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

Product Information

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. 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. It is not hard to work out that I really like this party game from Big Potato Games. The concept is very simple. One player reads out a question and the other players all have to provide a fake answer except one player who has to tell the truth. The guesser then has to find as many of the wrong answers as possible without accidentally revealing the correct answer. Points are then awarded and play continues with the next player.

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. 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. Whoever has the True Blue Kipper has to try and get caught as soon as possible (Image credit: Future) 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. Once all players have given their answer, the Guesser starts flipping over fish – trying to eliminate the fake answers.

Creative Play

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. 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? 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.It certainly helps that the questions are bizarre enough to catch you off guard. Where is it illegal to fall asleep in South Dakota, for instance? A game like this lives or dies on the strength of its trivia, and Sounds Fishy passes the litmus test with gusto. Some answers are so strange that you couldn't make up anything weirder if you tried.

The player who has the Blue Kipper says the correct answer and all the players with a Red Herring give a fake answer. 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. 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. To start a game you take the true blue fish plus a number of red herrings so there are one less fish than players. Fish are randomly allocated to all players (except the guesser) and players secretly look at their fish to determine if they need to tell the truth (true blue) or a lie (red herring). Players keep their fish with the shiny side face down.

Multibuys

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 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. 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. You'll also have a good time battling each other for points. The process of trying to weed out fibs from fact is engaging enough to keep you invested, and the same is true of those attempting to stay under the radar. Keeping players off your scent as a True Blue Kipper is an equally usual challenge; be too obvious and the jig is up, losing you the advantage. 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