Advert: Gamely Games gifted us a copy for the purposes of review. All views are our own.

Can you think like the crowd AND stand out from it? That’s Awesome Foursome, a new party game where you score points for matching (and not matching!) fellow players.

Key stats

3-10 players | 20 mins | Age 10+

Publisher: Gamely Games
Design: Chris Reynolds & Hazel Reynolds
Visual Design: Milly Wood

Categories: Party Game

Game overview

Awesome Foursome is a categorical guessing game. Each round, someone draws a card and picks a category from the two options. Then everyone writes down 4 answers for the chosen category, each scoring in different ways:

• POPULAR: you get a point if your answer is the most popular in the group
• PSYCHIC: you get a point if your answer matches with exactly one other person.
• UNIQUE: you get a point if no-one else matches your answer.
• WRONG: this has to be an incorrect answer, but you only get a point if it matches with at least one other person!

So, for example, if the category was THINGS THAT HAVE STRIPES, your guesses could be:

• POPULAR: TIGER (surely most people would pick this?)
• PSYCHIC: BEE (hopefully only one other person says BEE too)
• UNIQUE: ZEBRA CROSSING (maybe no one would guess this!)
• WRONG: LEOPARD (remember, you need at least one other player to say LEOPARD too!)

IMPORTANT! As soon as you’ve written your answers you have to put your pencil down and shout ‘Done!’. And that’s because when there’s one player left everyone else gets to countdown from 10 – if they get to 0, times up! The game ends after 4 rounds and the most points wins!

Our thoughts

I can be quite picky when it comes to party games, but I’m pleased to report I’ve had so much fun with this one! It perfectly strikes a sweet spot between structure and creativity. Not only are you trying to find the right (or in case of the 4th question, the wrong!) answers, you also have to think about what the other people playing will go for.

My board game group did particularly enjoy the countdown rule – pressuring the last person with a dramatic countdown is much more fun than a standard timer!

There’s a good number of category cards in the box, and they include a great mix of categories, from the more traditional (like ‘Countries in Europe’) to the slightly silly (like ‘Things that are sticky’!). I also like that the category cards have 2 options for someone to pick from. You can even start throwing in your own hyper-relevant categories if you want (like local pubs).

The good number of categories combined with the variety of answers that will come from different groups means that even if you play it to the point that some categories pop back up, it won’t get boring  – I refer you back to my previous example of ‘Things that are sticky’, which would get very different answers from my adult board game group versus my family! It can also trigger a lot of debates; whether a country is European or not is pretty clear cut, but ‘Things that are tall’ can lead to some pretty subjective answers!

With a lot of ‘vibe’ based games, you’re either in tune with the others or you’re not, which can feel a bit isolating if it keeps happening to you over the course of a game. What I like about Awesome Foursome is that people can score points in different ways, including matching no-one, which reduces the chance of people feeling like the odd one out. And when you do manage the tricky feat of matching someone’s WRONG answer it’s very satisfying. However, if you really don’t like games about being on other people’s wavelength, this game probably isn’t going to be for you.

Production is fairly simple, as it usually is for party games. I will say that I appreciated that 6 pencils were included – it saved me scabbling around the house for enough pens! (I will also say that it took me way too long to realise that the cat on the box represents the ‘wrong’ answer!). Gamely’s games always come in cute portable boxes too, perfect to grab for a pub or cafe meet up.

I think it’s important to mention that Gamely Games are a UK indie publisher who are plastic free, carbon neutral, and donate 10% of their profits to charity (I know I’ve mentioned it before in our review of The Curator, but it’s so worth mentioning every time!).

You’ll like Awesome Foursome if:

• You enjoy creative ‘category’ party games.

• You enjoy games where you need match vibes (or not!) with other people.

• You’re looking for a light, quick party game that adapts to different groups, with guaranteed laughs (and debates!).

• You like to support socially-responsible indie companies.

You won’t like Awesome Foursome if:

• You don’t enjoy games where you need to be on the same wavelength as other people.

Verdict

Awesome Foursome is a great twist on a ‘group think’ party game with simple but effective gameplay. I love it! If you enjoy vibe games like Herd Mentality this is definitely one to check out.