggin sculptor? Don't I have enough stress in my life already?

Well here is the dilemma, we are having a game night this Friday. I cannot feign illness again because the party is being hosted at my house. I just want things to go back to the way they were. I had a pretty happy life. Why can't I just have that back? Is that really asking too much?

This is much better than regular trivia games. It is a combination of charades, trivial pursuit, and pictionary. Some questions are quite difficult for non-Americans.

I ordered the game before the seller had posted images of it in the cardboard packaging, and assumed it would come in the attractive and durable tin that's still visible on the product page. What arrived was an ordinary cardboard package, which was scuffed at the corners because the original shrink wrap had been removed. As I write this, Amazon currently sells a newer edition of the same game directly for just $19.99 -- and I suspect it will arrive in better condition.

Seller: please contact me once you've removed the image depicting a tin, and I'll revoke that part of my review and increase my rating of the product. Thanks!

Without going into all the game details, this is a great game for couples, friends, or families. Definitely want four or more people. Much better than trivia games. 25 is a little high, but I could still justify it.

I think cranium is a very well made game, but it might not be for everyone.

CONS:
-sometimes the material is not well known enough for the general public (e.g., songs from the 60's will be lost on the 20 and under crowd)
-sometimes it feels like the game can drag on for too long
-not as easy to get into as some other fast paced party games (taboo, pictionary, etc.)

PROS:
-Highly polished game. It does not feel cheap at all.
-Great for BIG groups. It increases the chance of people knowing the material.
-High hilarity value if you have the right mix

If you know this game will suit the party you will bring it to, then buy it. Great for church events, lockins, retreats, and any audience where you have a large pool of people.

This is a great game for game night. Adults and older kids can play together. It's fun because it is varied--if you do not excel in the creative areas, for example, there are three other categories to excel in. It includes categories like Words, Trivia, Creativity and Stars. It is one of the few games that doesn't get tiresome or boring quickly. I gave the durability a lower rating because my game arrived in the mail with a broken timer and I have to buy another one somewhere. Otherwise, it is fairly durable as long as you don't get the cards and board wet...

We bought this game around Christmas time...my wife had always wanted to buy it but I was hesitant, but we saw a good price so I decided why not even though I knew nothing about the game. It's actually a fun trivia based turn-game that turned into hours of fun. (It's also an excellent drinking game which we play with the guys vs the girls format...)

PRO's:
-Excellent game for adults
-Kids will enjoy this too, although some questions may be over their head

CON's:
-If you play this a lot, you may start duplicating cards. I'm not sure if you can buy more cards on it's own, but the questions are varied enough that this shouldn't be an issue

OVERALL:
Definitely a worthy investment for your bookshelf for when company is over.