Guess Who? Megan, Tyler, James.......

It was a cold day in December when we visited Santa for the annual "I want....." lap sitting session.

There was my son, dressed in all his Christmas sweater glory. We wait in the long line, finally getting to the front. My son bounces over to Santa, sits on his knee and announces his list. "The Guess Who? game". Santa nods, "What else would you like Santa to bring you"? My son shrugs his shoulders and with a huge smile declares his list complete. All the kid wanted was Guess Who?? Santa, obviously stunned by the lack of my sons' list, then looks sternly at me. He turns back to my son and loudly says "Well, son, if that is all you want then that is what you will get." Thanks, Santa.

My son loves his board games and has mastered every one in the closet. I was planning on getting him a couple more for Christmas, and was glad to know he wanted this particular game. What became the challenge was actually finding it. Who would have known that Guess Who? was a Christmas list staple?

I looked everywhere in my area. Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, even local grocery stores. No luck. Finally two weeks before Christmas I found the last Guess Who? at our local Walmart. Turns out I was quite lucky, they never got anymore in before Christmas. Even the cashier was surprised to see it come across her belt. She had also been searching to no avail.

THE GAME

The game is quite simple. I would compare it to 20 questions. You ask yes or no questions about the mystery person until you narrow it down and correctly guess the mystery face. This is a two player game.

BOARD SET-UP

The board is actually two plastic gameboards, one red and one blue, that house 24 "face" cards each. The gameboard uses plastic frames that flip up and down to hold the face cards. It might sound difficult, but it is very simple to assemble and you only have to assemble the boards once.

The boards also have a scorekeeper, although we really have not used this feature. It is a plastic question mark that slides to count the number of games each player has won. I guess it would be useful if playing a series of games, but for one or two games at a time, it really serves no purpose.

PLAY

To play you flip all 24 face cards up on your board. Each player picks a Mystery card from the pile (they match the faces on your board, so there are 24 Mystery cards to choose from). You do not let your opponent see this card as it would give the game away. Then play starts.

Starting with the youngest, you ask yes or no questions to get to the mystery card your opponent has picked.

The face cards all have different characteristics. Some blond, some brunette. Some with glasses or hats. And of course, some boys and some girls.

You get to ask one yes or no question per turn to help you narrow it down.

Example: I ask you if your mystery card person has glasses, you say no. I then flip down all face cards with glasses, thus narrowing down the field.

If you think you know the mystery card face, you can guess if it is your turn. You may not ask a question and guess on the same turn.

If you guess and are wrong, you automatically lose the game. But, if you are right, you win!

There is a harder version of the game, where each player picks two face cards for the other person to guess. In my opinion, that version is for the older and more experienced players.


My son was delighted when he opened the game on Christmas and has insisted on playing everyday since then.

The game box says for ages 6 and up, but my three year old can play with ease. He usually ends up winning every game.

My son never seemed to notice if someone was wearing glasses or what color hair they had. Now after playing the game he regularly points out these differences. I am not sure if this is a pro or con. Although I would never want my son to blurt out someone was different for wearing glasses or having white hair, it can be useful to notice differences in people in certain situations. Because I cannot determine if it is a pro or con, I will not use that as a rating factor.

Because the gameboards are pretty flimsy and the cards are rather thin, I could see this game being broken if used too roughly. We have played it almost every day for over a month and it is holding up fine, but my son is very easy with his stuff.

As an only child, sometimes I am the only gaming partner he has. As an adult who has played this game many, many, many times I am glad each game is rather short. The cranium games, monopoly jr, and scrabble jr all take way longer to play than a game of this one.

Overall, I am glad Santa delivered this to our tree this year. I would rather have him playing this then a video game any day of the week.