The Best Party Games of 2019

0:00 hi welcome to actual law I'm John Perez today I'm talking about my favorite party games of 2019 I was due to release my big best board games of 2019 video this month but I came down with a cold which has just slowed me down a bit and I wanted to still get something out there so you didn't think I've gone AWOL so that's why I'm making this quick video today but please still look out for my best ball games of 2019 video that's my big annual one with loads of jokes in it I've put a lot of love into that so I'm really looking forward to releasing that one today we're on party games and there are links in the description if you want to buy any of the game so let's get to the list a number 5 is 20 second showdown this is best described as a game show for your family or your friends you divide up into two big teams so you're either the blue team or the yellow team and you're taking it in turns to do challenges you're passing the baton between the players on your team one person is just gonna be like the game's master the the show host and they are in charge of this Big Tymers big egg timer that makes quite a lot of noise and they are tracking who has got the most time left effectively because if the timer runs out when it's your color then that means you've lost that your team has run out of time so you're trying to do your challenges as quickly as possible so that you give less time for the other team and it works really nicely it just goes back and forth is really Pacey it just got so much energy this game and then the challenges you're given are just weird and wonderful things that range from a bit of trivia like name

1:32 three body parts which are made up of three letters or doing something slightly odd trying to find something in a room like find a plant and hug it something active so get on the floor and do the crab point two three items that are each worth less than one dollar play a teammate at paper-scissors-stone until you win and get on your knees and sing hi-ho hi-ho it's off to work I go so the box is just full of loads of challenges and you'll just quickly trying to do them as fast as you can and they're just silly right but if you get into the spirit and air and you're desperately there's this competition I think just from coming for playing on such big teams and knowing that the whole party is kind of divided between these two factions and if you don't get your challenge done in time you're letting everyone else down you just get into it and i-i've never found a challenge in this game that has been sort of too annoying or too weird or creepy or whatever they've judged them just right yeah they get you to do some silly things and you've got to be into that vibe but I really like the level that they've judged at that it's it's family-friendly but it's also it's kind of taking you to level of like it's better if you're drunk kind of thing so we had loads of fun playing this on New Year's Eve it's not the sort of game that you would play all the time like something like Conan's it's for a big event and it's really good for big groups definitely late night when everyone's kind of getting a bit silly it's kind of got that vibe of

3:03 happy salmon and things like that so if you like the sound of that kind of thing it's not going to be for everyone but for me it just completely fit a gap in my collection that I didn't have and when I played it it just brings the party to life it has just such a burst of energy to it and makes you feel like a kid again but without making you feel like you're being stupid so that is 20 seconds show down a number four is first contact this is a really interesting game about trying to learn an alien language if you've ever seen the film arrival with Amy Adams what you're doing in this game is very similar to what she's doing you're trying to learn how they communicate to you and so some players are playing as aliens and they are trying to teach the humans their language but also communicate which items they want and they're humans they're also a group of people and they are trying to learn the language so that they can offer the right items to the aliens and so at the start of each game the aliens are given this little white board that is showing how they communicate certain words so there's a different symbol for a bunch of different words so you've got a live big food danger solid liquid sharp metal things like that very simple words and then in the middle of the table is a grid of 25 items similar to code names they've got pictures as it's very simple things like a flower or a woman or a crocodile or a chariot or a

4:34 butterfly and so the aliens will be assigned some of those items just like in code names really you've got this grid card you've got a certain color so each alien wants different items from this grid and they're trying to communicate that but the humans don't know any of the language and they are tracking what they learn on their own personal whiteboard so for example they will try and learn the language by selecting some items that they think connect up to one of these common words so if they were to pick alive they would rotate up to five cards that they believe can be described as a life so they could pick rhino and woman and flower the aliens don't know what they were going for they don't know which word it was but they've just seen which items have been rotated and then they have the chance to draw on their whiteboard the symbol that they think matches so there's this brilliant opportunity for a miscommunication either from bad selection of items from the humans or bad interpretation from the aliens or a bit of both because then what happens of course is they give the symbol and then the humans write it down but if they write it down in the wrong box then all hell breaks loose and it gets really confusing then what happens is that the humans have the opportunity to secretly select an item to offer up to the aliens the aliens ask for something by writing on their board they

6:06 take it in turns to ask for something so they could write as many symbols as they want so if they wanted a rhino they might say alive and big but of course the humans don't know what big is yet maybe doesn't necessarily matter because they've seen that a life symbol before related some animals so they've still got a fairly good chance they could just pick one of the things that was related to alive so they give that they give their thing in their language and the humans will secretly select which item they are going to offer up and if anybody offers up the right one then they will get a point and you get closer to the end of the game so the humans are working against each other to offer up items and the aliens are working against each other because they want to get their items first before any other alien so you get one winner on either team the alien that gets all their things first and the human who helped the most in giving the items it's a really fascinating premise that totally fits the theme that's so rare for a party game to just kind of make sense and such a cool idea you'll you're playing with the concept of linguistics and sort of understanding what it would have been like to try and communicate you know between different nationalities different languages it's it's tricky but it's actually not as hard as you would think it definitely progresses I've never seen like a stalemate and it's fun I think the thing that I love about it is that even though

