OuiSi: A Game of Photographic Connections

OuiSi (meaning Yes Yes in French and Spanish and pronounced "we-see") is a game all about making connections, in shapes, images, colors, and ideas across an array of photographs.

Featuring a wide range of game types and rule sets to play, OuiSi can be played both casually and educationally.

Gameplay

OuiSi comes with over two hundred cards, with each card showing a unique photo. The photos are chosen to be flexible, and able to easily remind you of different things as well as to easily make connections with other pictures in the game. The game also comes with a booklet that suggests various games you can play with these cards, some more open-ended than others.

In one game, you lay out cards face-up in a five-by-five grid. Players take turns being the clue giver. The clue giver must give a one-word clue that connects five of the cards to one another. The other players must make exactly five guesses as to which cards they believe the clue giver is indicating. Each card that is a correct guess goes in the points pile and each incorrect card guessed goes in the penalty pile along with an additional card from the deck. Each card in each pile is worth one point. Players win together if they get twenty-five points, and lose if there are twenty-five points in the penalty pile. After five guesses are made, you draw new cards to replace those that were guessed in the grid, and a new player becomes the clue giver for the next round.

In another game, players take turns being the judge. The judge closes his eyes, and the other players choose one card each from a hand of ten cards, which they feel connects in some way with one of the two cards on the table. The judge then opens his eyes and chooses which card he feels made the best connection. The winning player earns a point and the first player to five points wins the game.

There are also more open-ended games such as the scavenger hunt, in which players search for objects around them that make a connection with the cards, or a dominos-type game in which you work together, making multiple connections and building out the tableau of pictures.

Review

OuiSi features some truly marvelous photographs. They are enchanting to look at and really do enable you to make unique connections between them and look at objects in different ways. There are a lot of games out there in which players give clues to connect cards that show imaginative and varied paintings and drawings, but this is the first we’ve encountered with photographs that capture that same level of imaginative interpretation.

Both the cooperative and competitive games included with the cards are fun, easy-to-learn party games that work well with the photos. The more open-ended creative games may not be for everyone, but we found them quite relaxing and engaging in their own right.

The cards themselves are well-produced, nice, large, and easy to see. We loved the size of them and the number of them as well.

OuiSi is presented as an educational game. Many of the games suggested in it are designed to help encourage creativity and the way you interact with your surroundings. The rules booklet is very much written with this in mind. But while this may make adult gaming groups concerned that this is a game only intended for families, many of the games can be thoroughly enjoyed with or without children and the uniqueness of the photographs makes this a game worth exploring.

Pros: Production quality, unique photographs

Cons: The open-ended games won’t be for everyone

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