I will not rest until Biblios is in the Top 100.
United States
Budd Lake
New Jersey
Well I been watchin' while you been coughin, I've been drinking life while you've been nauseous, and so I drink to health while you kill yourself and I got just one thing that I can offer... Go on and save yourself and take it out on me
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Cranium is billed as the "whole brain game" meaning that it forces you to use your entire brain. I have yet to play a party game that forces me to use more than 20% of my brain let alone the whole thing. But Cranium is definately a step better than your average party game. It offers multiple challenges and fun alternatives to Q&A style games.
Those of us on the Geek are gamers. This site has a large bias against games of this ilk. So as a gamer is this the type of game you need in your collection?
Rules
Cranium is a team game played by successfully completing different kinds of challenges. Completing the challenges allows a team to move around either the inside Fast Track or the outside Normal Track. Teams are made up of at least two players. On a team's turn, they must complete a challenge based on the color spot they are on. A card is drawn from the corresponding color with Red spaces being Q&A and True/False style challenges, Yellow is word puzzles, Blue is acting and music and Green is drawing and sculpting. Most Green and Blue challenges require one team member to lead the other to the right answer. Red and Yellow are generally worked on by the whole team. There are also Brain spaces which allow the team to choose the type of challenge they want to attempt. If the challenge is successfully completed, the team may roll the die and move to the next space of the color indicated, stopping on any Brain spaces that would be passed.
The Normal Track is the standard way around the board. To get on the fast track, a team needs to successfully complete the first challenge while on a Brain space. They may continue on the Fast Track until they come to the next brain space at which point they must stop. If they complete their next challenge on the first try, they may then continue on the fast track.
Both the Fast Track and the Normal Track lead to the End Zone. The first team to get to the End Zone and successfully complete one of each type of challenge is the winner.
The game is really quite simple with the specific rules for each challenge printed on the cards. The general ruleset is short and to the point.
Components
There aren't too many component's in the box worth talking about. Each color's cards are made of a nice durable stock and kept in their own color-coordinated boxes.
The game includes pencils and paper for the drawing exercises and a small pot of clay for sculpting. The clay is more along the lines of what we Americans call Play-Doh. Its kind of stinky, but has a nice consistency and is easy to work with.
The board is fairly large considering it does almost nothing. Still, the colors and artwork go a long way towards making the game appear fun. The pawns are plastic and are really quite non-descript.
There's also a sand timer which is nothing special.
Like I said, there's really not much to talk about regarding components. The game is about fun and laughing so the need for fancy cards and artwork is minimal.
Gameplay
Cranium can take a lot longer to play than the fun lasts. With 2 teams of two players, the game should take about an hour which is probably 15 minutes too long. With bad die rolling and more players, this game could probably take even longer. Like most party games, the trick is to know when to quit. Up to that point its a lot of laughs.
Its always interesting to see what people with minimal artistic talent will draw or sculpt and there-in lies a large portion of the fun. Its a blast to laugh at a rediculous drawing or sculpture, especially if you know what the answer is and can't imagine what the clue-giver is thinking.
Another highlight is the charades/acting portion. Some of the actions people do to give a clue is hilarious. Its also rather amusing to listen to tone deaf people try to hum or whistle a song. I have a lot of music knowledge and I can't understand 75% of the songs my family attempts.
Probably the most fun part of the game is when people have to draw a picture with their eyes closed. Its almost impossible and incredibly funny for the people not currently involved. If you think its easy, try it sometime. You'll probably end up laughing at the outcome like most people do when they're finished with this type of challenge in the game.
Compare it to...
This game borrows a lot of ideas from several party games and wraps them together in one big box. There's some new ideas thrown in as well (new for the time the game was created) which have been borrowed by newer games. If you traced an line of ancestry for party games, Cranium would probably be right in the middle with a lot of lines coming in and even more going out.
Overall
I don't like party games as a general rule. Still, there's a lot of fun to be had in this game but it usually ends before the game does. I like the fact that there are general knowledge questions for the smart people and arts challenges for the Bohemians in the group. Cranium tries to please everyone and does a decent job of it.
