Can you:
Sculpt a hamburger out of clay?
Draw a pair of handcuffs, with your eyes closed?
Name the largest animal ever to inhabit the Earth?
Impersonate Marilyn Monroe?
Hum the tune to "Hound Dog"?
Unscramble "legal bits" to find the name of a business leader?
If so, you'll be good at playing Cranium — in fact, I want you on my team!
Cranium is the latest board game to achieve "cool" status and has racked up a wide supply of accolades: It has become the fastest-selling independent game in history; it's ranked No. 1 on The Game Keeper chain's list for this year; it was one of the top party games of 1999 by Games Magazine; it counts Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey among its devotees; it topped Entertainment Weekly's "Field Guide to the Next New Things." Besides all that, it's fun.
The game, invented by former Microsoft executives Richard Tait and Whit Alexander, combines elements of a whole bunch of other popular board games.
When we tried out several new games at a family gathering over the Thanksgiving holidays, this one was our favorite. We found it to be fast and exciting, full of laughs and unpredictability, one that could be played several times without getting tiring.
Teams must perform tasks in four different areas: Word Worm games involve such things as spelling (sometimes backwards!) and unscrambling words; Data Head questions involve trivia; Creative Cat challenges you to draw or mold clay; Star Performer makes you sing, hum, impersonate or mime.
Cranium also works for teams of all ages. While I admit I had a hard time humming "YMCA" — no gestures allowed — so that anybody could recognize it, and that some of the younger set had a hard time putting a name to the music of "Auld Lang Syne," they were very adept at turning modeling clay into diving boards and imitating Porky Pig.
"It's just a great game," says Beth Pederson, manager of The Game Keeper store at Crossroads Plaza. "It has a lot of lasting value. Already, there's a booster set of new cards out." Like classics such as Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary, she said, it'll be around for a long time.
Yes, computer games and video games are hot; things like PlayStation and Game Boy are wildly popular. But, she says, board games and party games are still selling as well as ever.
"We live in a huge game-playing community," she says. "It always depends a little on the family, but games are very popular here."
The secret of their success? "The social interaction. How many times do you hear people talk about the fun they had playing computer games? But they talk for years about their memories of playing board games with their family and friends."
Playing games is a great activity for families, notes Evelyn Peterson, an author and child-development specialist who serves as a spokeswoman for Hasbro, which includes popular gamemakers Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers.
Regular game-playing gives families a chance to share quality time, share fun and laughter and foster positive family relationships, she says. And game-playing is educational, as well.
Board and card games teach the following skills, Peterson says: cooperation and teamwork (taking turns, respecting other family members); responsibility (playing by the rules, taking care of game pieces); perseverance and patience (waiting for turns, trying again); honesty (playing fair, admitting mistakes and learning from them); understanding (accepting both winning and losing); making choices (and accepting the consequences of choices you make).
All that is why old games stick around and new games are introduced every year. "There are some classics out there that belong in every game closet," says Pedersen. But it's also fun to try out the new ones.
The games that last tend to be those with nice graphic elements, that involve some strategy or decisionmaking rather than pure chance, and are fun to play over and over, says Walter Schmittberger, editor-in-chief of Games Magazine, which each year picks a top-100 list of games in various categories.
One of the trends Schmittberger sees for this year is an increase in the number of strategy games. "We have a lot of really good ones coming from Germany, being translated into English."
Party games are also very popular, he says. "My sense is — although I don't have any concrete figures to back it up — that total game playing is increasing. Computer games are not taking time from board games; people are playing both."
And game aficionados have a lot to choose from. "There are a lot of different games out there. A lot depends on your taste, the kinds of games you like," says Schmittberger. But everyone can find something.
