Tie One On: A Review

The Big Picture: Tie One On (by Parker Brothers) is a word guessing game not unlike Taboo or 25 Words Or Less in which the reader has to get their partner to guess the words or phrases written on his/her card, without actually saying the words. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Oh no, another one of those ‘party’ games”, but WAIT, I say, because this one has a lot of good things going for it, and might actually surprise you (I was certainly surprised!). In short, it is a much better designed game than others of its kind (i.e. Taboo, 25 Words or Less, etc) that even a serious ‘strategy’ gamer could appreciate, even if not necessarily enjoy. For fans of party games, you will love this one.

The Details: At first glance, this game does appear to be just another party game; you can buy it at Wal-Mart, it comes in a colorful box, and has all the usual components – timer, bland cards, scoretracking looking device, plastic pieces, and one of those roll-and-move type boards. Fortunately, though the concept and appearance of Tie One On are the similar to other party games of its kind, the rules are miles apart.

The first positive design feature I noted was that the board was not a roll-and-move board; it was actually a score tracker. That thing I thought was a score-tracker was actually a turn-tracker, which dictates who reads to who each turn.

And here is where it gets good. You see, in Tie One On, there are no teams. Yes, that’s right, a party game with no teams. In Tie One On, each player competes individually, but at the same time is also forced to work with every other player during the course of the game. Play might proceed like this: 1 reads to 2, 3 reads to 4, 2 reads to 3, 4 reads to 1, etc. Each player is forced to read and guess equally, and to work with the other players equally. This is great because you are constantly working with different people, thus keeping the game interesting and at the same time challenging you to interact well with everyone.

But working with different people isn’t the only good mechanic. Tie One On builds on the idea behind Cranium, where different types of activities create different types of challenges, by having 4 variants of word guessing. There are Rhyme Its, where each word rhymes with the next one (i.e. bouquet, Father’s Day, etc), Hookups, where the end sound of one word is the beginning of the next (knee sock, soccer, curtain call, etc.), Free Association, where the words are linked by meaning (measles, spots, Dalmatian, etc), and Same Word, in which the same word is in every phrase (square dance, Times Square, etc). This forces you to think in different ways as each type of card requires a different thought process to complete. Again, this keeps the game interesting and challenges you in different ways, unlike most other word-guessing games, which only challenge you in one way.

Another thing I really like about this game is the scoring. There are 7 words/phrases on each card. For every one that you manage to get your partner to guess, both players will score that many points. This does 3 important things. One, it forces players that are on different sides to work together. Two, it allows for greater variability in scores and comeback potential. Three, it is forgiving of mistakes by allowing ‘partial credit’. In Taboo, if you accidentally say one of the no-no words, BUZZZZZ!, that’s it, you’re done, you suck. Not in Tie One On. Accidentally say a word? No big deal, you don’t get the point for that word, but there are still 6 more points you can earn for that card. Similarly, in 25 Words or Less you can get your team to guess 4 out of the 5 words, but if you can’t get them to say the 5th word, you get nothing. In Tie One On you get 1 point for every guessed answer.

A nice side effect of the 1 answer = 1 point mechanic is that it always keeps the game moving forward, since every pair of partners is almost always going to score at least a few points. This gives a sense of progress to every player, and encourages them to keep going. Unlike, say, Trivial Pursuit, where you can keep moving around the board but end up going no-where in terms of progress.

Speaking of progress, the game ends when 1 player has 40 points. That might not seem like enough, but it is. In Taboo, you have (I think) 1 minute to have your team guess 1 word. In 25 Words or Less, you have 1 minute to have your team guess 5 words. In Tie One On, you have 45 seconds to have your partner guess 7 words. Not easy! In the two games I played, I think there was only 1 or 2 times where all 7 words/phrases were guessed (and I consider myself pretty good at these types of games). In fact, due to the constant variance of card type and partner, you will find that your score from round to round will vary greatly, which of course adds uncertainty and excitement to the game. Now, that’s not to say that a skilled player doesn’t have an advantage, because he/she definately does. And that’s another good thing about the game; there’s no stuipid roll-and-move mechanic that determines progress, it’s all based on player skill – the ability to describe and guess words and phrases translates directly into points.

What I do NOT like about this game: Some of the answers are absurd. For example, one answer was chrysanthemum. What the heck is that?! There are also a lot of catch-phrase answers, which I find are difficult. Examples include “back to square one” and “salt of the earth”. And then there are the proper nouns, which (as with all games of this variety) are always hit or miss depending on whether you and your partner know it, or not. Stuff like Charlie Brown and Vermont are easy, but things like Pretty in Pink or Coyote Ugly Saloon wouldn’t be known by everybody. And if your partner doesn’t guess every word of the answer, then it doesn’t count. Fortunately, the tougher answers are somewhat mitigated by the fact that there are several answers to get and you probably wouldn’t get all of them anyway. Aside from the difficulty of some answers there are only a few minor qualms, which I’m not going to go into.

The Bottom Line: I like this game. It is an example of a party game where the designers actually thought about making a challenging, fun, and ultimately good game instead of just making money. I was pleasantly surprised when I played it, and I would highly recommend it for a party atmosphere – especially amongst groups that don’t like ‘strategic’ games. Overall, I’d say it is a 7/10 (that’s about as high as I rate party games!). If you like party games, this game should be read as 9/10 – you will really enjoy it. If you only like strategic games, then you won’t like this game much, but you’ll still recognize that it’s better than most other party games – maybe a 4 or 5/10.