The Vanguard Magazine
Tom Hoeler
September 2008
USA

From the makers of the popular Apples to Apples game comes Cineplextity, a new word association game that combines the group fun of Apples with your own knowledge of film and movies. The premise of the game involves players to identify films based on a few characteristics about the setting, characters, actors or themes of the film which are disclosed through choosing cards. The game mechanic works much like Apples to Apples does. One player is designated the "director". He or she chooses two cards from the piles. The cards will each contain a portion of a movie, such as an actor's name, plot archetype, geographic location, etc. For example, the director may pull a card that says "Romance" and the other saying "New York City". The other players then begin to call out movie titles that combine both of the cards. So an appropriate response for these two cards might be Maid in Manhattan, Annie Hall, or Little Manhattan among others. The director once hearing a movie title that he/she finds sufficient ends the round and awards a card to the winner. The winner is determined at the discretion of the director under any criteria he or she decides on, much like Apples to Apples. The first player to collect the needed number of cards (depending on the number of players) is deemed the winner. After each turn the director position switches to the next player and he or she is free to decide on winners based on his/her own unique criteria, just as in Apples to Apples.

The simplicity of the game is one of its highlights. But there are a few faults that hinder the game from totally unabashed and enjoyable game play. First is the fact that you could end up with two cards that simply don't match up at all, prohibiting anyone from making a movie title that even remotely applies. In this case the game tells you to choose a third card and instructs players to make a movie title out of the combination of any two of the three cards. This can solve the problem most of the time, but even then it complicates the game further and can really muddle up game play if it occurs several times during a game.

The other problem has to do with the basic knowledge of the players. Cineplexity actually requires a real set of movie knowledge in order to play. Casual gamers or casual movie watchers are either going to be turned off entirely by the game or at a tremendous disadvantage when they play. When playing with someone who has extensive film knowledge a casual player might not perform well because the other players can easily name many more films than them increasing the odds of winning especially when two cards come up that don't have an "obvious" movie attached to them.
There is a flip-side to that, which is that gamers with extensive film knowledge are at a disadvantage as well, one that may in fact turn them off to playing. If playing with a group of people who aren't as well versed in film, the movie buff may invoke the titles of older films or lesser known films that the other players are familiar with. Even a mainstream and popular film that the director just didn't happen to see can cause problems in the game. There is no way to verify both the accuracy of the film's connection to the cards and its relevance if the judge doesn't know the film. Thusly the judge needs to be someone with strong film knowledge or else those with larger amounts of film knowledge will be forced to give only responses that are mainstream, current and well known. This of course waters down the game and reduces the number of possible answers…which in turn can lead to more instances of the first issue, that being a lack of answers to the chosen cards.

This type of issue wasn't a problem in Apples to Apples because each noun and adjective had a few sentences of explanation under the word, just in case a person wasn't sure of the definition. The game then was more accessible and less dependent on the specific knowledge of its players. It could concentrate more on creating a fun and easy going atmosphere.

In the end, Cineplexity is a niche game that probably best plays out when all the participants are of an even level of cinematic knowledge. For some people this might reduce opportunities to play and thus holds the game back from the mass appeal that, Out of the Box games other products like, Apples to Apples has attained. However, if that kind of even playing field is possible to create, the game can be a great deal of fun especially for movie buffs that want to test their knowledge against each other.

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