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(More customer reviews)OVERVIEW: Cluzzle covers the somewhat odd "world" of clay puzzle making.
Basically, each player must create a puzzle (or should I say, "Cluzzle") of an object, action or idea, but must create it in such as way as to avoid it being too easy. The trade-off is that one must also be careful as to not make the puzzle too hard, or risk receiving no points at all for their masterpiece.
My group played this using the latest edition rules which do away with the question markers and allow for unlimited questions each round, with the only requirement being that one question must be answered before a new one is asked (to avoid yelling over each other). We also saw fit to play with a house rule that required the person asking the question to pause for a second after their question was answered, to allow time for someone else to start a question. This really helped keep things civil, and stopped one player from "grilling" another under a hot lamp (We tried the old "good cop/bad cop" routine, with mixed results).
In each round, the value of each cluzzle rises by one point until the last round in which cluzzles are worth 3 points. This point scheme applies to both the guesser, and the cluzzle-maker, with both being awarded for a correct guess. In some cases, multiple guessers are awarded.
THE HIGHS: First, the clay itself is quite nice. You can tell that there was an eye to quality here, and while the amount of clay is slightly limiting, it is nice to know that the next time you come back to play, the clay will still be moist enough to work with.
Additionally, we found that the choice of puzzles to create was very random, and didn't follow any one theme. This makes the game much more challenging, as one doesn't know if the puzzle will be a vegetable, or an olympic event. Also, there are enough catagories that it would be nearly impossible to recognize one from a previous playing.
The laugh factor is huge. We played with a 20-something crowd, and found that the jokes were pretty much endless. A good laugh was had by all, as we pointed out various alternate possibilities for puzzles, or scratched our heads trying to figure out just what that extra glob of clay was meant to represent.
THE LOWS: Only a few things come to mind here. First, the play money is a little tough to work with. It's thin, and sticks together, making it difficult to hand out. All of those playing felt that it would have been better to create a scoring track on the center board, and have each player place a dab of clay denoting their score.
Another item that may have been useful would have been a cardboard "blind" so that others couldn't see your puzzle in it's creation stage. Many times a player will cloud their puzzle in mystery by removing certain give-away attributes, and it would have been nice to have a screen that blocked others from seeing.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I was a bit stunned by the response "Cluzzle" received. From the most serious players, all the way up to the strictly party-gamers, this one was a success. I had the impression that most felt this was a game not meant to be played at every opportunity, but rather one that would be called on to provide a little comic relief, especially after a longer, more serious game.
I would be inclined to recommend this game to families with young children, as this could be the "Pictionary" of their generation. I would also recommend this to people who like party games, or have friends that would provide extra humour to their creations.
Overall, this is a suprisingly good game worthy of the consideration of almost all gamer types.
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CluzzleCluzzle is the comical game of Clay Puzzles where players outwit their friends through bad sculpting, tricky questions and insightful guessing. The challenge is to create a clay sculpture that others will guess - eventually. The longer it takes for the other players to guess a sculpture correctly, the more points the sculptor receives. Many party games reward players for conveying a concept as quickly as possible, so those with an artistic ability have an advantage, but Cluzzle allows kids to do just as well as their parents, and lets art class drop-outs compete with the local Michelangelo. This fast-paced and entertaining game is fun for everyone.
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