The Game
Cranium Pop 5 is a party game for two teams of players with 2 or more people per team. On a turn, the opposing team draws a card that has a pop culture reference on it, such as Brittney Spears, or "Where's the Beef". The opposing team takes time to evaluate this clue and the person who will be delivering it to their team, and ranks 5 activities assigning each activity to a slot numbered 1 to 5 on the game board with only one activity per point value. These activities will be familiar to players of Cranium, and are as follows:

Cameo - This is basically charades. Get the clue guessed by pantomime.

Cloodle - Similar to Pictionary or Win, Lose, or Draw. Use drawing pictures to convey the clue

Sculptorades - Sculpt with clay to express the clue.

Humdinger - Hum the theme song or music associated with the clue.

Letter Line Up - Roll 6 dice (six sided) with letters on each face. Then give other words to describe the clue that start with the letters on the dice rolled. For example, if the clue was Darth Vader, and giver rolls the letter A, they could say "Anakin".

Once the opposing team finishes ranking the activites from 1 to 5, they rotate the game board to the person giving the clues to his or her team. That person reads the clue, decides which activity to perform, and does that activity like I described above until time runs out. There is a timer built into the game board that is a light that goes out to signal that time is up. If they guess the clue, they get plastic coins based on the number rank of the activity. So if the player's team guesses his clay sculpture that was in the number 3 slot, they get 3 plastic coins. These coins are placed in a container about the size of a double shot glass. The first team to fill the container wins.

What's good about this game?
This game is a good party game. It really breaks the ice when I have played it. The various activities allow people with different talents to equally shine, where other games, Pictionary, Encore, Charades may not suit everyone.

There is also a point when playing this game, where the players usually realize that the point values assigned to an activity, are not just based on the clue, but also the giver. "Bob can't carry a tune, make humdinger worth 5." It gives a nice extra added strategy to the game.

What's not good about this game?
First off, the pop culture references. These limit who can play the game. The range is about 80s through almost present. I am 32, and most of the references I get, but there was one or two I had never heard of. We have played this with adults in their 50s and 60s and the number of "I don't know what this is" went up. Although, it was funny to see my wife's aunt doing the moonwalk.

Second, the deck of clues is too small. I have played this 18 times and have been through the deck several times. The clues are very familiar at this point.

Overall Impression
Great concept, Great game. Replay-ability suffers because of the clue deck size. Price is decent, because it is in several major big box stores, and can often be found on clearance, as at least in my area it does not seem to sell well. Also a quick tip, buy a small locker sized marker board from an office supply store. It runs about $3-5 and makes the cloodle activity better.

I give Cranium Pop 5 a 7 out of 10.