Befuzzled Review

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5[1]By Paco Garcia Jaen

For some reason I am getting to like silly little games that hardly take any time to play, are easy to learn and can be enjoyed with many people. Maybe something to do with my age, with my lack of patience for loooooooooooooong rules manuals and the fact that sometimes playing something silly and pointless is good fun. Who knows!

For that reason I have liked recently games like Triplica, Total Rumble, Forbidden Island and a few others. Undemanding, unpretentious, to the point and pointless (yes, even Forbidden Island is a pointless game… excellent and good fun, but rather pointless).

Now come Befuzzled. This is the new game from Fun Q Games, our sponsors. Creators also of Triplica.

Before I continue, you’re going to tell me that I am biased because the production company sponsors my website and therefore I will not be impartial. Well, you’re wrong.

You’re wrong for two reasons. First of all because I wouldn’t sell a game as good if it weren’t bad. Sponsorship or not. I am rather rigid about that rule.

Secondly because the Fun Q Games guys are grown ups and if I had something to say they didn’t like, they’d probably take it on board and learn from their mistakes. If you don’t believe me, contact them and have a chat. You’ll be amazed.

So, with the disclaimer out of the way and your skeptical mind put to rest (because it should be!), I will start with the review proper.

Befuzzled is a quick card game in which the players take turns to associate a shape with an action and perform it. You get 8 cards with simple actions written in them. Things like clap your hands. A card with different shape is placed on the action cards, allowing the action to be read. The player that is the “judge” in that turn will draw a card from the pile of cards with the shapes, place it on the table and, quickly, uncover it to show the shape.

The rest of the players then have to act quickly, match it with the action that matches that shape and perform the action on the card. The first player to perform the action is the round winner. The judge decides who was first in the event of a tie.

Yep!… that simple!

The box is small. Roughly twice the size of a deck of cards. If you want to take the game with you and don’t want to carry the box, then the cards will fit in any pocket… standard Poker sized cards. The box is solid enough and the cards are good quality. Good enough quality to be able to withstand spills of liquid (though I wouldn’t recommend making them too wet). The rules are concise, easy and well written (enough for a dyslexic like me to understand them right away).

The game can be played by many people. I found when I played with another 2 players it was a bit boring, to be honest, though I can imagine children being able to play it forever and not get tired of it.

Play it with 4, 5 people or more, and you start to hear more laughter. Add an after dinner drink and I can promise you’ll like this game. Heck, you could even devise your own actions and play them rather than stick to the original ones.

Conclusion

Befuzzled will not replace more deep and complex games, make no mistake. For obvious reasons it lacks the depth of most Eurogames and Ameritrash productions. However the simplicity, the sheer silliness and fun of having to react to the sight of a shape makes it really fun to play. Add to it that it is perfectly family safe and your kids will enjoy it as much as you (well.. maybe not that much!) and you have a winner for the whole family.

With the price as it is, you just can’t go wrong. It’s not even out yet (at the time of publishing this article) and already being nominated for awards, so the game must be doing something right!

I am more than happy to award this game 4 stars – which is probably one of the highest scores I ever give – and recommend it whole heartedly!

For more information and pre-ordering, please visit Fun Q Games website.

 

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