Game Times (AGCA Newsletter)
Issue #36, August 1999
Bruce Whitehill
USA

The latest game from Out of the Box is "Apples to Apples," a party game which is so simple in its concept, and yet so funny when you play it. Suitable for from four to ten players, the card game consists of two packs of cards — a characteristic deck, and a deck of cards each of which contains the name of a person, place, thing, or event. The object is to win the most "characteristic" cards, and you do this by having the name you threw being selected by the dealer of that hand as the card that best signifies the current characteristic. For example, say the characteristic card turned over reads, "romantic"; player may throw down cards such as "moonlight," "Sophia Loren," "1954 Chevy," "silk," "bubble bath," or "Tarzan." (Examples are this writer’s, not the game’s.) Regardless of what the majority of the players might think, the person who dealt the hand decides which of the cards thrown best signifies "romantic."

Two fun points: 1) if you’re the last player to throw down a name card, you have to take it back and, therefore, don’t get the opportunity to compete for the characteristic card. Second, each hand is dealt by a different player, and the dealer alone determines which is the winning (best matched) card — when there’s disagreement, the result is laughter, not argument. Also, players may wish to discard a card that seems difficult to match, resulting in some humorous combinations along the way.

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