Customer Reviews

Urban Myth Board Game

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

 

 

We picked this game up recently, since it sounded like a lot of fun. I love reading about urban myths, so I thought this would be a blast.

It's fun, but...I dunno, I need something that raises the bar a bit.

You travel around some squares and someone reads you what could or could not be an urban myth. Then everyone votes on whether or not they think it's true. The answer true or myth is revealed, and everyone moves, or doesn't move if they've gotten it wrong, and play continues.

We recently bought a pile of board games, including Cranium, Scene It, Trivial Pursuit (can't remember which edition, but it's in a gold box), and Urban Myth, and Urban Myth is the one we've played least. Not that it isn't fun and interesting, it just isn't AS fun and interesting as others.

I received a copy of Urban Myth as a birthday present - and I have to say it's one of the best games I've played in a long time! My whole family played it after dinner and it was a hoot. There's all kinds of urban legends in there that you think are true but really aren't. The only criticism I have is that the instructions didn't tell us to shuffle the cards; we had to figure that one out on our own. All in all, though, Urban Myth was well worth playing and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good board game.

I originally bought Urban Myth over the holidays, struck by what a promising concept for a game it promised to be. How wrong I was.

For starters the box is deceiving; the age recommendation is 12 and over which couldn't be further for the truth. This is definitely not a family game. The box, with the cutesy picture and tame questions posed on the back are misleading to say the least. At least 85% of the questions on our first go were fairly high in the morbidity/death factor (including one wince-inducing question about whether or not infant carcasses had been used as mob drug cartel. Mercifully, it was a myth.)

I'm no prude, and would have had no problem with the topics had the game not made promises that the whole family could play. From now on I'll certainly investigate the content before inviting the kids to come join us.

And, err- how can I put this? The shape of the game pieces are... interesting. Of course, I noticed this right away but just chalked it up to my dirty, dirty mind. But as soon as the kids left the room for a moment, the somewhat conservative mother leaned into me and whispered "Is it just me, or do those game pieces look like male _________?" Okay, I'm more or less just kidding with that last observation. Still, this game gets a big thumbs down in the family friendly department.

That aside, I'm afraid I cannot recommend the game adult players as well. Urban Myth also fails as a board game... as far as we could ascertain the board only served one particular purpose and a fairly feeble one at that. (The goal is actually collecting enough letter cards to either spell 'truth' or 'myth'.) Otherwise, you just mindlessly navigate the board until someone collects enough cards based solely on the questions. The board is almost entirely useless.

Finally, the game's worst crime is the missed educational opportunity. When you play Trivial Pursuit and get a true or false question, the will give you the correct answer AND some additional information with said answer on the back of the card. This game only dryly indicates the tale as 'truth' or 'myth' WITHOUT any further information, like WHY it's a myth or why it's a truth or how it all got started as an urban legend to begin with.

If there are no facts to back up either claim, then why should we to believe the answers? I know there is only so much space on the back of a game card, but SOME information would have been nice.

What a waste. Hopefully someone out there will take this great idea and turn it into the great game I know it could be. Common boardgame idea guys! Do better. Try harder.

This is one of the best new games out there. A friend told me about this game claiming it was such a riot. So I bought it and played with another group of friends and we all had a blast.
This game is fun, interesting and educational. A lot of stories that I believed true are in fact myth. The graphics are very creative and compliments the pop culture style. Very cool game.

This game is a lot of fun, but should be taken with a grain of salt. Not all of the legends listed as true actually are. Looks like the creators were taken in by some of the very urban legends that they are quizzing us on. (...)

Urban Myth is something like Trivial Pursuit, where the trivia falls into six different categories and you must be on the correct category to win something after answering the question. However, instead of open-ended questions, these are true or false trivia questions.

Sounds simple, you say? Think again! Some of these are really very tricky, and they're written in such a manner that it's nearly impossible to guess if something REALLY happened or if it didn't.

The object of the game is actually to collect the question cards themselves, which have letters on the back. Be the first one to spell out "TRUE" or "MYTH" with your cards, and you win.

I liked this game, I think it's a really fun twist on trivia games. The true-false aspect does level out the playing field a little bit (everyone's got a 50/50 shot at each answer). We found that the game moved quite quickly, so we managed to fit a couple of rounds into the allotted space for game-playing.

This game is convoluted. The object is to correctly answer true/false questions, and be the only one that does it that is standing on a square that matches the category of the card that is being read, so that you can get the card and hopefully spell either TRUE or MYTH and win the game. If there's a tie, you get to read another card. My friends and I played it tonight and about 20-30 minutes into the game, we quit. The game does still have value. Some of the facts or myths it gives you are interesting, but lack much real substance or sources. Ditch the board and if you must have some kind of contest with it, it would probably work well as a drinking game.

I can't say that I would recommend this game for others to get or play. As mentioned in the other reviews, the object of the game is to decide if a particular tidbit is a truth or myth. And well... that's it really. The board is mostly meaningless in the game. You move around the game-board one square at a time with your game piece, and you have a small choice in which circuit to move in. However, due to the random nature of the game, the paths offer little difference between each other. The board's only purpose is to prolong the game for more than just a handful of rounds.

I prefer a game that requires at least some strategy or involvement from the players. This game is merely a shell for guessing coin flips. You cannot do anything to the other players, nor do you have any real choice in which category to stand on during a turn. Even if you did, since the cards are pulled at random, no category offers an advantage over another. The game doesn't encourage you to discuss a possible answer with other players, since you can influence each other (in my opinion, this would add a bit more depth into the gameplay).

My main complaint over the game is that its lacking in actual information. The game designers had a wonderful opportunity to present information over the truths or myths on their cards. Instead, the only answer given on a card is "Truth" or "Myth" - no reason why it would be one or the other. If the cards contained a bit more information for the answer, I would enjoy the game more (although I would still have an issue with the gameplay mechanic of the board).

Even if you enjoy hearing about urban legends, this game is not for you. It's lacking in the crucial aspect of information. When you actually "play" the game, you'll find that all of the moves are forced - your only involvement is choosing "Truth" or "Myth". Don't let the 5 star reviews fool you - this game is not very fun, and quickly loses its charm because of the lack of depth in information and gameplay.

A group of friends and I played this game at a party and only a couple questions in, we thought an answer just didn't sound right. We looked it up and the game was WRONG. So after that, we would look the answers up, and 8 times out of 10, the game was WRONG. If you want to actually learn, do NOT get this game!