Party board gameCraniumhas been a game night mainstay for decades now, with its enduring popularity leading to the development of various spin-off games. One of the more popularCraniumspin-offs isCranium Hoopla, which now has a brand-new version available as part ofCranium’s 25th anniversary celebration.
Whereas the originalCraniumis a combination card game and board game,Cranium Hooplais strictly a card game. Party game shelves have been overwhelmed with card games sinceCards Against Humanity’s spike in popularity, butCranium Hooplaoffers a unique card game experience that feels like a fresh of breath air among the countlessCAHclones out there.
What makesCranium Hooplaunique is that, as opposed to many other party games, it’s an entirelycooperative experience. It takes themes and gameplay ideas from the coreCraniumgame but challenges players to complete them all as a team. By removing the board and focusing only on the challenges, it plays like a quicker, more condensed version ofCraniumthat strips away a lot of the downtime and maximizes the fun.
With 15 minutes on the clock,Cranium Hooplaplayers have to work together to guess each other’s cards. 24 cards are in play, so players in a group of eight would all have three cards. In the event thatCranium Hooplaplayers don’t have a full team of eight to play, the extra cards go into a draw pile and still have to be guessed. If a player can’t get their partners to guess whatever’s on the card, two new cards are added to the mix, making it less likely that the group will get through all the cards within the 15-minute time limit.
Each card has three possible things that players may need to guess - a person, a thing, and a place. For example, one card may have a picture of a plunger on it, with the person being Mario, the thing being a plunger, and the place being theMushroom Kingdom. Players roll a multicolored die that has the corresponding symbols for all three categories as well as colors that match one of the fourCraniumcategory cards.
The green card is Soundstage, the red card is Likewise, the yellow card is Countaloupe, and the blue card is Cloodle. Soundstage is basically charades, and Cloodle isbasicallyPictionary, mirroring how these categories function in the regularCraniumboard game. However, Likewise and Countaloupe are different than their corresponding categories inCranium. For Likewise, players have to get their teammates to guess the answer by using a “Like, But” phrase, whereas Countaloupe has them providing a one-word clue, two-word clue, three-word clue, etc. until the team gets it right.
Using theMarioexample, players could say, “It’s like Luigi, but red.” It may sound simple on paper, but some of the cards have extremely challenging words to get people to guess, and the stress of the clicking tock adds a great deal of tension to the proceedings. It’s surprisingly challenging to complete a game ofCranium Hooplawithin the time limit, as players are bound to run into situations where too much time is spent on one card or players give up and have to take an extra card.
Those that do masterCranium Hooplacan up the ante by playing the Advanced mode. This makes things even more difficult by having players do charades with their arms pinned to their sides or by making it so players can never erase the white board whenever they have to draw pictures. It’s quite challenging, but beating the clock is genuinely rewarding, and it’s nice to have an easy to playco-op party gamelike this.
Anyone that’s a fan of the originalCraniumwill have a blast withCranium Hoopla. While some may miss things like the clay sculpting or the other activities inCranium,Cranium Hooplaprovides a faster-paced and more consistently entertaining twist on the classic board game. Those that already own an older version should know that the upgrade is well worth it for the updated pop culture references and over 300 cards that should ensureCranium Hooplastays in anyone’s game night rotation.
Cranium Hooplais available now. Game Rant was provided with a copy of the game for this review.
