Bubblegum Stuff Categorically Speaking Card Game, For 4+ Players, Family Friendly Card Game, Great Gift For Kids Aged 8+

Super fast delivery, came the next morning after ordering! Love this game, hours go by playing it & I definitely recommend it.

Brilliant fun for all the family

It may be a living hell for some people, but party games are a mainstay of many a family gathering. What better way to prevent you all from staring into the abyss as you wait for the roast potatoes? Bubblegum Stuff have created a series of packs that take some established family party games and gives them structure. No longer do you need to scramble around looking for bits of paper as you have what you need within the 'Categorically Speaking Card Game'.This is not a game that my family has come across before and it proved a fun alternative to the likes of charades. You are tasked with coming up with answers to a given subject e.g. on the beach. You are given 4 letters to work with that are also randomly picked e.g. B, R, S, E. You go up against each other as teams, or choose head to heads. The team with the most valid words wins, but if any of the words match across teams, that is not a valid point.The idea of the game is simple, but it works really well, especially in a family used to playing some brash party games. The game does lend itself to those that know a lot of words so it is important to balance the teams well lest it all be a little one sided. Playing in teams is fun as you have to come with even more obscure ideas so that they do not match anything thought up by the other side. Things can get pretty tense and it can sometimes just come down to one or two valid answers winning the card.Like with the other Bubblegum packs you can create this experience yourself, but there is a real convenience to have it all in a neat little box that you can carry from place to place. The inclusion of separate category ideas and letter cards means a lot of the less fun initial setting up is all done for you.

Brought as a present

Most other reviews will describe the actual game itself, so I won't waste time with that, but instead focus on what you actually get in this box. Based on randomly choosing four letters and some kind of category, this game could easily be played simply by blindly picking letters from a book or newspaper, and each player nominating a category for each round of play - so you don't really "need" this kit to play.The box the game comes in is pretty smart and compact, with a austere/classic simple black and purple design, which I would think is intended to appeal to an adult consumer - it's not particularly colourful or keen to communicate the 'fun' of the game of the box. In contrast, the box contents include cards printed with a dark blue tone, a dark blue plastic timer and the notepad is also printed with a similar blue colour. Additionally, the cards feature the game title 'Categorically Speaking' on the reverse of the cards in a totally different font, and then has a completely different, far more 'fun' style logo version of 'Categorically Speaking' on the playing side of each card. Either the game is mid-development, or the manufacturer decided to only update the box artwork to appeal to an older crowd - whilst keeping the content as the previous, evidently more child-friendly, iteration - or the content is sourced separately and the seller has no control over changing this. The result is that it's a pretty disappointing game to spend money on.My critique: the game itself is ideal for family or a mixed-age settings, as the categories are generally accessible to young children and the elderly alike, but the execution of the game currently doesn't help with this. All the cards have the same reverse design (solid blue with the game name) and a small but valuable change would be to use a different colour for the letter cards and the category cards - due to the way the game is packed (and because there are far fewer letter cards), these are mixed together and it's a pain to separate these out before play. Similarly, based on this 'family' set-up, it'd be great to get more than two pencils included, and maybe supply these in different colours to make it more 'fun' for younger players. Lastly, reconsider the entire aesthetic of this game to make it more colourful and geared towards families or young children. I understand that the maker/importer of this game has a whole range based on a similarly pared down, 'vintage' aesthetic, but it just doesn't fit this game very well.In summary, it's an okay game - I'm sure you'll have fun, especially if you start coming up with your own more scandalous category ideas or get progressively more controversial in your suggested words (speaking as adult players) - but I think it's not really worth paying out £10 or more for this particular version of it.