The art on the cards of Codenames: Pictures is so deliciously weird and effectively confusing during the game. We love it!
So last week was my birthday and Heinze gifted me a dexterity game I’ve always wanted ever since I saw it: Junk Art! The simplicity of building weirdly shaped blocks just speaks to me. And if it’s a game: even better! My mother for one clearly didn’t understand why I would be happy with a box of coloured blocks as a gift for an adult, but I guess that ‘misunderstanding’ is worth a comic on its own. 😀
The game is just a fun quick dexterity game that appeals to most people. I think we’ll play it quite often with our friends since most of them got giggly enthusiastic when I explained the concept of the game.
There is a clear winner in our little Facebook poll of which game we should buy from our Amazon credits… and the winner is: Clank! We would have enjoyed every game on the list, so naturally, we are excited. 😉 Thank you all for voting!
Two rival spymasters both form a team and try to tell their field operatives in coded messages what the locations are of the agents that need to be contacted. In this version of Codenames the agents on the table are no longer represented by a single word, but by an image that could be interpreted in different ways. Which team will understand their spymaster the best?
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iain
I still prefer the original, I feel like it provided for more creativity and lateral thinking, and people would take bigger risks to get more cards with a single clue. Have you played with a combination of both? It’s a little bit insane, but a good challenge for anyone who’s familiar with both games.
I also just got Clank! for my birthday, have only played once so far, but I really enjoyed it. It’s almost like a clever mix of mechanics from a few other games I really enjoy, such as deck-building from Dominion or Ascension, ‘coloured things in a bag that mean bad things’ from Pandemic: The Cure (which I mentioned on one of your Instagram posts) and a gamble/risk of higher points for a longer route from Ticket to Ride. I’m sure someone who has played more games than me would have better examples, but the point is, I find Clank! to be a very clever, fun, and challenging game!
Hope you enjoy it too!
Jake Alexios
I know Codenames well, but have not played CN: Pictures.
I suppose, in addition to which is preferred, I would ask: is it worth having both?
I tend to play Codenames with the “non-gamer” people in my life, and I feel the nuance of “creative different take on essentially the same game” might be lost on them … but I’d love to be wrong! 🙂
Heinze Havinga
TBH I’ve just played codenames picture once and felt it was harder to really try those hilarious high numbered hail mary associations, while at the same time not adding a new interesting dimension. So I would say it’s not worth to own both, but maybe somebody with more experience will have a different opinion.
dja
I like Codenames Pictures more, mainly because the non-pictures English one I can’t play with everyone, and the Spanish one is sooo boring, not as many double or triple meaning words as I’d like, but Pictures is awesome in any language!