CRACK THE CASE
Designer: Milton Bradley
Year: 1993
Players: 2- a billion (though a billion might be difficult)
Ages: 12 and up

Presentation:

This game consists of is a box of cards, instructions, a score card, and a board to read the card on. The box of mystery cards is very flimsy, and as someone who has used and loved this game for a long time, I can tell you it doesn’t wear well. However, the cards themselves are a thick paper that are helpfully color-coded for ease or difficulty of the mystery. They are very well organized and easy to read. In the over 10 years I have been playing this game, I don’t think I ever even knew there was a scorepad. You don’t need to play with it, however it is useful to use if you are keeping score. It has spaces for two teams and three cases. It is pretty well organized and dummy-proof. The presentation only get three crazy zombies just because my mystery card box is currently held together with duct tape, and that makes zombies angry.

Rules:

This is a party game, it is meant to be light on the rules, and it is. This game is essentially 20 questions riddles, but with as many questions as you need. One person reads the cards and the answer and the other players ask the reader yes and no questions about the mystery until they solve it. The game is officially supposed to be played in two teams, and the teams take turns guessing the mysteries. However I find that it is much more fun if everyone works together since sometimes there is a very long gap in between two mysteries. If people take turns being the reader and everyone else tries to guess, everyone is active throughout the whole game and it becomes much more enjoyable. Points are awarded based on how fast the guessers discover the mystery. While it would be nice if they had included a timer, I also don’t think I’ve ever actually used points, as players tend to have more fun discovering the mystery than competing with a score. Only three crazy zombies since the teams and points are silly and unnecessary.

Time:

The official time is an hour if you play with all the official rules. However, if you just use the cards and have a great time with the riddles, it can be as long or short as you want. If can be a filler game if you only play one or two cards, or can be played for hours on a long car ride. The time you play, as long or short as it may be, is well worth the enjoyment you get from playing. Five crazy zombies for adaptability.

Replay-ability:

This is a problem. This game in itself is different exactly 108 times. But after that, you can only play with people who have never played before. Once you know the answers, you know the answers. Expansions would have been a wonderful addition to this game, however I have been told that the game didn’t do very well, hence no expansions. The only way I have been able to play this game for over 10 years, is I pull it out every time I have a new group of buddies that haven’t played and I go through all 108 again, with myself as the reader. Only 1 crazy zombie because I have memorized all the cards.

Overall:

I love this game. My friends love this game. However, we don’t keep score and we don’t time it. For us it is just a fun game that makes us think that is especially great for travel or fillers. I would recommend this game to anyone, especially those who like riddle. Four crazy zombies just because of the lack of replay-ability and the silly “official” rules.