Tuesday
night in our home is usually game
night. Most of the time we wait for the little ones to get to bed so we can
concentrate on the game, especially if the game of choice requires a bit more
concentration or strategic thinking. Recently we were blessed to be asked to
review Snake
Oil ($19.99) from Out of the Box Games. (We received
the physical game.)
Snake
Oil is recommended for ages 10 and up but I believe any reading child can play
the game. You need at least 3 people and up to 10 can play. It’s super easy to
learn to play and each game can take from 20-40 minutes depending on the house
rules. Does your family have “house rules” for certain games? We sure do. I
love to see the look on a guest’s face when they discover some of the crazy “rules”.
When we
heard of the game, my first questioning thought was the title- Snake Oil?
What on earth does that mean, right? Well, lucky for you I know what the title
means now and I’d be happy to share with you. J
Snake
oil was originally an ointment used for sore muscles. Over time it began to be
produced commercially which meant the government had to do some quality checks on
it. Turns out there was no actual snake oil in the product! From that the term
Snake Oil Salesman was born and refers to anyone making false, outlandish claims
about their product.
What’s
that got to do with the game? Well, everything!
What’s
included?
336 Word
Cards
28 Customer
Cards (they’re double-sided so you actually have 56 Customers)
How do
you play?
Everyone
is dealt six Word Cards. One player must be the Customer, so that person takes
a Customer Card. The Customer chooses from either side of the card which type
of Customer they want to be. The other players combine two Word Cards from
their hand to create an item for the Customer.
The “salesmen”
must now give pitches to the Customer and whichever the Customer likes more,
that person gets the Customer Card. The person to the left is the new Customer
and the game continues on.
You can
play for a set number of rounds, a time frame, until someone gets a certain
number of Customer Cards or just until you’re all tired of playing!
The
person with the most Customer Cards in the end wins. We
played each of the different ways several times.
Here’s
an example from of one of our games:
Julia
was the Customer. Oscar and
I were the salesmen.
Julia
chose a card that had Kindergartener and Billionaire as choices. She picked
Kindergartener.
Oscar and
I chose two cards from our hands to try to create a product that the
Kindergartener would want and gave a pitch about our product. They went something
like this…
Oscar: I
have a sleep pillow. Whenever those grownups try to make you take a nap, you
just whip this thing out and THEY take the nap!!
Me: I
have an insect cannon. Just load the ants, beetles, lady bugs or spiders into this
tiny cannon and launch them!!
Julia
ended up choosing the sleep pillow so Oscar got the Customer Card that round.
Simple
and fun!
We all
enjoyed the game. It really gets you thinking and your creative juices flowing
to try and create the perfect product for the Customer. It also created a lot
of laughs. At one point I was laughing so hard my sides hurt!
I
totally recommend Snake Oil to any family looking for a simple, fun game!
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