Gamer’s Alliance
Party Game Reviews
Herb Levy
Summer 2004
USA

Back at the 1999 New York International Toy Fair, we were invited to sit in on a session of a new adult party game. The whole point of being at the show was to experience as much as possible so we gave it a try. Was it good? No. It was great! The game was called Apples and Oranges (and featured in the Spring 1999 GA REPORT). Well, the game was soon renamed Apples to Apples but the game play remained as good as ever. 

This Matthew Kirby design is for 4 to 10 players, ages 12 and up, and comes with two sets of cards: one set featuring the NAME of a person, place, thing or event and a second set featuring the CHARACTERISTIC of a person, place, thing or event. Players begin with a hand of namecards. The leader of the round (known as the "judge") draws a characteristic card and all of the other players select a card from their hands and play it face down. The judge collects the cards and decides which of the cards best "matches" his drawn card. The best match is anything the judge decides, funniest, logical or whatever. Whoever played that matching card gets the namecard as his reward. Players draw a new card to replenish their hands, the "judgeship" passes to the player on the left and we do it all over again. First player to win the needed number of cards (based on how many are playing) wins the game!

The success of the game has led to four expansion sets so far (giving players more cards to use), Junior editions (for gamers as young as 7 years old) and even an "apple crate" to hold the game and the first 2 expansions! This game still ranks in the upper echelon of adult party games. No adult party game makes us laugh like this one. After all these years, Apples to Apples hasn't lost its flavor. 
 
 

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