What to Do in an Awkward Situation? Find Out in "It's Blunderful"

Your dog has the same name as your new significant other? You’re on a road trip with a friend who never offers to pay for gas? What to do? What to do?

An party game aimed at adults, It’s Blunderful by Bicycle has players taking turns reading out a situation and choosing one of three possible ways to respond to it, while the other players attempt to guess which answer was chosen.

Gameplay

Each player takes a score board and score token, and sets their score token on the zero space of their score board. The goal of the game is to be the first player to reach one hundred points. Each player also takes an A, B, and C, voting card. The deck of Blunderful cards is shuffled and placed on the table and the game begins.

Each turn, a player draws a Blunderful card and reads the awkward or uncomfortable situation out load, as well as the three possible ways to respond to the situation. That player then secretly chooses one of the three responses which he believes he would be most likely to do in that situation. The other players then use their voting cards to secretly guess which of the three responses they believe that player chose, and they also choose to bet five, ten, or fifteen points. All bets and the answer are then revealed. If a player guessed right, they earn the number of points they bet, otherwise they lose them.

Players go clockwise around the table, taking turns drawing the card and being the reader.

Review

It’s Blunderful is an enjoyable execution of a familiar genre. There are other, similar games out there where one player is reading out a card and serves in the capacity of judge for a round, or where other players try to predict what someone is going to choose. However It’s Blunderful blends these two elements together in a slightly different way, and the betting system adds an extra element of player interaction and a chance to push your luck and attempt to catch up if you’re falling behind.

All of the components are really well made, from very nice, quality cards to the score trackers that are thick and sturdy and allow you to slot your scoring cube into them, so you can’t accidently knock your piece and lose your place on the tracker.

The game is rated 17+, and that, tied with the box artwork, might lead you to expect the game’s humor to be on the crass side; however with the exception of the occasional card (and there are enough included that you could easily skip a few if you’d like), most of the situations are not actually offensive or inappropriate. The game’s humor is targeted at adults, but mostly because they are situations only adults will appreciate, asking questions about dating or work for example. This is in turn rather refreshing. It’s nice to find a party game targeted at adults that is not exclusively centered around raunchy humor, and expands the game group you can feel comfortable playing it with.

You can sometimes struggle to actually choose one of the three reactions on the card, but it’s also fun to try to figure out in those situations which reaction most closely matches your personality and then in turn talk through the logic as well as what other players would respond, once the answer is revealed.

It’s Blunderful won’t be for everyone, but it fits nicely into an underrepresented gaming niche, is well executed, and has not attempted to cut corners in a genre of gaming that can sometimes get a little lazy.

Pros: Excellent components, betting system in the voting, figuring out which response you and others would choose can lead to fun discussion

Cons: Some cards are more adult-oriented than others, box art gives wrong impression of the game

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.