I’m a gamer, always have been. Problem is for a large number of years that’s really just consisted of the video variety. That’s a huge mistake on my part, to not enjoy the video game’s analog brethren… the board game. There’s actually a vibrant and intense board game world out there that’s been pushed to the sidelines by game players such as ourselves for too long. In this column I’ll be diving into this world, looking at games that hopefully you’d like to try out for yourself.

Our look into the world of board games just keeps on trucking! Last time we talked about the light bluffing game Cloud 9, and while this weeks game is made by the same company, they really couldn’t be any more different (except in the fun department. ZING!) Party games are pretty much defined by two elements, very easy to understand rules and can handle a ton of people at once. Word on the Street is just that kind of game. The rules take about 2 minutes to explain, and can handle two teams as large as you want playing against each other.

I’m a pretty non-competitive person. I mean I enjoy competition, it’s just at the end of the day I don’t mind if I win or lose (it’s probably why I was never good at sports). Sure I love to win, but I don’t need to win to have a good time. Which is a good thing, because while I really enjoyed Word on the Street I can honestly admit to totally sucking at it.

My wife and I were doomed to lose this game before it even started. She suffers from terrible analysis paralysis and tends to freeze when put under time pressure (in a cute way), and I seem unable to spell anything correctly with any great consistency. So when a game revolves around coming up with, and spelling correctly, words in a strict time limit we’re not exactly the team to beat. Let’s take a look at how Word on the Street works.

The board is laid out between the two teams, and the letter tiles are placed right down the center of the road (that green strip in the picture above). Teams take turns picking a card that has a category on it (can be anything from “Something that spins” to “A color”). The team then has 30 seconds to come up with a word. The word is spelled out and the letters in the word slide a lane towards the team. When a letter moves off the board that team captures it (Words can still have that letter in them as answers, the tile just doesn’t move anymore). Game ends when one team has captured 8 tiles.

Not all letters are included on the board, and while you can still have those letters in your answer it just means no tiles will move for those letters. The letters missing are the most common ones (vowels) because they’d move every turn and I think the game makers want you trying a little harder than that! Some rare letters (like X and Z) are also missing. So say for example your category was “A color.” If you’re team answered PURPLE then you spell out the word moving the tiles as you go. The P tile would move, then nothing for U, the R, then the P a 2nd time, etc etc. Because the P moved towards you 2 lanes to capture it on your next turn you need to think of another word that has a P in it…. of course the other team will want to come up with a word with a P to pull it back towards them!

This tug-of-war between tiles is the crux of the game, with players not only coming up with the biggest word they can think of but one that contains the letters they need to either capture tiles or prevent the other team from doing so, all while working off the 30 second egg timer. There are rules for what kinds of words can be used, compound words being OK but not 2 words (for instance, “Sandbox” is ok but “Sand Dollar” isn’t). It also says in the rules that the team not playing can “suggest” (i.e. distract) the other team trying to come up with their answer but we found that not to really be in the spirit of the game so had little desire to try and screw each other up. As per the (I’m not competitive claim at the beginning of the review) we spent more time nodding approval at well chosen words by the other team.

The game moved incredibly quickly at first, with basic letters like N,R,S,T etc getting captured pretty quickly. That’s when the strategy started to reveal itself. As potential capture tiles shrank even some really large words only moved 1 or two tiles. We ended up losing by a wide margin but not without a fight… tugging the same few tiles back and forth.

The game includes 216 double sided cards with easier categories (Type of Cheese) on one side and tougher ones on the other (Greek Goddess) so if you think the game is too easy you can go with something a little tougher. It also includes a nice pull out card tray to hole them all so you can put the box aside. Great quality for such an affordable game

So, even though I royally stunk at it would I play it again? Heck yes, though with larger teams. That way I can yell out the words and someone else can deal with the spelling part The game says is supports between 2-8 players but to be honest you could certainly play more than 4 vs. 4. I’d say the game can expand as large as the people playing are team players. If you’ve got bickerers… then maybe keep the teams smaller.

Word on the Street was designed by Jack Degnan and originally released in 2009. It is published by Out of the Box Publishing. It can be purchased at Amazon.com, Funagaingames.com or from your Friendly Local Game Store.