To help in that quest, and in addition to CRANIUM (Cranium Inc., ages 12 and up; $39.95; $1 of every purchase is donated to at-risk youth programs), here's a sampler of possibilities: some old, some new, some tried, some highly rated, some that sound intriguing:
WISE AND OTHERWISE (wiseandotherwise.com Inc., ages 12-adult; $39.95): This is one of Pedersen's two favorite games out of all The Game Keeper carries (the other is Cranium, of course) and one we also tried at our family gathering. It is very similar to Balderdash, the games that requires you to write down definitions of words. In this case, you have to complete sayings from around the world: "There's an old Albanian saying: The wolf likes . . .," "There's an old Arabic saying: Every village has . . . ," or "There's an old Spanish saying: Beware of a man with . . . ."
Players write their own endings, which are gathered up and read along with the real one. Players vote and move up the board, depending on if they get it right or if other players vote for their ending.
Our game players thought this was easier than Balderdash but every bit as fun. And we liked that we learned some wisdom along the way. By the way, if you would have said "the fog," "a road to a mill" and "a long chin" to complete the statements above, you'd have done just fine.
SQUEEZE PHRASE (Reveal Entertainment Inc., ages 10 to adult; $24.95): Brand new for 2000, this game involves guessing words and phrases that have vowels removed. Such as: GLR STFN, BJNG CHN and TSTS S GD CTS SK FR IT BY NM. There's a time element involved, and it moves pretty fast; some strategy may come into play as well.
Some of our game players thought it didn't have as much interaction as the other games we tried, but people who enjoy word games could have a lot of fun. The answers to the clues above? Gloria Estefan, Beijing China, and Tastes so good, cats ask for it by name.
ALADDIN'S DRAGONS (Rio Grande, $39.95): Chosen as Game of the Year by Games Magazine, it takes you on a tour through dragon caves, bazaars and the palace of an enchanting wonderland. Players have eight tokens with which to bid for treasures, privileges, artifacts or right-of-way. He who ends up with the most artifacts wins, but as resources get scarcer, tension mounts, and things can go easily astray. Rules for a more difficult Magic version are also included.
DEMOCRAZY (Eurogames-Decartes USA, $14.95): Named as the best party game of the year by Games Magazine, this one features ever-changing rules that are voted on by the players as the game progresses. We tried this one out at work and found it a little slow getting started, but once people got into the law thing, it picked up steam. The more players — the game calls for 4 to 10 — the merrier. In time, we felt we would get better at strategies and using the emphatic vote and scam cards. The concept was intriguing, and the pace is quick. And there was a lot of laughing going on.
THE RENAISSANCE ART GAME (Birdcage Books, ages 7 to adult, $25): Like art? Wish your kids knew more about it? Then this game might have possibilities. It comes with 30 full-color art masterpiece cards plus an 80-page, full-color art book that explains more about the artists. You can play Go Fish and Concentration-style card games with the art cards. The game was designed by educator Wenda O'Reilly when she realized her children spent hours playing cards but lasted only 20 minutes in art museums.
GENERATIONS (FamilyTime Products, Inc., $24.95): Does older mean wiser? Not if you're playing Generations, an interactive game geared specifically toward families. Players try to match answers to questions such as, "Name the city in which your maternal grandmother was born," or "Name the family member who snores the loudest." Other questions are about well-known families, both fictional and real, such as the Brady Bunch, the Osmonds, the Kennedys or the Ripkins. As you match answers you move up the "family tree" to the finish line. Generations recently was awarded the National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval for its "celebration of the family unit and all the uniqueness that it represents."
THE GAME OF LIFE (Milton Bradley, ages 9 to adult, $14.95): This classic path of fortune game celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. In this tried-and-true game, players try to dodge bad luck while making a living. They earn valuable Life Tiles by doing good deeds, helping their community and taking a break from the rat race. But he who retires with the biggest fortune wins. For the 2000 version, updated game spaces include having a Web site designed, hosting an online concert and buying a sport-utility vehicle. The Game of Life has a place in the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution and has been translated into more than 20 different languages. Not bad for a 40-year-old.
E-MAIL: carma@desnews.com