Sounds Fishy: The Fast-Thinking, Bluffing Family Board Game for Kids 10+ and Adults | Best New Board Games | Same Game, Smaller Box

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Whoever has the True Blue Kipper has to try and get caught as soon as possible (Image credit: Future) The same can't be said for Sounds Fishy. Actually, there's a danger of learning the answers to each question if you overplay it. That means it has a more limited shelf-life. It is worth pointing out at this time this is a party game and although the game is great at four players the fun only increases the closer you get to the maximum player count of ten.

This is a plastic free game. All of the contents and box itself are made from paper and cardboard. The insert, which holds everything perfectly, is made of recycled paper and it certainly has that smell which reminds you of its green credentials. Then play passes to the next player to be the Guesser for the next round. The fish are again randomly dealt out face down and the new Guesser starts out with the next card in the card holder.Accordingly, it's quirky and has plenty of character. There's no confusion about what you have to do during a match either, so even board game novices are unlikely to feel lost. So if you have the Blue Kipper, you want to give the correct answer in such a way that the Guesser thinks it might be fake. And if you have a Red Herring, you want to deliver your answer like it’s the real thing. Which players gave fake answers? Those are the fish you want to flip. I played Sounds Fishy with different groups of varying sizes, and made sure I played each of its roles to get a better idea of what they were like. Or another way, is to simply keep playing. Who says you really need to end after everyone has had only 1 or 2 turns being the Guesser? If the Guesser eliminates all Red Herrings and only has the Blue Kipper left, they also get an extra point.

Overall, Sounds Fishy is a fun, simple party game that even those who don’t like bluffing games in our family enjoy playing. The point tokens have cool fishy symbols on them. The player who has the Blue Kipper says the correct answer and all the players with a Red Herring give a fake answer. First, players decide who will be the starting guesser. They then take the dispenser with the question cards in, making sure the side with the blue answer on is facing down. Then, the guesser will randomly dish out one fish to each player, keeping them face down. All of these fish should be Red Herrings except for one: the True Blue Kipper. Play continues until everyone has been the Guesser either 1 or 2 times (depending on the number of players). Then players total their points and the player with the most points wins.For all players other than the Guesser, the scoring is a bit different – but very tied to their objectives. The Blue Kipper got flipped. The Guesser gets 0 points. And we much prefer making up crazy answers to these trivia types of questions than obscure word definitions. Some sample questions.

Prior to each turn, the fish are randomly distributed to the other players face down. Each player will secretly look at their fish and see if they have a Red fish (Red Herring) or a Blue fish (Blue Kipper). There will be only 1 Blue fish in the group.The questions are mostly so bizarre that we’re genuinely curious to just keep rattling through more of them. And since the game comes with 220 question cards, there’s plenty of fun to go. If you have the Blue Kipper and it gets flipped, you get 1 point for every unflipped fish on the table. If you remain unflipped, you get 0 points. The fun and hilarity in this game comes from the crazy answers people give and you are 100% sure they are lying only to be told it is the truth. People can really try to put you off by seeming unsure when they give an answer or look ‘shifty’ all with the aim of throwing the guesser off the scent. Seeing Red The guesser then flips the fish of a player they think lied. If a red herring is revealed the guesser gains a point and can continue to try to find more red herrings or stop if they wish to do so and retain the points. If the guesser reveals the true blue before exposing all of the red herrings they lose all of their points and play continues with the next player becoming the guesser.

The game reminds us a lot of Balderdash and Beyond Balderdash, where players make up answers to factoids. In a 4 to 5 player game you play two rounds and with 6 to 10 you just play one round. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. I Get The Point! Players will take a look at their fish without letting the guesser know who they are. Just like that the game is set and you’re ready to move onto gameplay. Gameplay Scoring in Sounds Fishy varies for each of the three roles. When playing as the guesser, players will score a point for every correctly guessed Red Herring. They’ll also win a bonus if they correctly identify everyone, without falling prey to the True Blue Kipper. But be warned, if the guesser calls the Kipper out as a Red Herring, they lose everything. Red Herrings will score one point for every flipped fish on the table, including the Kipper.

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You could ask people to repeat their answer, but we’ve found that can give away if they were faking or not. So we have a house rule that players can’t be asked to repeat what they said. If you have a Red Herring and it gets flipped, you get 0 points. If yours remains unflipped, you get 1 point for every flipped fish (including the Blue Kipper). You play either The Guesser or The Fish in a battle of disguising and finding the truth. The Guesser reads out a Question card before guessing which of The Fish's answers is fake. The Fish are either True Blue hiders of the right answer or Red Herring inventors of fake ones. The Guesser gets a point for each fake answer guessed correctly, but loses all these points if they choose the true one. If you have the most points after everyone has had a round of guessing, you are the winner. When you open the shiny box you will see the game includes some pretty nice components for a party game. There are 200 questions which should last quite a while, lots of points tokens, eight red herrings and one true blue kipper. These fish are the highlight of the components as they are beautifully drawn and shiny. They will definitely attract people to the table to play. They choose one of the answers they think is fake and flip over that player’s fish. If it’s Red, the Guesser gets 1 point. The Guesser can stop at any point and bank their points or they can keep guessing. However, if they flip over the Blue fish, they lose any points they’ve gained this round.