Gibsons have come up with a hilarious festive game that families will love playing on Christmas Day and they sent one through for us to try out. Called Pass The Pud, it will appeal to players of all ages because the grown-ups and teens will get competitive while younger players will just laugh at the burping pudding. Yes, that's right, I did just say burping pudding ! Based on the concept of Pass the Parcel (and the non-festive version of the game called Pass The Bomb), players (working in teams, although we just played it individually with three players rather than the minimum 4 players - most of it is still totally possible) need to battle their wits to complete the word games and pass on the ticking pudding before it burps and stops play, showing that the player holding it has just lost that round. Cue much merriment !
The recommended age is 8+ and it is quite difficult for younger players, although with a bit of help, 7-year-old Juliette managed to join in. There are four type of game cards : Things (you need to name items in alphabetical order corresponding to the category on the card), Clues (you have to make the other players in your team guess the words on the cards without saying them), Connections (name actors or characters in the film mentioned on the card) and Words (name a song or book whose title includes the word on the card).
11-year-old Sophie and 7-year-old Juliette were desperate to play but found the Connections and Words cards near on impossible because they just didn't have the cultural references necessary (they'd never even heard of A Fish Called Wanda or Oceans Eleven, for example, so they were never going to be able to name actors from them). To get around this problem, we actualy removed those categories of cards and just played with the Things and Clues ones, which are much easier for younger players.
I love the way the game explains the old Christmas tradition of putting sixpences in the pudding too which the Madhouse Mini-testers were unaware of - in the game, you win a sixpence if you're not left holding the burping pudding.
There are a couple of things I would have liked extra - the 2 x AAA batteries, which are not included in the box, and an On-Off switch as well as a volume switch. When I asked the Madhouse Mini-testers if they had any improvements to suggest, they said they wanted a louder burp ! I'm not sure if this exists in a children's version but if it doesn't, they should definitely create one, using cartoons and kids' programmes instead of films, books and songs for the Connections and Words categories. It's a great, fun game for older children and adults though.
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £15.99
Disclosure : We received a Pass The Pud game in order to write an honest review.
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This sounds like a great game and I love the idea of a burping Christmas Pudding!
ReplyDeleteFun :)
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