Apples to Apples

Objective:	A juicy game of comparisons. This game is receiving rave customer reviews and was a national competition winner with Mensa, the high-IQ organization.
Categories:	Adults, Teens, Board Game
Game type:	Passive. Little or no movement is required.
Players:	4 to 10 players
Needed:	Order the game from Amazon.com!
Game comments:	This simple game is a good choice for parties or family groups. It comes with a card tray and two sets of cards: red apples and green apples. The red apple cards name a person, place, thing, or event, and the green apple cards feature a characteristic (from adorable to zany). The judge (who rotates on each turn) reads a green card, and all the players have to slap down their choice of red apple cards for that characteristic. Some juicy choices and comparisons are bound to emerge--along with some fruitful lessons in famous people and events. It's an apple barrel full of laughs! For the last 15 years or so it's been my job to bring home the games we play over the holidays. This year's game was Apples to Apples. My family likes games anyway, and so it wasn't a hard sell when I brought it home for Thanksgiving. Still, we must have played the game 15 times. The big surprise, though, was taking it over to my wife's family's house for Christmas. They do NOT like games, but couldn't get enough of it. Again, we must have played 10 times. In short, each player has a hand full of noun cards. A judge turns over an adjective card, and players lay the card(s) from their hand which most closely matches the adjective played. The judge then collects the cards and chooses which he/she thinks is the best match. Players can argue for their cards to be selected, but the judge (who changes each round) reigns supreme, he may choose the funniest match, the exact opposite or whatever tickles his fancy at the time. As an example, I'm a technical type person, so some people would play cards that might not even match the adjective, but would have some technical slant, just so I'd pick their card. On the surface it doesn't sound like that much fun, but I think the game shines when the word is 'spooky' and people lay everything from 'Democrats' to 'Charlton Heston'.