iMAgiNiff Game

We picked up this game at our local toy store, planning to play it with the kids (middle-school age) when we have family night. iMAgiNiff has proved a bigger hit with adults than kids--although the kids beg to play it too.

Players write their name on segments around the game board. If fewer than eight people play, they add the names of people they all know--or a public figure or character with whom they are familiar. With each turn, a player rolls the dice and moves left or right along the name segments. The name that player lands on becomes the subject of the next "imagine if" question. Scoring depends on how many players choose the same response. Those who win a point for their response get to progress a space toward the final goal. Under certain circumstances, a player can attempt to get an extra point by attempting to match just one other player's response. This twist provides an interesting opportunity to find out whether you and your spouse/best friend/child/etc. really think alike.

A big part of the fun is getting a chance to playfully pick on fellow players by voting on what you think they would do in certain situations or what phrase best describes them. Some of the options are dead on and truly hilarious!

Discovering how friends and family see you sometimes requires a good sense of humor. For instance, when my name came up, the question was, "Imagine if a doctor told XXX that she needed more exercise, what would she do?" My answer: yoga. Favorite answer: Get a second opinion! How embarassing to be so accurately pegged!

As another reviewer mentioned, some potential responses can involve innuendo. (No questions are overtly dirty--just the minds playing the game.) Even when you try to maintain a certain sense of decorum, sometimes it's just impossible. Once, a friend who very openly complains that her husband is not sufficiently attentive in the bedroom was the subject of a question. The question was "Imagine if XXX was a song, what song would she be?" The second choice was "I Can't Get No Satisfaction." Who knows what the other options were--we were doubled over laughing. I'm not sure how many of the kid players understood why we thought this was so funny, but the vote was unanimous.

Speaking of ages, the youngest player that I think we have successfully involved was 10 years old. Younger players can understand some questions, such as "Imagine if XXX were a vehicle, what would he be? A sports car. A pickup. A Bug. etc." But references to movies, songs, history and other cultural events would be over younger players' heads.

If you are in the market for a nonconfrontational, noncompetitive game whose main purpose is to stimulate laughter and conversation, this may be what you're looking for.

In essence, the game works like this:The players write on the board using nonpermanent markers the names of all the players, plus enough names of other friends, family members or celebrities to round out the total.Then each round players take turn rolling a die to see which of these persons is the subject of that round's question.

The questions are of various types, but a typical one might read as follows:"Imaginiff Kate (insert the person's name here) was a cartoon character.Which one would she be?(a) Charlie Brown. (b) Linus. (c) Lucy. (d) Snoopy. (e) Schroeder."The players -including the subject of the question -secretly write down their answers, and the consensus majority/plurality each get a point.Thus, the aim in Imaginiff is to be "right" the most often -but what is right?The answer which the most players agree on.Thus, the game is a good one for fostering conversation and humor; and is a fine selection for playing with people who tend to be unpleasantly hypercompetitive in other types of game.

Imaginiff tends to elicit lots of laughter as people are compared or analogized to things in surprising ways.It can be especially fun when the subject of the question indignantly thinks that s/he fits one answer (usually the "good" or "safe" one), while the rest of the players outvote him/her by selecting a more generally-perceived (i.e. "funny") one.

Questions occasionally get slightly racy ("Imaginiff Joe was a crime... (b) indecent exposure") and in certain crowds permit a healthy amount of innuendo, but never go so far that families should be afraid to play the game together.In this respect, it is a far cry from, say, Zobmondo, which can be a fun game but is not at all the right sort of thing for the 8-14 year olds.Imaginiff is good family fun.

Unfortunately, Buffalo Games (formerly known as Flying Buffalo Games, I think) is quite a small shop and evidently unable to keep up the production volume required to meet demand on this game.If it's in stock, pick it up today or you might have to wait a long time to see it again!

Buy iMAgiNiff Game Now

Imaginiff is one of those lesser-known board games that's recently achieved some level of success in getting into major toy and discount stores. As a result, it's taking off. It's a good party game and haselements of the UnGame in that the subjects of the game play are the people playing the game.