7:36 it appears to borrow things from stuff like code names it's so different to anything you could play and you can take it to someone and they're just so impressed by what they're doing it's just it's it's really different for a party game and that's why it's gonna stick around in my collection that is first contact and number three is banned words this came out a couple of years ago but it's been very hard for me to get hold of because I'm fortunate it's not available in the UK but I've been told about it by a whole bunch of commenters especially when I was talking about a game called trap words last year and everyone was saying how great it was so I realized that I really had to get hold of a copy so thank you to everyone that recommended it to me so banned words is a party game where you play on two teams and you are trying to get your teammates to guess a bunch of words so here I've got a card that says hiccup Libre Floss tiara dance lessons I'm trying to get them to guess these words a bit like taboo because I can't say certain things but the trouble is I don't know the things that I can't say they are decided by the other team who are trying to catch me out so I'm playing against the timer and I might save for hiccup a noise that you make from your throat jolts your body the trouble is is that the other team have written down noise on one of their tiles and they catch me out and they get a point for that so I'm trying to get as many points as I can if I get all of them well it's

9:07 basically a point for every word but for every word that they catch me saying they get a point because they've seen this card your teammates haven't that they have and they have written down a bunch of trap words I'm desperately trying to go around the houses with the way I describe it and they are loving it every time I hit them till one of the words they think so this is fun challenge of with your team trying to think of the right banned words because you could really catch them out a bunch of times you might want to even think around the houses yourself because they're obviously going to avoid the really simple stuff and so maybe you try and think in the creative ways they're gonna think and catch them as they sort of go on that detour so both teams are really invested because the your team are desperately trying to guess the words you're playing against the timer and if you don't get them all you're not gonna get the five points and you only get a point for each word the other team get a point for every word they catch one so they could get more points than you and that's why it's important to be so careful but of course there's a timer so you can't be that careful it's got great energy it is really fun such a clever conceit and it is very similar to a game called trap words this game actually was released first I've really enjoyed trap words I really enjoy this one I think maybe I slightly prefer this because it's that bit simpler trap words has a fair bit of admin and the key difference between them is the entrap words you have to stop as soon as you get caught out which kind of puts the

10:38 pressure up even more whereas here you don't have to stop but of course the other team get points so it's bad it's bad for your team I think just the simplicity of this makes it a better party game because you can just bring it out with anyone and literally anyone can play this game so yeah everyone that I played through with this had so much fun and it really is the kind of evolution or the next step to something like taboo that was what we were playing in the 90s and this is a great modern twist on it so it highly recommend this one that is banned words and number two is paranormal detectives this is a crime solving deduction game if you think of something like cluedo where one player is playing as the ghost the dead person that has recently been killed and they're trying to communicate to the other players these paranormal detectives how they died every time you play it then the person that's been killed has a different one of these and it tells a little story about how they died and then it tells them specifically who who killed them why they did it where it happened how it happened and what the weapon was and you get a bit more information about kind of how they're dressed and things like that and so you are giving this information to the other players but you're eating out through kind of stereotypical paranormal ways so you can't just talk to them but you can make a communication by folding up a bit of wire into a shape that's

12:09 going to be helpful or you can play some tarot cards or you can draw on their back so the paranormal detectives have a selection of cards that they will pick from every time they ask a question they will pick the way they want that answer to be delivered so I could ask who killed you and I could say that I want them to tell me by drawing on this whiteboard but they have to hold my wrist so it's me drawing and I'm getting moved by this spooky ghost and all by yeah drawing a shape on my back or by mouthing a word or doing a three-second Sharad so there's just the you get these little snippets and it's all about how you interpret what they're trying to communicate so it's really fun for the ghosts because they're having to be creative in how on earth do you use some tarot cards to show who the killer is or how on earth do you bend this wire into something that's remotely useful and the detectives are really having to be deductive so I actually feel like it's kind of more towards a board game this one but I put it on the party game list just because it is it does have that silliness to it it still got some thinking us to it I really enjoy taking notes on your whiteboard and and getting closer and closer to what happened and trying to solve it it does have the feel of those crime-solving games and I really like that it has a specific story kind of like a more detailed crime game

