Time's Up

In my experience, no game has gotten as many laughs as Time's Up. I guess that its biggest praise is that it is easily the most requested game in my collection as well as the fact that playing the game with us has caused several other people to go out and buy the game themselves. Time's Up is also my wife's favourite game.

Time's Up is a party game and, as such, will not cater to everyone. We play a large variety of games, including many of the more popular party games like Apples To Apples, Balderdash, Guesstures, Taboo, Cranium, Pictionary, Headbandz, 25 Words Or Less, and more. We also play strategy games like Puerto Rico and El Grande (and like them a lot), but for some crowds, only a party game will do. Time's Up is the choice number one.

When I first heard about this game, I was a little skeptical whether I would actually enjoy it at all. I'm glad that I was convinced to try it out. I picked up my own copy shorty afterwards. Inside the box, I found the standard party game fare: One 30-second timer, scorepad, rules sheet and several cards.

Each card contains 2 names of people - either real or fictional. Only one of these names will be used in any single play. There are easily enough cards in the box to last several play since you will only need 40 cards for each play. Even after exhausting the deck, memorizing the names of the cards will only help you if you find yourself playing with someone that has also previously played with that same card. If you do end up playing enough that this becomes an issue, there are two expansion packs jam packed with new names. There are also blank cards available so that you can create your own set of names.

The rules sheet doubles as a reference sheet that contains a list of every name used in the game, plus a description of who each person is. These pages are not actually referenced until the game is well underway, as I'll explain below.

The game starts by selecting which set of names will be used - there is a yellow side and a blue side to every card - and distributing 40 cards evenly amongst all the players. The rules state that everyone then gets an additionl card and then they pick any one of their cards to be thrown out for the rest of the game. We like to play without using this particular rule because it's those names that get thrown out that are often the most fun to play with since nobody seems to know who the person is.

Once everyone has taken a good look at their cards, all the cards are collected into a single pile and shuffled together. Each team then takes a turn trying to get as many points as possible. In the first round, one of the team members give out clues to her teammates. Any clue is valid, as long as any word that is spoken does not contain a significant portion of the answer. Clues may include talking, miming, singing, humming, or anything else that you can think of. You can even use 'rhymes with' clues, as long as you don't say the word that the answer actually sounds like. For example, if the name you are trying to get is 'Cable', then you cannot say "it rhymes with table". You can, however, say "it rhymes with the wooden furniture that you use to eat off of.".

In this first round, the giver has 30 seconds to get as many of the cards as they can. However, the team cannot pass, making things a lot more challenging. The most hilarious moments come when two partners just can't click. Everyone else in the room may know the answer based on the giver's clues, except the partner! Even funnier is when the given thinks of the perfect clue and the partner guesses the correct person for the clue, but the person on the card is somebody entirely different!

Admitedly, this first round can be intimidating for people who are not used to party games. I have had more than a handful of players throw up their hands and exclaim "I can't do this". In every instance, those players quickly got the hang of the game and had as much fun as the rest of us.

When a receiver correctly guesses the name on the card, that team gets to keep the card. Any card that they did not get goes back into the pile. The pile is shuffled and moved on to the next team. That means that, eventually, the same names will pop up again. Sometimes, over and over again. Fortunately, by the time the name has appeared a few times, somebody has memorized it and some associated clue and will guess correctly, even if they have no idea who the person actually is!

After all 40 cards are guessed, everyone pauses to slow down the laughter. Each team scores one point for each card in their possession. Of course, the fun is just beginning. First of all, we need to find out who exactly Henry Wadsworth Longfellow happens to be. The rules/reference sheet tells us who everyone is and, armed with the new knowledge, everyone is ready for the second round. All the cards are collected into one common pile and shuffled together once again.

In the second round, the team with the lowest score starts. This time, the giver may only use one single word as a clue. She is still allowed to perform any charades or hum a tune, but a second word defaults the current card. The giver still only has 30 seconds to get as many cards as possible. However, this time, she is allowed to pass. Not only that, but the guesser can only make one guess per card. This leads to a mad flurry of cards flying out of the way in search of some name with an obvious clue. That is, until all the 'easy' cards have been guessed and we are left franktically miming Placido Domingo, Fats Domino and Minnesota Fats. This round plays surprisingly fast, thanks to the one word clue, and the fact that everyone has already seen the names on the cards at least once.

At the end of the round, everyone counts their points again and we collect the cards to start the third round. This time, referencing the names sheet is not allowed but laughing at all the ridiculous miming and humming is encouraged.

