World Series Stare Off Official Game. This post contains affiliate links marked as *. Please see the end of the post for a full disclaimer.
Staring Competitions. They’re as old a game as any I can think of. Bit do you know the rules? Or does your staring competition descend into an argument about how far apart people should be and whether someone was allowed to try to make their opponent blink or not? That’s where the World Series Stare Off Official Game from Ideal can help.
Rules are what make a competition fair and stop disputes (or possibly start them if it’s Christmas time!) and the Stare Off Official Game has plenty of them.
Firstly, you may, like me, wonder why this game has a box. After all, what equipment could you possibly need for a staring competition other than a couple of pairs of eyes?
The answer it seems is a Stare Off Headset. This comes in parts and when assembles resembles some sort of strange torture device in looks. The practicality is that it is used to determine the distance that competitors must sit apart during their Stare Off. It certainly got me wondering though about a modification to use it to just keep my kids apart when they’re having an argument!
Also in the box us a Blocking Screen used to set up the stare off and also a red card for the referee and also a series of distraction cards to give competitors some ideas as to how to put their opponents off.
The game as described in the box requires three players and matches consisting of three games with a referee in place to make sure everyone behaves. Depending on how many players you have you can end up with a complex series of draws and rounds before reaching your Stare Off winner. I can certainly see some alcohol fulled Christmas Day stare offs involving white boards as a way of keeping track of the various rounds and who will be declared a family stare off champion.
In our small family game we kept things a bit simpler with me taking on the referee role and the kids competing to be the sibling stare off champion. They played hard and they made the most of the distraction card suggestions to try to put each other off before descending into standard brother / sister insults instead.
If you’re looking to add a level of rigour and professionalism to your Christmas Day family games this year then I can definitely see the World Series Stare Off Official Game as a big hit. Who, regardless of age, doesn’t think they can win in a staring competition? For a small family game the kit may seem a bit like overkill, but the kids also enjoyed the slightly grander scenario that it created rather than just staring at each other across the dinner table.
To follow the official Stare Off game rules you need at least three players. If you go off-rules then two will work. The recommended age is 8+. I’m not sure I totally agree with this. My 7 year old enjoyed playing with his sister, and I can see younger children also enjoying it in a big group setting. However, one of the distraction cards is “lick your lips in a sexy way” and to be honest I’m personally not sure that’s really appropriate for children of any age. You might therefore decide to remove that card from the pack before playing with children.
The World Series Stare Off Official Game is produced by Ideal and is available in stores and also online at sites likes Amazon*. More information on the game can be found online here.
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of the World Series Stare Off Official Game for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links marked as *. If you chose to click through and buy something from this link I will earn a small commission. It will not cost you any more. Thank you.