Guesstures

by Amanda Nettgen

(USA)

Game:
Guesstures
Board game manufacturer:
Parker Brothers/Hasbro
Number of players:
4 or more (possible with less)
Ages:
12+

Quick verdict

Guesstures is the game where you perform gestures within a matter of seconds for your team to – you got it – guess. It’s like charades on fast forward.

The game and gameplay

To begin playing, divide all participants into two Casts, or teams.

The game instructions say it doesn’t matter if the groups are uneven (but I guess only time will tell, huh?).

The first player for a team selects four acting cards and places them in the Mimer-Timer, which looks like a director’s clapboard. As soon as the top of the Mimer-Timer is closed, it’s action time!

Editor’s note: The original edition of Guesstures has been out of print for some time, but is still available at Amazon in limited quantities. This explains the extremely high price for the brand new game! We suggest you shop around, or purchase the Electronic edition. eBay may also be a good source of used versions (see the box elsewhere on this page for live eBay listings).

A player is given only a few seconds to successfully mime each card before it drops into the unforgiving clapboard. All cards have either an easy or hard option; hard choices are of course worth more points if determined correctly.An actor should decide in advance whether he will do the easy or hard mime and load the cards into the clapboard accordingly.

In addition to picking the easy or hard charades, a player should sort his four plays by how difficult he thinks they will be to act out.

When doing a Guessture, you’re not allowed to make any sounds, but you are able to use props and point to stuff, surprisingly. The other key when playing is that the actor not only has to get his teammates to guess what’s on the current card accurately, he must also grab the card out of the clapboard before it disappears for it to count!

The team with the highest score after two Scenes (rounds) wins. You keep score with the provided crayon directly on the clapboard (so cute!). Alternatively, Guesstures can be a group venture where there are no teams, and everyone acts for fun.

Pros and cons

Guesstures is a blast to play! It even works great if you only have two players, because the thrill of quickly acting things out and subsequently leaping for the dropping cards is not lost.

The game suggests only playing two rounds for each team, though; you’ll probably want to play a little longer than that. The game forbids you from passing over a card in your Mimer-Timer queue, and some of the acting options are of course difficult.

The verdict

Guesstures will delight fans of Taboo, Cranium Hoopla and classic Charades. Even those who haven’t played that many acting games in their life will get a kick out of it.