It’s Blunderful — Games by Bicycle — Review

7 min readJan 10, 2020

I love it when I don’t think I’m going to like a game and it turns out to be a favorite. It’s Blunderful is now on my top 10 party games list. I love it!

Heather Swanson

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Publisher: Games by Bicycle

Designer: N/A

Artist: N/A

Game Type: Party game

Initial Year of Release: 2018

Age Range: 17+

Expected Playtime: 30 minutes

Number of Players: 4–8

Theme and What is it?

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Think back on your most embarrassing moment. I won’t share my worst but I had one recently. I had a guest over and we were sitting in my front yard for a chat. She got chilly so I ran in the house for a lap blanket. On the way back out I went sprawling flat on my face right in front of her. Arghh! Crutches and a sprained ankle!

Now, what would you have done? Laugh hysterically? Post on social media what a klutz I am? Or, quietly help me back into the house and provide some ice?

That is what this game is all about. You are put in a number of embarrassing situations and given choices on how to react. Others bet on how you would respond. You might just be surprised at how little you know your friends!

Gameplay Mechanics

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I like the betting mechanism in this game. There are many ‘how-well-do-you-know-your-friends’ games but this is the first I’ve seen with a way to get positive or negative points.

You have a cube on a scale to keep track of your points and an area to the side where you can place bets. If your answer is correct you move up the scale by how much you bet. When you lose, that many points gets subtracted.

Everyone has cards to choose their answers from. They place their choice face down and everyone reveals at the same time. It is a real hoot when someone you thought you knew well does something totally out of character from how you perceived them.

Initial Impressions

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I was concerned this game was going to be too edgy for my gaming group. We often have many ages of kids running circles around us while gaming. We play with kids, parents, and grandparents. Was is going to be okay?

Game Build Quality

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The player boards are impressive. They are actually boards that fold up. They have cut out sections to keep the cube tracker from sliding around. That is so welcomed when playing a rowdy game!

The cards are good quality and PLENTIFUL! There are so many you are not likely to see the same questions often.

Artistic Direction

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There is not much art to talk about. It really is only the box that has some simple line drawings. Otherwise, the colors in the game are pleasant.

Fun Factor

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I was a bit nervous brining this to my group. We have such a wide range of personalities and ages I didn’t know how well it would be received.

It turned out to be a real hoot! Some folks didn’t know each other well but it didn’t matter. We guessed how people would react based on first impressions. Sometimes we were correct and sometimes we were off. Either way, it was always fun to find out what people would do.

For instance, there is a card about what to do if you see that your boss’ fly is down. It got a great discussion going. Who knew some of my friends would laugh and point while others would make wild gestures at their boss’ crotch? Yikes!

Age Range & Weight

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This is recommended for 17+ and that, I believe, is a safe choice. There are adult only instances. When we played in the presence of a 10 year old, the truth of the issues were not picked up on. Older kids are going to know what the card is talking about.

Many of the questions are for folks who are working/dating/driving age. Not many questions would work for teens because they are not experienced in certain areas.

For example, one of the cards gives a scenario about being in a hotel with some ‘noisy’ neighbors. What would you do? Turn up the TV and put your head phones on to block them out? Complain to the front desk, or make some really loud interesting noises yourself?

No, I would definitely not fill my teenager’s mind with ideas from this game! Age 17+ is just right. I say you need to be living on your own or at least about to live on your own for these questions.

However, that is not to say a parent couldn’t go through the deck and pull out inappropriate questions and let teens play. There are many questions about basic life scenarios that are awkward. These kinds of situations happen to any age.

Conclusions

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I love it when I don’t think I’m going to like a game and it turns out to be a favorite. It’s Blunderful is now on my top 10 party games list. I love it!

There might be some questions which are too uncomfortable for certain company but it is easy enough to put those questions away. There are plenty of cards.

I could be called prudish sometimes and this game did not bother me. I think that is because the cards offer real situations. We are all faced with those weird issues on occasion.

Overall, I would give this an 8/10 for some difficult to understand terminology and wording. Our group had trouble understanding a few questions. Maybe we aren’t just hip enough? Otherwise, this would be a 9/10. Either way, it is in my top 10 for party games.