You Can’t Say “Umm…” Review – Tongue Tied
Big Potato Games have been dominating the party style game space in recent years with a huge retail presence and solid titles like Herd Mentality, Block Party and The Chameleon in their catalogue. Their newer release You Can’t Say “Umm..” (henceforth referred to as YCSU) is easily the best title I’ve played thus far from Big Potato and what’s more, has succeeded across multiple play groups I’ve tested it with, from non-hobbyists all the way up to heavyweight eurogamers.
YCSU is a team-based game that accommodates 4-10 players officially but could be pushed as high as 12-14, while I would posit 8+ is really the ideal count. The board divides the table in two, with a score track on each side corresponding to each team. Team members draw six yellow Rule cards and choose three to secretly subject the opposing team to, discarding the leftover three back to the box.
Each round involves a single player from a team taking a green A and B card (A being an adjective, B being a noun) while the opposing team grabs the sand timer and the bell. The player holding the cards is the Describer, and has to describe what both A and B cards say without using either word itself until their team members state the phrase in the correct order OR the 45 second timer runs out. Sounds easy enough, but the catch is that whenever the opposing team catches the Describer saying “Umm”, “Ahh” or any other variant of this, they can ring the bell and give themselves a point. When a team reaches the 5, 10 and 15 point milestones, they reveal one of their secret Rule cards which can be absolutely devastating – “You must mime the A card”, “You can’t say words that begin with E”, “You have to maintain eye contact with a team member while speaking” and so on. This works as a great catch-up mechanism, preventing a team from running away with things too quickly as their job becomes more difficult the higher their score climbs. The final section of the score board is the ‘Danger Zone’ – once entered, no member of the team can say “Umm”, “Ahh” etc. without giving a point to the opposing team.
Playable by almost anyone, YCSU has a great meta which develop over the first few games as players realise 45 seconds is actually quite a decent amount of time and if someone is truly terrible at being the Describer, they can simply run the clock down if needed to deny their opponents more scoring opportunities. Teams will also become more in sync and Describers will get better at their wording to facilitate correct guesses, with the extra rules forcing players to be far more deliberate in their wording. – provided the other team is paying attention, as it’s easy to sneak a few slip-ups through if the person is ‘asleep at the bell’ so to speak.
The only minor issue I have with YCSU is one that’s consistent with a lot of titles from Big Potato, which is that Australia gets the UK specific decks of cards standard as opposed to a more localised version. While for a UK based company it obviously makes more competitive pricing feasible, it would be great to see even a small promo deck of Australia specific cards included. Also, the included sand timer had a habit of getting stuck which led to the use of a phone to time out the rounds, likely a more effective option eventually when players are overly familiar with the decks and need a tighter limit to make the game more competitive; it would even be possible to adjust the timer to player skill levels to even things out if there’s a significant gap.
Overall YCSU is one of the better party games I’ve played in recent years and works equally well with strangers as it does with close friends, something other party games can struggle to do if they require more intimate knowledge or divulgence from players. I’d thoroughly recommend it as a great game to unwrap at a family Christmas event this year or as something fun to do at your next suitable social event.
A copy of You Can’t Say “Umm…” was kindly provided by PR for review purposes.
