Don't hate me because I'm beautiful
United States
Chula Vista
California
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I was fortunate to win a copy of Buffalo Games' newest item in their collection, entitled simply,
The T-Shirt Game. A group of us got together and tried it out. Here are some of my/our thoughts and observations:
Contents: 70 T-Shirt cards, 77 Hot or Not cards, 209 Slogan Cards
The Game: You start with a T-shirt shaped card, with an amusing cartoon on front. It is placed face up in the middle of the playing surface. Each player is then dealt 3 Slogan cards. One player is designated as "The Judge", and doesn't play the round. Each other player then selects a Slogan card from their hand, and places it face down next to the T-shirt card. The Judge then collects the cards, and after shuffling, lays them all out, face up. The Judge then selects whichever slogan he/she thinks is funniest/punniest/most clever, or whatever other standard he wants. The winner receives a Hot or Not card, which either has a brief, humorous description of how "The World" received their t-shirt, and a point value somewhere between 1 and 1500, or is a Boo-Yah card. The Boo-Yah cards allows you to steal one of another player's HoN cards, or is worth 400 points on it's own. Once the round is scored, the position of The Judge rotates to the next player, and play repeats. The first player to 3000 points, wins the game, and is allowed to do the Victory Dance of Joy.
The Box: Nice, compact size (i.e., no wasted space). I especially like the recycled material used for the internal packaging, instead of using plastic, as is typically found. Buffalo Games could've put a huge logo on front, bragging about how "green" their company is, but actions always speak louder than words. Kudos for that. Very nice graphics on the box.
(Actually, they do mention the recycled product content, but it is in small print, on the back of the box.)
The Components: The T-Shirt Cards - The cartoons on these cards are great! We all got some good laughs out of them. The card shapes are a bit odd. It makes them hard to shuffle, but it doesn't hinder game play much at all. It might have been nice to have them a bit larger, as we wasted some time passing them around, so that everyone could see the cartoon, but that is nit-picking. The Slogan cards - we noticed some duplicate cards. This might be OK, except that it seems that the slogans that were duplicated were some of the lamer ones. Again, a minor point. Also, heavier card-stock would've been nicer. The Slogan and Hot or Not cards tended to warp, instead of laying flat. We were playing on a carpeted floor, (college dorm room), and the corners of the cards would catch on the carpet. This made it difficult to rake them into a pile to pick up. I realize that this would not be a problem on a table.
Instructions: One sheet - very nice. Everything well laid out, and thoroughly explained. However, the white/yellow type on a red background is kind of hard to read.
Game Play: Very simple to learn, and teach. Quite similar Practically identical to "Apples to Apples" - I hope it won't be a copywrite issue. 
Anyway, our group ranged in age from 19-42, and we all had a blast. There were quite a few belly laughs, and plenty of chuckles, giggles, etc. This is a wonderful game for a group of people who just want to hang out and have fun. Also, an excellent end of the evening filler.
Other Problems: Besides the ones listed above, I have two minor points:
1) While the game lists the # of players as 3-6, we played with 8, and found it worked quite well. I think it's better for the judge to have more choices.
2) Most of the players agreed that you really should have more than 3 Slogan cards in your hand. While we played only 2 games, it seemed that 3 cards really limited your choices. This is probably more a function of personal preference, rather than a rules "problem", but since it was such a prevalent comment, I thought I'd throw it out there.
Overall: Everyone in the group was very enthusiastic about this game. It's not a strategy mind-bender by any means, but it is fun! It will definitely be making repeat appearances at our game group. BG has a real winner on it's hands.
Disclaimer: If you don't like Party Games, you probably won't like this. Too bad.
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Lo Ma
United States
Oakland
California
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Good review.
I too won a copy of the game and we tried it out yesterday whne our neighbors with their kids came over. While it's not really the type of game I would choose to play, it was perfect fr this kind of group. The kids loved it and the adults got quite a few laughs too. We played with 6 people and it went fine and fast. I dont think it would play very well with only 3 or 4 players. 5 or more seems like it would be best.
We also found the cards hard to shuffle and too small for everyone to see easily - that's the only negative to this game we observed.
And I think your point about having a hand of only 3 cards is a good one - I think 4 or 5 cards would give you funnier/more creative choices...
So yeah, if Apples to Apples is your cup of tea, the T-shirt game is a good alternate flavor. Try it!
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Posted Mon Oct 8, 2007 5:53 am
