A few weeks ago, FunQ Games sent us a review copy of "Befuzzled" their award-winning game of pattern recognition and zany antics. Unfortunately, because of GenCon craziness, we had to shelf our review (and the game) for far longer than we would have liked. For that, I'd like to offer an apology.
If you've never played Befuzzled, think of it as a more raucous version of Snorta. To start, eight red cards are dealt out. On these cards are the actions that will/should be performed; actions can range from the relatively tame knocking on the table or saying the name of the current judge, to the wacky (e.g. making faux-binoculars with your hands). "Laugh" is also one of the actions, but is probably one of the hardest actions to judge because, frankly, EVERYONE will be laughing once they gain familiarity with the game and start getting into it.
Secondly, a yellow shape card will be placed over each of the respective action cards. Players then take turns flipping over a card from the purple "Flip" pile, with all players trying to be the first to do the action on the corresponding card. For example, if a player in the game shown above flipped over the triangle, he/she would try to be the first person to pat his/her head. If you win, you gain the card. After all players have gone, the shape cards are collected, shuffled, and redistributed onto the action cards again. Meaning, this time, the flip of a triangle might make you snap your fingers or knock of the table.
Nutshell Review:
+ : This game has already won a Major Fun! award, which says something about it's capacity to produce laughs and bring people together in a light hearted gaming situation
+ : Can be a fantastic reprieve when you're sick of pushing little wooden cubes into certain areas of a board, or moving a meeple around the perimeter of a rectangle over and over...and over. (In other words, it's NOT a Euro)
+ : My mother is a preschool teacher and my fiancee works in the education field, and I can see both of them using this in their classrooms/programming as a sensory or instructional tool. It also helps that the rules are so simplistic that the kids could probably teach each other to play after a few run-throughs
+ : My mother is a preschool teacher and my fiancee works in the education field, and I can see both of them using this in their classrooms/programming as a sensory or instructional tool. It also helps that the rules are so simplistic that the kids could probably teach each other to play after a few run-throughs
- : Even at a relatively cheap cost of $14 (+S&H), some players may feel that it's not different enough from the myriad other zany recognition games out there to warrant a purchase.
- : Might be a hard sell to "hardcore" gamers who perceive the game to be mindless or juvenile.
Overall Grade: B+
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