Everybody loves to play a good board game, don’t they? If not, why not? They are so much better than playing games on a screen – more socially interactive, more fun, and definitely more entertaining. But a lot of games are aimed at children or families with younger children, what about games for teenagers and adults? There are quite a few around once you start to look and one that we have been playing is Brain Fart.
Brain Fart is a quick-thinking word game where silence is deadly. It is perfect for parties and game nights. The game is designed for 3 or more players aged 14+.
In the box:
- 9 Category Cubes
- Electronic Brain Display Timer/Letter Generator
- 25 tokens
- Rules
The objective of the game is to name something from any category showing on the dice, but the answer must begin with the letter you are given at random from the electronic brain game piece. Sounds easy, well it is until you have a brain fart (a temporary mental lapse or failure to reason correctly) and suffer from TOT Syndrome (Tip-of-the-Tongue Syndrome)! The speed of how easily your mind becomes a blank canvas is phenomenal.
Brain Fart, from PlayMonster, comes with nine large lightweight cubes with each side having a different category, 54 categories in total. It also comes with a battery-operated electronic brain (which is the game timer and letter generator). The ‘brain’ gives a random selection of 21 letters.
The idea of Brain Fart is to roll the nine cubes, press the brain to get a letter and then start to name something beginning with that letter from any category showing on the cubes (categories such as movies, crimes, reasons to break up …). Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? You would think so, but it is anything but, welcome to the brain fart!
The game is easy to set up and play. With its 54 categories and 21 letters, gameplay is different every time and there are no right or wrong answers. But as the name of the game suggests, you really do end up having a brain fart (a temporary mental lapse or failure to reason correctly) when the answers should be simple.
The game is centred around an electronic brain. The brain has an LED display, and it functions as the timer and random letter generator. It requires 2x AAA batteries (not supplied).
Setting up the game to play is easy; you just put batteries in the brain and place it along with the 25 tokens in the centre of the table so that everyone can reach them. Everyone then takes some cubes, and you are ready to play.
When ready to play, all players roll their cubes into the centre of the table. Then a player must press down on the centre of the brain which generates a random letter on the display. It also starts the timer and the same time (the timer is random and can be anywhere between 30 and 45 seconds). Each player then takes it in turns to name something from any of the categories showing on the cubes with the answer beginning with that letter shown on the brain. For example, if the letter on the brain is “T” and you see the category “Gross Things” on one of the cubes you could say “Tarantula” on your turn (or something much more gross, rude or funny if you are that way inclined and playing with people with a sense of humour). Once you name something you grab that cube and play continues left around the table with each player until all the cubes have been taken or the timer goes off. If the timer goes off on your turn (you will know when it does as it makes a fart noise) before answering, you lose and receive a token. Play restarts again until all the tokens are taken, and the player with the least tokens is declared the winner.
Overall, although Brain Fart is a lot of fast-thinking fun. With simple game rules that are easy to understand and follow, quick set up and play, it is lots of fun. And it can be played anywhere.
Players must think quickly in order to beat their opponents and be observant enough to pick the category that suits them best to avoid that dreaded brain fart. It is fast and furious to play, especially when having to look at the category cubes, the letter on the timer and then trying to think of an answer in seconds. All that pressure really does wipe your memory of even the simplest of answers and leave you in that tip of the tongue situation.
The age guidance of 14+ is probably the right age as you do have to have a reasonable vocabulary and probably a bigger pool of knowledge, including useless stuff, to enable you to come up with an answer.
I think that Brain Fart is a fun addition to game nights for teenagers and adults. I think that 4 players would be best for maximum fun.
Whilst I love the game and the game play, it might have a small problem with repeated game play. As the text on the cubes is printed on rather than embossed, I think with repeated rolling on a hard surface the printing on the cubes will rub off quite easily (although to be fair, the instructions do say not to roll on hard surfaces), so maybe rolling them on to a cloth, table mat or carpet would be best to prolong the life of the cubes.
Despite the very small issue with the cubes, I would still rate Brain Fart 5 stars. It is a fun game that is easy to set up and understand and it can be played anywhere. Will you have a Brain Fart when playing? Remember, silence is deadly!
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £24.99
For more information, visit PlayMonster. Available to buy from Amazon here.