13:41 like Sherlock Holmes consulting detective instead of being clued aware you know that it could be the candlestick in the ballroom in this you have no idea what it could be what the parameters could be because every different scenario is different from the other one they tend to play on things that you might imagine from whodunit films Agatha Christie and stuff like that they're gonna reference things that you would understand in our modern world so if you hear a word it's gonna be useful and I just really like that because you start to get a feeling of it even you it's not having to be spelt out to you you're like oh okay so if a hammer was used then maybe I have an idea of where it could have happened or who did it because of who in real life would have access to a hammer or where you might find a hammer so that's just a cool twist to it that makes it different from any other crime game and then the other twist being that the way you're finding out these things is just quirky and different and so it feels a little bit like mysterium but just with a new challenge of how to communicate and I really love that too so it's got lots to like about this one and it's the kind of game that anyone could play just again so it's not as silly and crazy as other party games on this list but it is a really really fun game and to me it's kind of the perfect replacement to cluedo for family so yeah I really loved this one this is paranormal detectives number one is wavelength this is a

15:13 collaboration between Wolfgang wash the designer of the mind and the team behind monikers which is a great party game and this is got a feel of the mind but in sort of a party gaming form you are trying to read the minds of your teammates so you take it in turns to try and give a clue so you've got this cool contraption that shows you a wavelength so if you see here I would reveal private to myself after sort of randomizing it a wavelength on this scale and so I would then hide it and give a clue to my teammates that has to fit a certain category so if I was to be given hard to pronounce - easy to pronounce so on the left hand side we've got hard to pronounce on this side easy to pronounce and I said cat then you would be thinking it was all the way over here so you as a team discuss and you think about well where are we gonna put it it's probably gonna be here and then the other team get a chance to pick which side of where you've selected they think it is where it lies and then of course I reveal now in that case it was in a completely wrong position but let's imagine it was over here so if you hit dead-on you're going to get four points but if you're close you get three or two points and if you don't hit it at all you get nothing the other team if they if they said let's say it was here if

16:44 they said it's to the left of where you've picked then they would get one point if they were on the right side of the scale so I like that they keep the other team in it means that they are still paying attention and they don't get bored whilst you're taking your turn because they still have a chance to score points and it's just such a cool idea that I've never really played a game quite like it it has all the kind of classic balance of trying to come up with a great clue you really have to think about it so we played I played this with Africa from no pun included and he was given disgusting cereal

17:22 delicious cereal and he said Weetabix and so we were talking for ages about what kind of cereals we think he would like and how does Weetabix rank because it's kind of dry and boring but there's actually worse than that in terms of shredded wheat and things of that but you've also got like a whole scale of wonderful things that are full of sugar and so you really start to dissect this topic but also you're talking in relation to the person who's giving the clue because f kers not originally from the UK so is it kind of a UK thing to love Weetabix would his tastes differ or based on what we know about other things that he likes would he like it and i think any game that kind of gets you talking like that i just really appreciate and again you know another one is bad music - good music whatever i pick whatever clue i give there it's gonna be based on my opinion and so hopefully you know a bit about what I like and it gets discussion going and there's kind of little arguments and you'll be like yeah I agree but I just think we should take the scale or like a little bit to the left and of course it gets revealed and they were right the whole time and you're like oh my god I'm so sorry it's a really good one for sparking discussion which i think just is where the best party games are and it has such a cool like big reveal another little mechanic that I love in it is that if you hit dead on if you get that fall and you're still behind on points because you're racing to get to ten points you get another turn immediately

18:54 I've still never seen it happen I really want it to happen in one of our games but I just think that's such a cool like oh man you hit it and you can come all the way from behind to win the game with that so that's just I think creates extra drama and it is a game of kind of yeah big reveals and then that after discussion of like oh why did you say that and so there's you know a bit of explanation and Africa gets to tell you what he really thinks about Weetabix but whilst we're all discussing he of course has to keep a straight face just like in codenames you have to you're just sitting there seething whilst like I remember playing this game and you know I'd set it up and I'd given I thought was a really good clue and my friends had effectively turned it you know to the right spot and then somebody just comes in with like the twelve Angry Men argument and they're like no I think this is why it should be you know way over this side and they sort of like loosen up to their idea so they like shift it massively and then it gets revealed and of course we get no points and that guy just killed it loyalty so a vision I know it's just I've had a lot of fun with this game it's such a simple concept it has such a cool look to it and it's just unlike any other party game that I have so that is why it's at number one and I really think this one's gonna stick around on my collection for a very long time I would highly recommend wavelength those are my favorite party games of last year if you want to buy any of them there are links in the description below and please look

20:24 out for my best board games of 2019 video because like I said it's got jokes in it it's a lot bigger and better than this one and it doesn't have me with a croaky voice in it so if you like this video you want to see that and others please subscribe and if you want to support more videos like this then please back me on patreon at patreon.com forward slash actual low I'm John Backus thanks for watching