Olé Guacamole: A Word Game About the Letters You Can’t Use

Can you think of a single word that connects to the word ‘superhero’ that doesn’t have an E, N, L, or T in it?

Published by Le Scorpion Masqué, this 15-minute party game is designed for 2-8 players, and is all about making connections and avoiding certain letters.

Gameplay

You place the arrow card in the center of the table. This indicates what order players will go in. You then shuffle the deck and place it on the table.

The first player draws the top card of the deck and places it face-up where everyone can see it. Most of these will show a single letter. The player must then come up with a word that does not contain the letter that is face-up on the table. He has 12 seconds (which is counted silently by the other players). If he accidentally says a word that has that letter, he immediately fails.

Once he says a word it is now the next player’s turn. He draws another card and also places it face-up. His word cannot contain either of the two letters and must also connect in some way with the word the previous player gave (any reasonable connection is allowed). You cannot say a word that was already used by your group in any game of Olé Guacamole that day.

Players continue drawing a card on their turn, adding to the number of forbidden letters, and coming up with a word that connects to the previous one, until a player fails to come up with a word. That player then takes all the face-up letter cards on the table and places them face-down in his score pile.

There are a few special effect cards in the deck. When a player draws one of these he applies the effect and does not draw another card. One forces you to come up with two words instead of one, another changes the direction that gameplay goes in, flipping the arrow card and making the player who just said a word now come up with another, one allows you to pick any other player to come up with a word, and the final one skips you and forces the next player in turn order to think of a word.

The game ends once the final card is drawn and the current player either fails or succeeds in coming up with a word. If he succeeds, he distributes all the face-up letter cards as evenly as possible among the other players. Then the player with the fewest cards in his score pile wins the game.

Review

Olé Guacamole is a great party word game. It’s really fast, it’s easy to grasp the core idea and it’s light on rules, not getting bogged down trying to define connections and instead allowing you to just have fun with it.

There’s a great escalation to each round. When there is only one or two letters on the table, it’s going to be pretty easy to come up with connections, but as the number of letters starts mounting, it gets more and more challenging. You’ll be hoping the player before you can’t come up with something, otherwise you'll be stuck trying to think of a word without the letter E!

While the special cards aren’t necessary, they can be really fun. When lots of letter cards are coming out on the table, a word is getting harder and harder to come up with, and you have to draw a card, that relief of getting an effect that passes you by can be quite a fun game moment.

In an odd marketing choice, the box says ‘The Happy Hour Game’ and ‘Spice up your Happy Hour’. Granted, kids are probably going to struggle with the spelling, but teens should have no problem and it just gives the wrong impression of the game. However, it is a game that would work quite well at a restaurant. Also, it’s already a pretty small box, that can travel easily, but it could have been even smaller as there’s a good bit of extra space in the box.

The lack of a timer or even instructions to use one, and instead having players count in their heads is a bit awkward, especially since players are unlikely to count at the same speed. While, in general, the looseness of the rules works to this game’s advantage, in this one regard it feels like a more official timer is necessary.

We enjoyed our time with Olé Guacamole. It’s fast, light, and easy, and provides some great moments of triumph and defeat.

Pros: Escalation each round, simple rules, game speed

Cons: Some lines on the box could give you the wrong impression about the game, timer rule is a little too loose

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