In Games: Cineplexity

Cineplexity at a quick glance seems like a game that's targeted to hardcore movie fans, but that's not the case at all.  Upon first play this game reminds me a great deal of Apples to Apples, and that's a good thing.  When you have a great formula why not build on that.  Many mainstream gamers find themselves not interested in most movie related games because they are built around standard trivia such as Scene it?  So if you're a movie fan but you don't know who the second assistant director of The Bicycle Thief is what do you do?  Well Cineplexity may be for you.  The gameplay actually evolves based on the movie knowledge of the group playing.  You have a chance to win too if you're not necessarily a huge movie fan but you are good at convincing people you are right even when you might not be.  The game, like Apples to Apples, caused us a great deal of discussion and even led to a number of humorous answers.

Upon each turn a "director" pulls two cards from a bin, reads them aloud and lays them down for everyone to see.  The cards fall into one of several movie related categories such as Scenes, Settings, characters, genres, and more.  Then the other players must come up with a movie that fits both of the categories.  For example one card might say "Set in Washington" and the other might say "Romantic Comedy" and the first person to give a correct answer gets one of the cards.  Players continue to shout out movie titles until the director hears the name of a movie that meets both of the criteria.  This is where the game gets interesting because the director has to know that a movie does meet the criteria for the round to stop.  So, a player might yell out a correct answer but if the director isn't familiar with the movie the round may continue.  The game ends when the appropriate number of cards for the size of the group of players is reached.

There are really only two issues with this game that might be a slight problem.  The first one is common to any problem based around trivia and that's if one of your players is particularly knowledgeable about film that player might dominate the game a bit.  The solution here is to make the person that gets the answer on each turn be the director for the next turn.  Doing that will keep one person from answering question after question and taking opportunities from other players.  The other issue if that if you have a particularly vindictive player that pretends not to be familiar with obvious answers in order to keep someone from winning.  The solution to this is to simply challenge his/her ignorance and if necessary to team up on him.

This is another fantastic party game from Out of the Box.  It works well for parties because the instructions are only one page long so it takes mere minutes to teach.  Game length can be short or long depending on the group and how often challenges occur.  The gameplay mechanic is solid and easy to learn and there are answers for the few issues that might come, and oh yeah it's a heck of a lot of fun to play.

9/10