About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

This hilarious game of goofy comparisons - it's comparing "Apples to Apples," after all - is tailor made for the teen and 20something crowd. It's a guaranteed dorm pleaser, easy to learn and quick to draw a crowd.



Pros

• Outrageously popular with teens and college kids.
• A great party game and icebreaker
• Several variations and a plethora of blank cards let players customize the game.

Cons

• Best played with similarly goofy, fun-loving people. Play it seriously and it won't be much fun.

• You need a group of at least four to play - more is better.

Description

• Designed by Out of the Box ($26.99), Apples to Apples is a game for four to 10 players, ages 12 and up.
• Winner 2006 Toy of the Year, Toy Industry Assoc.; 2000 Party Game of the Year, Games Magazine; 1999 Mensa Select Award.
• Game includes 756 red apple cards, each bearing nouns; 252 green apple cards with adjectives.

Guide Review - Best Dorm Board Games: Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples is so beloved by the teen and 20something crowd, many families use it as the gold standard by which they judge all other board games. Most college dorms keep several boxes on hand to loan out to residents, and the game is prominently featured at teen board game nights. No wonder. The game possesses all the random, awkward and hilarious possibilities most prized by 21st century teens.

In this dorm-pleasing board game, players are dealt seven nouns – places, faces or pop culture icons – and compete to pair them with an adjective card supplied by a highly subjective judge, who awards points based on entertainment value.

What makes the game great, though, is that the judge usually picks the most hilarious or shocking pairing. So "terrifying" might go with "snakes," but depending on the crowd, it might be a winner with "Michael Jackson." Players quickly start tailoring their answers to what makes teammates laugh most.

Apples to Apples is a great cross-generational game too, with enough variations and blank cards - to add a player's name, for example, to the noun list - to keep things interesting. The only caveat: playing this game seriously, i.e., looking for word matches that make the most sense from a vocabulary standpoint, is a recipe for dullsville. Be silly. Have fun.