I really like this game. It is a lot of fun and very amusing. You need a few people to play it, and it is by far the best game ever. There are four categories for the questions and each one is a lot of fun.

Fun for groups. Builds on a variety of strengths so everyone can find some area they excel at!

This game is fun but you have to have a lot of random knowledge. It tests everything. There is too much humming of obscure songs. The sketching is fun though.

This game is so much fun and a great way to get the whole family to hang out together. It keeps everyone interested and participating with all of the various activities required of the players. It arrived just as promised in a brand-new box and after only four days, which was amazing during the holiday rush. I would highly recommend this game for anyone from age 12-100!

We tried the game on a family vacation. My youngest kids are 8, which is too young for one of the categories (knowing celebrities, quotes, etc.). We grouped in teams of 3 and all had fun. Simple / plain board, nothing fancy like trivial pursuit. There are 4 types of activity/questions which is what makes the game fun. Some are like charades but you use modeling clay. Or you draw the clue with your eyes closed.
I think it takes atleast 4 players 12&up to have good teams and make it fun. There is a limited number of cards, so I suspect the game will become old after 8 games or so.

I got this for my cousin who's fourteen for Christmas. We all sat down and played it together. It was a blast. It had us all laughing and having a great time at Christmas. Great game!

I bought this for my girlfriend for Christmas, as she dropped a hint in Starbucks that she wanted the version that allowed the sculpting. I figured, why should I pay $20 for a small piece of the game in Starbucks, when I can get the entire game for her here, for 1/2 the price?

She loved it, and we took it to her family's house for Christmas... Two teams (8 people) huddled around it at the formal dining table for about an hour and a half. It's a great group game, a great challenge.

The instructions could be a bit better, but the game is amazing, fun & time consuming (in a good way) nonetheless!

Christmas gift for my daughter. I think she's used it twice.

a lot of fun for kids and adults to play separate or together as a family. very educational.

Let's get this straight, right now. The game of Cranium will most likely never reach my list of favorites. But this game CAN be a very fun play in the right setting. This is a party game (a genre which I am not overly fond of) that blatantly 'borrows' ideas from many other games. But because the categories are so diverse, this game can actually succeed in ways that some of the games that it imitates could not.

The components are nothing to write home about, though the retro-modern look of the game is pretty cool. The game board outer track is reminiscent of Pictionary, while the little boxes of cards look more like Trivial Pursuit. The other 'active' component is a glob of purple Play-Doh for 'sculpting'. The control mechanisms are an 8-sided multi-colored die controls the movement of your little plastic person tokens, and a one-minute sand timer.

The board is laid out with two tracks that meet in four separate places. When on the spaces where the tracks meet, if you answer your FIRST question correctly, you may take the fast track (fewer spaces) to the next one. If not, you take the slower track. When you reach the end of the track you graduate to the center of the board where you must correctly answer one challenge in each of the four areas, followed by a final category that is picked by your opponents (another mechanic cloned from Trivial Pursuit).

This game is made to be played by teams, not individuals. Through the course of the game each team will be called on to draw, sculpt, hum, imitate, play charades, and think through a variety of brain teasers. Most of the challenges are pretty easy, with a couple of tricky ones thrown in for good measure. Because the challenges vary so widely, most team players will have a chance to shine in some areas. For this reason, the game is engaging to more people than games like Trivial Pursuit or Win, Lose, or Draw, which concentrate on one activity only.

But be forewarned: If you have a group of gamers that regularly convene to tax their minds on games of strategy or conquest, this game will not see the light of day too often. It?s a bit long to use as a ?filler?, and a bit too lightweight to be used as a main game. We had a special night where we took out a bunch of games, and this was one of four that we played (along with Lost Cities, Carcassonne, and a single hand of Uno). We all enjoyed Cranium that night, but no one was suggesting it for our next meeting.

I brought this game home for the holidays. Every member of my family from ages 6 to 79 enjoyed playing together. It's best for teams, but can be fun for smaller groups as well. The tasks are simple enough for younger kids, and the questions are hard enough to keep adults on their toes. If you plan on playing for several rounds it might be best to go ahead and order additional sets of question cards. You run through the cards fairly quickly-- after 9 or 10 games we had seen them all.

My friends and I always have a great time playing Cranium. It accomodates variation in talent and number of players better than any game I've played.

I am surprised that so many reviewers said they found this game too easy. Maybe it's not challenging for serious gamers or trivia buffs, but my family finds this game challenging and fun. The best part of Cranium is that there are so many different types of categories and activities, that no one person dominates the game. There are trivia questions (admittedly much easier than Trivial Pursuit!), drawing questions (like Pictionary), charades (like Guesstures), and even Sculptarades, where you sculpt the answer out of Cranium Clay (which is actually purple playdough). One of the most entertaining is the category where you have to hum a song and have other players guess what it is. This one gets us rolling on the floor! As a family who plays many games, I recommend this game for everyone!

This game is a lot of good clean fun for get-togethers. I was just disappointed it ended so soon.

Great product. However, the agent had no way to enter the fact it was a gift. Suggest the vendor correct this omission.

Love this game. Fun to play with a lot of people. Exactly what expected.

You don't have to be a genious to answer to this questions, but is not easy as you think... Need some skills and SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS YOU!

It was so much better to get this at my front door than fighting the Christmas crouds!

