Mattel Games Balderdash Review

Balderdash is an interesting and fun game that is great for groups of people or at parties.  It's a board game in its presentation, but at its core, it is a game where having a poker face and being able to bluff well can be the best way to win.  Not only that, but the game-play provides a ton of fun (and laughter) that will have everyone in the room enjoying themselves. 

The Game Play in Balderdash:

The game is simple enough to learn, with play beginning by every participant (or team) rolling the dice to determine who the first "dasher" will be.  This person draws a card and reads one of the balderdash terms to the other players.  The term can be simply a word that must be defined by the players, or it can be a person, a movie, initials, or laws.  Upon reading it, the other players then pose guesses by writing down an answer, at the same time trying to bluff that they are giving out the correct information.  Each player submits an answer to the dasher (with their name), who reads them aloud, keeping it anonymous who submitted what answer. 

Scoring in Balderdash:

The way to score points in the game is by guessing the correct answer from the choices presented, by other people choosing the guess that you submitted, or by being the dasher and having nobody correctly guess what the correct answer was.  This is where coming up with a creative submission can score you points as a bluffer, by having people guess your answer as the correct one, and getting fooled in to believing it incorrectly.

My ViewPoint of Balderdash:

The game is quite easy to learn, and if you are with a good group of friends, it can be extremely amusing to see some of the answers that get presented through the game.  It's a lot of fun, and though it can take a long time to finish a complete game of Balderdash, it is one of those games that you can enjoy while eating appetizers and just hanging out with your friends during a night of fun.  It is definitely a game recommended for groups, and could even be used as an ice-breaker if the right situation came up.