THE COMPONENTS

The Imaginiff board contains a start and finish point along a delineated spiral and an eight-person ring for writing the players' names (with a dry-erase marker, included). Each player receives a colored token. A gray token is used to denote on the ring which person is being discussed by the group. A set of question/response cards comes with the game, each card containing a personal question with six allowable responses. Players also receive a set of cards numbered 1-6 that correspond to responses on the question/response cards.

THE GAME PLAY

All players' names are written in the outer ring. If less than eight are playing, the players must decide which celebrities, persons not present, or bystanders' names will fill the remaining boxes. Those "proxy" players won't be assigned a game token, but the players can still pull questions cards that will pertain to the proxies.

The die is rolled and the gray token is moved onto a name in the outer ring. That person is now the subject of the question/response card that follows. That card is pulled and the question read (e.g. "If {Subject} were a crime, what crime would {Subject} be?") Six possible replies listed on the card are read, with each response assigned a number. Each player then selects a numbered answer card from their deck and places their answer face down in front of them. When all have answered, the players reveal their answers.

Scoring is a popularity contest; the answer that garners the most responses is declared the winner. (In ties, both win). Players who answered with the majority vote winner move their colored token ahead one block on the spiral in the center of the board. The person who rolled the die may move two spaces if he answered with the majority answer.

If a Bonus Card comes up in the question/response deck, the person who rolled gets to keep it and pick another question/response card. That card entitles the holder to bolster his score on any turn should he hear a question and feel assured he knows the majority answer. If he plays the card and win that round, he can move additional spaces.

The player name ring also contains a Challenge square. If the die is rolled and the gray token moved to that space, the person who rolled it rolls again and will partner with the player whose name comes up on the second die roll. The two then play that round alone. If they both select the same response, they move ahead four spaces, otherwise they move back two.

First person to the end of the spiral wins.

PROS:

* It's fun to see what the players think of each other.

* People who are the subject of a question may get flustered by the answers and protest in fun against the group. (But see CONS.)

* The game is exceedingly simple to play and understand.

* Teens seem to enjoy this game a lot.

CONS:

* This is a huge con: the success of this game is HIGHLY dependent on the group playing it. A group of mostly strangers does not work well (the responses end up not meaning anything since the players don't know the subject), nor does a group of people who know each other intimately (as they may always, as a group, give majority votes). We've had the most fun with Imaginiff with groups somewhere in-between those two extremes. Even then, players who tire of the game mid-play can really hurt it for everyone else.

* Some subjects will not like how others respond to the questions. Some responses can be a little risqué or cutting. A subject might also get upset that the group has an opinion that doesn't sync with his or her own view. In those cases, we've seen people shut off completely when playing this game, snuffing out the fun.

* The game length depends greatly on the nature of the group. A single game might go quickly or stretch out interminably.

* The cards aren't laminated. While this is not a problem for the question cards, the players' number cards get handled constantly and may suffer premature wear compared with the rest of the game. Since not knowing a player's response is important to game play, a few uniquely worn number cards may ruin the fun.

In the end, Imaginiff is a truly hit or miss game. When it's working in the right group, it can be enormously enjoyable. However, the wrong group, or even a decent group with one or two less-than-energetic players, can find game play inhibited to the point of despair. You might wind up in a situation where people wish to play for hours, or the game bombs completely. Since Imaginiff is all about the players more than about the nature of the game, it lives and dies by those same players.

Read Best Reviews of iMAgiNiff Game Here

This game is excellent. My parents gave it to me for my high school graduation, and all of my friends loved it. Most of them don't even play games anymore, but everyone had fun. This is the only game that everyone could agree to play, and it only made it more fun when my family joined in. We learned a lot about everyone who played, and even the famous people we sometimes added. (How was I supposed to know that Hitler didn't drink?)

It's also been a great get-to-know-you game for college. I'm kinda shy, so I was afraid to just go around and talk to people I didn't know, but when I asked them to play a game with me, and after convincing them that it wasn't a dorky game, I had a great time meeting the girls on my floor.

I recommend this game to everybody. It's a great gift idea for older teens and young adults who are normally hard to shop for.

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I played this at a friends home on New Years Eve. I DO NOT LIKE PLAYING GAMES normally....but this was fun, easy and you learn a little bit about your friends (or spouse)in the process. I highly recommend it for more mature couple who do not like board games. This one is great!

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