Players: 3-8
Ages: 17+
Game Time: 15 mins
Summary - Curse Words
Curse Words is a party game loosely resembling Scrabble, in which you’ll use letters to create words. The asterisk (*) can represent any letter (wildcard), but scores zero.
Not happy with some of your letters? Ditch any number in order to draw one fewer at random from the deck (e.g. discard four to draw three)! Pretty simple YES, but the funny &$%£ to make you laugh will keep you playing longer than 15 mins for sure. This party game from Hex Mad Games (https://hexmad.com/) is currently live on Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com/projects/hexmad/curse-words) until October 26 2023 9:00 PM BST, so why not take a look for yourself?
Gameplay
The game is very simplistic and easy to learn. We originally didn't have the rulebook with the initial copy we were given (at UKGE) and Mr Sam and I played it in the bar of our hotel and we weren't far off with our guess run through without them!
If you love word games, innuendo and party games then you'll love Curse Words.
I actually prefer this to the ever popular Cards Against Humanity (CAH) and this has MORE replayability. I like the element of revealing your chosen words from the prompts to see if your fellow players (friends I hope) can guess your answers because 'spelling' is not crucial for this game, in fact its probably encouraged, and slang knowledge will benefit you playing this game LOL!
So how do we actually play this?
Create: Look at your two prompt cards you receive (all players do this simultaneously), then make a funny word from your eight letters, you take two cards from the eight and pass the rest to your left, and continue to do this until everyone has eight cards.
Place: Place your word face down on the table, next to any prompts you’re choosing to use.
Reveal & Guess: You each then take it in turn to reveal your word, one letter at a time, while your friends race to guess it. If you guess another player’s word before it's fully revealed, you get a point!
Reward: Give a point to the player who made the funniest word that round. Then gather, shuffle and deal for the next round.
There are also some alternative / optional rules and a party mode that you should check out. However, being a word person, I prefer the standard version as this requires more strategy.
Production
The overall quality of the cards is good, BUT being a card game I know I would be playing in a party environment and wouldn't want to be sleeving these cards, so a better card stock like the one used in Radlands, which is a nearly indestructible and haptically satisfying synthetic, would better suit this style game (unsure how much it would ramp up the price though). This games needs this card stock, but this one it's using is ok, and the price bracket of the game doesn't break the bank so I would say you COULD replace your copy if it got destroyed.
I like the simple art and it really suits the theme.
Conclusion
So let's break it down for you in our key areas:
Replayability: Certainly replayable. If you like these styles of games for small parties of friends then THIS is for you!
Production Value: The card stock could be improved BUT I wouldn't be offended with this if it stayed, the box will need to be bigger if I need to sleeve the cards!
Theme: The theme is crude and it fits, it's a game about bad language... need I ~@:# say any more? lol
Complexity: Not at all complex.
Rules: So simple a 12 year old could play this, NOT that they should as it is 17+.
Uniqueness: It isn't the first game to use crude bad language to instil hilarity BUT this I think does it better.
Value: Excellent value in my opinion; £15 for a party game - bring it on!
Curse Words is definitely one to check out. With the risqué edge of it and the clever use of adult humour it will certainly be a crowd pleaser when you grab a quick in between game! This game calls for beer! This is my new replacement for CAH! At last...
Your friendly DoaLG founder
Mr Chris
Curse Words is live on Kickstarter until October 26 2023 9:00 PM BST