I would recommend this game to non-gamers but I think there's better choices such as Wits and Wagers which are more likely to appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike. Cranium is designed to have something for everyone which it does, but there's not enough for a gamer to enjoy for long.
I rate Cranium 6/10. I'll play it if I'm feeling like I want a party game, but there are others I'd rather play first. Its not a bad game, there's just not much to offer a real gamer. There's no real decision making or strategy which is something I really need in a game to enjoy it. There are exceptions to this rule, but Cranium is not one of them. You could do worse for your non-gamer friends, but you could do a lot better.
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Chris Jensen
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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I agree with all of Steve's points concerning the suitability of this game for gamers (i.e., the majority of this site's readership). However, another hit against its "gamer suitability" is that the game is virtually impossible to play competitively. The difficult level of the cards varies enormously from category to category (and from card to card), meaning that one team can often be propelled to victory solely by virtue of their lucky draws. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the trivia category (Data Head) is absurdly simple, as virtually all questions are either true/false or multiple choice. When playing competitively, it makes sense to select this category whenever possible, but this prevents your team from taking part in the more amusing challenges.
This is one more reason that Cranium can definitely be enjoyed as an activity, without necessarily being a good game.
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Ice Hensley
United States
Denver
Colorado
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We bought the game when it came out and played it a few times then it sat on our shelf for years collecting dust. My wife suggested we pull this out at the last family gathering and I was pleasantly surprised at what a great time we had! This game can be a blast with the right group. Ours consisted of myself and 5 non-gamers, split into 3 teams of two.
We laughed and laughed until it hurt.
It was definitely not a game anyone was playing to win at all costs. We were ok with the idea that it's supposed to be fun, not a tense strategic exercise...I think it can work with a group of gamers that are not expecting it to be something that it isn't.
In the review above it was noted that the game gets a little long. I wholeheartedly agree, and while we were playing about 1/4 of the way into the game we all decided to move along the inner track regardless of correct/incorrect answers at the brain spaces.
From now on, when we play this game we will only use the inner track. This should keep the game from overstaying its welcome.
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Dan Perez
United States
Houston
Texas
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That was a nice, balanced review. I don't feel so charitable toward this game. I got sucked into playing this last night at a barbecue with twelve people (four teams of three) and I was MISERABLE. In addition to being an avid gamer, I am a professional sculptor, but trying to sculpt something in that nasty Play-doh crap is nigh impossible. It may be fun to watch someone else struggle to do something with that "clay," but it's no fun to be the person doing it.
And asking people who have been drinking to try and spell words backwards? Not my idea of party fun. One challenge I got was to hum three (count 'em) songs and my team had to get ALL of them right. Getting ONE song right when someone hums it is hard enough without requiring you do it three times in rapid succession. Another exercise in frustration (especially since I didn't know the tune to one of the songs).
After an hour and a half most of the teams had only advanced a quarter of the way around the board, and I was ready to chew my own leg off to get out of there.
Never, never again...
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I will not rest until Biblios is in the Top 100.
United States
Budd Lake
New Jersey
Well I been watchin' while you been coughin, I've been drinking life while you've been nauseous, and so I drink to health while you kill yourself and I got just one thing that I can offer... Go on and save yourself and take it out on me
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Oh I agree. I hate this game. Its fun for 15 minutes and then its just painful. I'll never play this one again, ever.
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Mike Heine
United States
Waconia
Minnesota
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Wait a minute.
So you hate the game, but would rate it a 6? 
I really liked your review, but I'm now not sure if it was all that true.
Maybe you mean that if you are talking to other gamers you hate it, but to nongamers it is okay?
I happen to like this game. Well as much as you can like a party game, it has its uses. Just confused by the review and the folow-up comments.
Again, I very good review.
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Well I been watchin' while you been coughin, I've been drinking life while you've been nauseous, and so I drink to health while you kill yourself and I got just one thing that I can offer... Go on and save yourself and take it out on me
