We’re just starting half term here – a week later than some of the country, but that means we start it with a bonus hour as the clocks go back this weekend. Whilst my first though is that should mean an hour extra in bed, the reality of life with a small baby is that it is an extra hour of being awake. But with the kids off school for the week it also means an extra hour of play time. It therefore seems somewhat appropriate that we kicked half term off by playing Clock It! a new game that we have been sent to review from Ideal Games.
The strap line for Clock It is Say, draw or mime, it’s a race against time and that pretty much sums up the game.
Aim of the game
The basis premise is that you have to guess what someone else is trying to either describe, draw or act out. There are different ways that players can arrange themselves so that you either play in teams or as individuals depending on how many players you actually have, but the general way of playing is the same regardless of the number of players.
How to play
On the table you lay down the outline of a clock. You then have a stack of circular cards. Each one has a picture of something on one side and a word on the other side. The two aren’t aligned, it’s just so that you can play with either pictures or words, or a combination of the two.
After shuffling the cards you place twelve of them around the clock – one lining up with each hour on it.
The person charged with saying, drawing or miming then takes control of the second clock in the box. This time something resembling an old fashioned alarm clock in shape. This clock isn’t just a timer, but also controls the game in terms of what that person has to get the others to guess.
The clock can be set in four different modes, depending on how you want to play the game. You can either just do one of say, draw or mine, or you can have the clock randomly tell you what to do each time. Using a key in the back you choose which mode you want to play in and then away you go. You need to position the clock so that only the one person can see it and then each time you press down on the handle on top the clock screen illuminates to show which time on the clock you have to make others guess the card next to. If you’ve chosen the random mode it will also tell you what you need to do to make them guess it.
This may sound a tad confusing at first – I know I had to read the instructions a couple of times before it made complete sense – but once you start playing it all becomes obvious.
As you’d expect with a game like this, you get a white board and an erasable marker pen for the drawing stages.
Scoring
When someone guesses correctly they get to take the card that they got correct and you then press down on the clock’s handle and keep going until you either run out of time or guess all 12 around the clock.
Again, depending on whether you are playing in teams or individually, you can keep going with as many rounds as you like before counting up cards to see who has won.
Our verdict
The kids and I had great fun playing this after school. The clock element telling you what the opposition has to guess makes things a bit more frantic for the person charged with saying, drawing or miming. As does randomly changing what you are doing with each turn.
With only 12 things to choose from it made it a bit easier for the kids than other games that require you to work out what someone else is describing or drawing when it could be absolutely anything. I also really liked the way that you could play with either picture or word cards (or a combination of the two) and could also change on the clock whether you had different means or jut always doing the same thing. All these factors made it so much easier to tailor the game for children of different ages playing.
The recommended age range is 8+ and although he wasn’t as fast at guessing as his nine year old sister, Master C had no problems at all understanding how the game worked or fully taking part. Once you’re familiar with the game, I also think it possible to adjust it further to possibly work for children as young as six.
Clock It certainly received a big thumbs up from us here. It’s the sort of game that I can see coming out at Christmas time when we have family of all different ages round. The only thing I need to remember is that the clock requires three AAA batteries that aren’t included. So make sure they are added to your shopping list!
Clock It! The facts
Clock It! is available to buy now and has an RRP of £22.99, although it can at the time of writing be found online for £19.99.
You can play with 2 or more players and the recommended age is 8+. Just don’t forget the batteries!
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Clock it! for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links. Buying through these will not cost you any more money, but I will receive a small amount in return. Usually enough to maintain my current Custard Cream habit!