Stats:
No. of players: 4-10
Amount of time to play: 45 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 10 min

Apples to Apples Rules Description:

Apples to Apples is a party game of word association, often with funny adjective-noun combinations. Your goal is to get the judge to pick your noun as the one that best goes with their adjective.

Apples to Apples is a card-based game and to you get seven red apple cards. These cards all contain nouns. Once every round one player is the judge and doesn’t play his/her cards. Instead they draw a green apple card. They read it aloud and then lay the green apple card on the table. You and the other players lay a red apple card from your hand face-down on the table. The last person to lay a red apple card takes it back into their hand (so quickness counts).

The judge shuffles the cards and then turns them over one at a time, reading them aloud. The judge than chooses the red apple card they think best describes their green apple card. Players may lobby the judge to pick theirs (or even someone else’s). After deciding the judge gives the player that played the best red apple card their green apple card. They collect all the red cards played and discard them.

The role of judge then passes to the player on their left. The new judge makes sure all players have seven red apple cards and play continues until there is a winner.

Green apple cards are used to determine the winner. The first player to a set number of green apple cards (based on the number of players) wins.

A Quick Review of Apples to Apples:

Apples to Apples is easy to learn, can play quickly and accommodates a variety of number of players. Knowing the judge can definitely help you know which red apple card to put down. Some judges will just pick the funniest combination every time while others are more literal. So playing to the judge can really help you win.

This game has had a polarizing effect in my game group. Some people love it and want to play any time they come over. Others hate the game and never want to play it. They don’t like the judging being so arbitrary or having to argue for their choice. These same people are not big party game fans and want more defined goals and strategies in their games.

I like Apples to Apples. I don’t love it but will play it If others want to. I can see how and why some people don’t like it and there are other party games I’d probably pull out before this one. I do think Apples to Apples is great to play with children (they even have a kid’s edition) as it builds their vocabulary and is a fun family party game.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 2 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 3 out of 6

I am trying to increase my storage space for games. So over the next few months I will be giving some games away. I happen to have Apples to Apples, brand new, in-shrink, never-played. And it could be yours. Check back tomorrow to enter my Apples to Apples Giveaway.