GAMING POINT OF LOU – LIKE, WHATEVER
“Whatever” party game knows exactly what it wants to be and makes no compromises in getting there. Occupying the same shelf space as industry titan “Cards Aginst Humanity” is no easy task, and getting yourself noticed even harder. Some do this by straight up copying the formula, others do it by looking at what is successful and riffing on it, and yet others take the formula, kick it square in the beanbag, and to quote Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel, “Turn it to eleven”. “Whatever” takes the third path and while your enjoyment of the game might depend on your current blood alcohol content, you can’t deny that what the designers have produced is not unique.
“Whatever” is aimed squarely at the 17 + crowd, and not only are rules provided for standard (dry) play, but you can also find a variant on their website (http://whateverpartygame.com/) if you care to add alcohol into the mix (but please 21 and over only). It is advertised for 4 to 8 players (although with the almost 200 cards included in the box it could easily accommodate more) and with a 20 – 40 minute playtime will fit into almost any situation. The quality of the product is exceptionally high, especially when you consider it’s price point of $24.99 on Amazon. The box and spinner are both made of the same highly durable cardboard, and the cards are more than up to the task of repeated (more than likely alcohol infused) play sessions.
Playing the game is ridiculously simple and while I’m not going to recite every rule of play, the gist of it is:
A) Spin the included spinner
In this instance the arrow has landed on “CHALLENGE” so at this point you have two options, either flip over the Challenge card on the top of the deck, which happenes to be:
Now if you are feeling frisky you can complete this card, which would award you one of the 5 points required to win. OR if you are too much of a wuss you can take a penalty card.
Completing this task will at least keep you in the game but you will not be awarded any points, and you will be made fun of mercilessly by the other players.
Now lets say that the spinner had landed on “SHOWDOWN”, in that scenario you would flip over the top card of Showdown deck and follow the instructions.
The winner of this Showdown would get to keep the card as a point. And in my sessions we had the loser complete a penalty card “just cuz”.
It’s really that simple, first to five points wins. Easy to learn, easy to teach, and simple enough to keep the game rolling, even when the inevitable inebriation sets in.
I really wish that this game had been made 20 years ago, 19- 20 year old me would have absoulutely adored this game. There were SO MANY nights in college when we were sitting in the dorm rooms just shooting the shit engaging in heated GoldenEye tournaments or just playing poker. This game would have fit the bill PERFECTLY, but alas Ali and Brittany (the creators) probably weren’t even born yet. As a 40 year old my level of enjoyment of this game was pretty limited. I spent more time looking at the cards and saying “Yeah I’m not doing that” or “my back won’t put up with that” than I did actually playing the game. But let me be clear: That is not a fault of the game, that’s yours truly not being the target demographic FOR the game. For those of you who are young, limber, uninhibited, and tipsy enough, this game will provide countless hours of hilarious entertainment that will no doubt be the impetus of so many of those “remember that time” stories that you will be sharing at the bar for years to come. I know for an absolute certainty that if my age still began with the number 2 it most certainly would for me.
As an aside, and I always feel this needs mentioning: This game was a Kickstarter that was successfully funded in December of 2017, and made its way into it’s backers hands not even 6 months later, which if you know anything about Kickstarter, speaks very highly of Ali and Brittany as creators and business people. I would also like to take a moment to thank them for providing us a test copy of the game for review.
Until Next Time Everyone,
Be Good To Your Fellow Nerds!!
Lou
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