Cranium is one of the best board games I have ever played. It is zany, fun, interesting, and keeps a crowd entertained for a long time. Every time I've played it there are new questions and new laughs. It's a hilarious party game that will keep everyone entertained. It is a team based game that you need more than four people to play. In the game there are four sections of questions Word Worm, Creative Cat, Data Head, and Star Performer. In Word Worm there are a variety of word puzzles and some spelling challenges. In Creative Cat you draw a picture or make something out of clay while your team tries to guess what you're making. In Data Head there are a bunch of statements or questions your team has to try to answer. In Star Performer you hum a song or act like something or someone while your team tries to guess what you're doing. All of these categories are challenging and can be very funny.

Cranium is great good fun. With a range of challenges for varying skills there is plenty of opportunity for teams to alternately sink and shine. It is frequently chosen on game night by our merry band, aged 30 to 70.

BUY THIS GAME - Great for young and old with LOTS to do and play with!

A MUST HAVE for any household. This was the HIT of our Christmas get together!

I purchased this game for my family as we are big on games at family gatherings. My niece played this one with friends and really liked it, however our "age" group (40's) thought it was a little too young for us. We didn't get the laughs that we usually do with a game that requires the type of activity or interaction as this one. I think this would be a great game for a very large group, teens, or for families with young teens.

Cranium has all the hype, but it's a little too lowest-common-denominator for my crowd. I recommend games like Rigamarole and Why Did The Chicken for a more unique experience.

I highly recommend this game to anyone of any age (although young children probably shouldn't play it only because they won't know the answers to the questions). This is not a game just for kids. I first played Cranium at my friend's 18th birthday party. She had invited 11 people who didn't know each other very well, if at all, and Cranium was a great way for us to break the ice. I have also played it with college friends, so don't worry, this game will continue to entertain you for decades.

I recommend this original version of Cranium over the Turbo Edition, which I recently purchased for my younger brother. In this version, teams can end up on either a fast track or a slow track, and in my experience, watching the team on the fast track get stuck and be passed by the team on the slow track is too much fun to miss. The Turbo Edition introduces a new electronic timer and additional questions, so it may be a good choice if you and your family already know all of original Cranium by heart. I personally prefer the original.

Awesome game, but the rules are a little confusing. Not only that, but after playing it just a few times the cards get played through pretty quickly. All in all a fun time for all!!

If you've played this game, you already know how much fun it is with a group of friends. If you haven't played it, you definitely should. There's something for everybody, and if there's not, that just makes it more fun.

I absolutely LOVE this game. It combines charades and acting with word play and spelling skill with artistic ability and trivia. It is the board game to end all bored games

Lots of fun. We had Cranium Cadoo before and have moved up as my grandchildren's ages go up and find Cranium very challenging.

Our family has a blast playing this game. It is a traditional mix of familiar games: trivia, charades, pictionary with some small twists. The clay modeling is also fun. The subjects though were too difficult for the 12 year old so he still needs the junior version. He wasn't familiar with the movies, sayings, etc. that were used.

I've played four different Cranium games now and every one of them has been in my top four of all time. The best is the original Cranium, which is a game we've enjoyed playing with just about anyone.

You may have to sing, play charades, create, draw, or come up with a trivia answer, among other things. I find that even when someone starts the game not wanting to do these things they end up laughinga nd loving it. This game is an essential!

This game is great fun for all the holiday events. You will be laughing you heads off when you act out the stuff. Some of the creations may be weird but funny. A total win win game.

Get this toy/game for your older pre-schooler up through 4th grader. They can play by themselves or with a big group of friends. Very cute and easy. They can even set it up all by themselves. Quick, teaches colors, has them do fun little dances, etc. Great game!!!!

I bought this game over a year ago, and never had the opportunity to play. Finally brought it out on Christmas day, and we all had a blast. It got loud and and very competitive! Some of the questions in the Trivia section area a little easy, but the humming was by far the hardest and the most fun!

The Cranium Challange when all teams compete for the points are really fun, especially when the other teams end up helping you out.

The only problem that we found were the instructions. The explanation for who gets what roll for the Cranium Challanges was really confusing. We ended up making up our own ruls for it.

Highly recommended regardless of the negative aspects especially because everyone gets involved. My 9 year old niece also played, and to give her credit, she actually guess much better than grown-ups!

If you are looking for a fun game to add to your board game collection, I highly recommend Cranium. This game is definitely worth the purchase. My children received this game as a Christmas present and we played it as a family on Christmas Eve. I personally like the singing parts, and the acting parts. It was so much fun to watch my daughter act out karaoke bar and watch my husband act out back seat driver. Of course we all tried to avoid the word-worm card. My son hated spelling those words backwards as much as I hated drawing with my eyes closed. We all learned that my son is a terrible hummer. This was a game that challenges us but had us all laughing. No matter what your talent is, you will love this game as it incorporates drawing, singing, Trivia and spelling. Purchase Cranium today and then grab your family for hours of outrageous fun.

Rose DesRochers
Founder of Today's Woman Writing Community
http://www.todays-woman.net

Watch out -- it looks like reviews for a bunch of different Cranium-branded products are here rather than just reviews for the actual product listed, the original Cranium game.

Cranium doesn't play music, for example, and doesn't work for two people. And you couldn't play it in a restaurant, I don't think! The Amazon product description is a good summary of this original cranium game, which combines various forms of charades and guessing games into a mess of fun.

The game isn't about winning so much as about drawing a group together in silly, but not too embarrassing, guessing activities. It's well-designed and only occasionally do the clues need to be discarded due to being too unfamiliar to the younger players. If your group likes Pictionary, this game takes that type of interaction to the next logical step!