For the third round, you are allowed to pass but you are not allowed to say a single word. This plays much like charades - plus humming - but with cards that you already know! This means that you can fly through 8 or 9 cards if you get on a roll, but you can get stuck with your partner consistently yelling the wrong name if Barney The Dinosaur, Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone are all in there! Since only one guess is allowed per card, you are forced to pass and move on to the next card.

After three rounds, everyone counts up their last batch of cards. The winning team is the one with the most cumulative cards collected in all three rounds. Of course, by this point, hardly anybody cares about the score. Everyone is usually laughing and rearing to play again.

We have played the game with as few as 4 and as many as 16 people. I find that 6 is probably the best number. With more than 8, you'll want to start grouping people in more than two per team. We like to partner people up who are the least familiar with each other. Generally, the game seems more fun when partners have completely different interests.

Time's Up is the most fun that I have ever had with a party game.

RATING: 9.5/10

ccmonter (#70733),

Excellent review of the game. I just purchased it as a Christmas present and hope that by that evening we'll be sitting around playing and having lots of laughs.

Enjoy the holiday season!

Good review. I have enjoyed the game (actually, the parlor version of it before there was a boxed game) many, many times. The only problem seems to come when a person with no knowledge in a certain area (particularly sports celebrities or television) is playing. I was once partnered with someone who didn't even own a TV and half the names in the game were either fictional TV characters or the actors portraying them.

Even so, I've played with others in similar situations, but they were so good at listening and learning that they made up any deficit in rounds 2 and 3, after they catalogued the important facts about the otherwise mysterious personality on the cards.

Nice commentary. It's nice to know someone made a "professional" copy of the game.

I learned this game when volunteering with the local youth group. Like charades, each person writes down the names of three people on three seperate cards. Then it's pretty much played as described above. (I think we had 3 words instead of just one for the second round.)

With 3 names per person, we often didn't get through the third round. (Although we usually gave people a minute or so instead of 30 seconds to do their thing.) Also, with people-constructed clues you get some names coming up several times. (Homer Simpson was a favorite.) It also makes sure every name is known by at least one person.

Randy said:

> The only problem seems to come when a person
> with no knowledge in a certain area
> (particularly sports celebrities or television)
> is playing.

This can sometimes be frustrating for the person who picks up a multitude of names that they don't know. Fortunately, we have always managed to work with this by encouraging people to be crative. Breaking down names is highly encouraged. Using other people with the same name works very well.

In fact, some of our fondest moments have come when somebody has had no idea about who a person actully is.
Great example:
- First name is kind of like the thing girls sometimes wear on their hair.

- Ok, some army folks are Greeeeeen....
-> Baret!
- Yeah, first name is kind of like that.
-> Brett?
- Uhu. Ok, last name is...
-> [Remembering that somebody had previously said Quarterback..] Brett Farv (pronouncing it correctly).
- No, that's not it. (reading Brett FaVRE and not realizing that Farv is the correct pronunciation).

Later, the name comes up again with the same clue-giver.

- This is the guy with the name with the green army guys and plastic girly hair things.
-> Brett?
- Yeah. And the last name is umm.. do, re, miiii...
-> Fa?
- Yeah, that's the first sylable.
-> Brett FARV?
- No, that's not it.
-> (realizing what was probably going on) Brett FAVRE?
- Yeah!


Hilarious.

I think the brilliant thing about this game is that it is ultimately Charades for people who would never dream of playing Charades. By easing into the pantomime aspect of the game, even the terminally shy will find themselves wildly acting out the clues. If I suggested Charades to a group, no one would want to play, but I can get the same group to have a great time playing Time's Up.

rrpostlewaite,

I can see your point about Charades. However, Time's Up is much more than Charades. By the time you get to the third round, you already know the names on those cards so well that you don't really have to "Charade" the names. A lot of the times, a clue that seems completely meaningless under normal circumstances will get a Time's Up name in less than 5 seconds.

Brilliant!

rrpostlewaite wrote:
I think the brilliant thing about this game is that it is ultimately Charades for people who would never dream of playing Charades. By easing into the pantomime aspect of the game, even the terminally shy will find themselves wildly acting out the clues. If I suggested Charades to a group, no one would want to play, but I can get the same group to have a great time playing Time's Up.


YES YES YES YES YES! I said exactly the same thing and was wondering if other people had the same reaction. I can't get people to play charades unless it's my birthday, but after one reluctant go at this, everyone was howling to play again. Well, they were howling with laughter too -- only time I have ever seen Jackie Gleason confused with Buck Rogers, and I am sure I have never seen Bette Davis confused with both Betty White and Aphrodite!