Game Review - Pass the Bomb

So, besides seemingly endless hours flying doomed planes over various online Pacific Islands, what else have I been upto? As always, there's various other happenings a-going on in this games laboratory which is our home.

Pass the Bomb, for example, was a game Nancy picked up at local(ish) games shop a few months ago. Good civilised party game for all and sundry. Basically, the idea is to win on points. You get points by not holding the bomb when it goes off. The bomb is passed from person to person, and ticks (!) as this occurs. Then, at an unknown time between two seconds and a couple minutes, it goes 'boom'. It looks like those archetypical warner brothers type round bomb with a wick sticking out of its top.

You can only hand the bomb onto the next player when you solve the puzzle. This is composed by a pile of 'flash cards', each with between 2 and four letters on it. The goal is to compose a word that contains the letters which are on the card. Depending on the colour of the card, there are limitations on where the letters are allowed to be located within the word chosen. Thus, a red series of letters might mean that that series of letters cannot be used at the end of word, a green series - that it can't be at the start of the word, a blue series - that it can be anywhere within the word.

If a player says a word which contains the letters and complies with the limitations of the colours, they pass the bomb on. The player who has it blow up in their hands doesn't get points. The others get points. The winner is the first to 100 points (I think).

There's not much more to it than that. It's a fun game for almost any number of players, of all ages. It presumes a decent facility with spelt english in all players, but beyond that it doesn't overly favour the wordy ones amongst us because it is mainly short words which are of greatest value (come to mind quickest).

At under $30, recommended for those who woudn't mind a word game every few months that isn't scrabble.

PS - I wonder if the frequent use of the word 'bomb' will bring the real spies to this site and our computer? If so, I hope they enjoy and have the decency to leave their calling card somewhere - we're all ultimately in this together.