Review of Apples to Apples Game: Entertaining and Funny Card Game for Families (With Examples)

My family, immediate and extended, has always enjoyed board and card games. They have given us opportunities to spend some quality, fun time together while not breaking the bank. Monopoly, Scrabble, Cranium, Uno and Life are some of the games we have enjoyed over the years.

A more recent discovery of ours has been the Apples to Apples game . We bought the game prior to one family game night (a gathering of my cousins), looking for something that was fun, up to ten people could play and had minimal rules/pieces to track. It took a few minutes to read the directions and figure it out, and we found out within minutes of starting, it’s truly “the game of hilarious comparisons”.

Apples to Apples is pretty easy to set up and play. There are two groups of cards in the game—red and green. The red cards list people, places, things or events and short ‘definitions’ of those items. The green cards list characteristics of the items on the red cards, along with synonyms or words that are close in definition.

To start, each player receives seven red cards. One player is the ‘judge’ for that round and picks a green card, reads the card and places it on the table. Each of the other players must decide quickly which of their red cards—person, place, thing or event—best matches the characteristic of the green card. The players must try to think like the judge: is he/she going to go for the obvious match or pick something off the wall and ridiculous? All red cards are placed face down on the table. Once the judge has read the cards aloud and has made the decision of which card is best, the player whose card the judge picks receives the green card. After a player receives four or more green cards (dependent on the number of players), he/she is the winner of the game. Once the first round is over, a new judge takes over and play resumes.

For example: let’s say the judge picks a green card and it says “Spooky—weird, scary, ghostly”. The other players take a look at their cards and place their best choice on the table face down. The judge reads the red cards aloud: ‘My high school prom, my refrigerator, fund raising, infomercials and Jennifer Lopez’. Obviously, the players think the judge will pick a humorous choice! The judge thinks about it for a minute, and picks ‘my refrigerator’. The player who placed down that red card receives the green card for that round. All of the played red cards go into a separate pile and each player, except the judge, takes a new red card for that round.

That’s it! It’ so simple to play and it’s very random. You never know what cards will show up or how the judge will pick. There are a few different variations mentioned in the directions, and with nearly a thousand cards, anything can happen!

Apples to Apples is a staple at all of our large family gatherings as well as our family nights. All of my cousins and I (a group of teenagers and twenty-somethings) love to play Apples to Apples at our annual Memorial Day and Labor Day family picnics as well as our Christmas and New Years Eve gatherings. We sit at a table and the rest of the family would watch as we loudly lobby for the best cards and throw completely ridiculous cards down to be chosen. I must say, for us, the funniest part is the lobbying and banter. Playing Apples to Apples together is tons of fun and brings so much laughter and entertainment!

We play Apples to Apples, the Party Box, Ages 12-Adult version. There is an Apples to Apples Junior for ages 9 and up which has cards suitable for 4th-6th grade reading levels. It has as many cards as the Party Box but it's a bit easier for younger children to play.

Looking for fun and entertainment for your family ? Try Apples to Apples!

©ThePracticalMommy