Fast, fun and frantic – Beat That is THE post pub party game

Many laugh out loud moments! A quick summary here folks from one of our testers : Players compete over 10 silly challenges. Most are physical such as throwing balls into cups or stacking dice with chopsticks. There are a few mental challenges too, such as a quick-fire round of naming US states. Everyone plays every challenge and each one has a limit on number of attempts. Each challenge has a particular way to play – either with everyone competing to complete it with just one winner, players taking it in turns to do it so everyone could complete it, teaming up to complete it or going head to head against someone else.

Each player has 10 betting tokens with different values, and for every challenge they must bet 1 token. If they complete it, they keep it, if not, they lose it. So players try to bet their most valuable tokens on the challenges they feel they’re going to complete, and bet their least valuable on the tougher challenges, though it’s impossible to know what challenges will come up! The player with the highest value of tokens after 10 challenges wins. It’s a great party game that groups of friends and families will thoroughly enjoy but you have to be in a silly mood to fully enjoy this game. The fun mainly comes from watching others do silly things – such as pushing a ball around a mini race course with their bum, or trying to stand up with a cup on their your head. I can imagine families with a good sense of humour getting a real laugh out of it, as well as drunken friends having a game night! The competitiveness angle is secondary but also adds fun as you try to put someone off and they crack under pressure.

The challenges are varied enough so you don’t get bored, and they keep things competitive – you’re unlikely to have a runaway winner. 4 to 6 players is probably the right number to play to avoid waiting too long for a turn, though if the challenges are funny enough, I could imagine more playing and people just enjoy watching others. It’s a game that we will definitely play again and has plenty of replay-a-bility. Though, looking through the cards and around 30% of the challenges revolve around throwing balls into cups in a variety of ways, so it might start to get repetitive after a few games. I don’t feel like the packaging gets across how fun the game is as it focuses on the competition element, while from our experience, the real fun comes from watching others do silly things, and by the end you don’t really care who wins as you’ve had such a good laugh along the way.

About Peter Jenkinson

Toyologist Pete Jenkinson regularly writes about toys in national newspapers like The Sun and The Mail. This super-dad has an unmatched passion and dedication for trying and testing the latest, coolest and most interesting offerings from the world of toys.

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