THE RANK GAME by Storyastic

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One of the difficulties of family life is finding activities that everyone enjoys. Sure, the whole family says they like to spend time together, but when Sally wants to sew and Mitch wants to watch movies and Gary enjoys gaming, finding an activity where the whole family remains engaged can be difficult.

And in a world where we are increasingly communicating through short texts and emojis, getting to know people on a deeper level is something we need to be more intentional about than ever.

Enter The Rank Game

The Rank Game arrives in the flavor of Loaded Questions or Apples to Apples. It is the type of game that requires no skill, can be fun for the whole family (even the competitor and the non-competitor), and should foster conversation that leads to improved relationships.

Setup

The Rank Game is basically nothing more than lots of pre-printed cards with categories and items printed on them. For example, one card has the category PARLOR GAMES at the top, and then 4 items listed: air hockey, darts, ping pong, and pool/billiards.

The category and items are listed identically on each side of the card and each item has a letter (A, B, C, or D) denoting it. The idea is that one person is ranking these items in the order they like them or would do them, and then the other players are guessing what that person would say, scoring points for right answers.

One nice feature is that the category cards are color-coded so that it’s easy to re-organize the cards after gameplay.

The game makers provide four different variations for gameplay, allowing for two players and up to as many people as you have at your party to play together.

Scoring

The various game options allow for different ways to score. Ultimately, I find scoring in these types of games to be non-essential and maybe even counter-productive. The point of a game like this is simply to get to know people, not necessarily figure out who was right in the first place. If you are a person who is into competition and takes games super-seriously, you will need to tone that down to enjoy The Rank Game. The goal of the game shouldn’t be to get the most points but to get to know the people you play with.

But if points make it interesting for a group, maybe a friend group that already knows each other a little bit and you just want to create an incentive to “win,” by all means, have at it.

Review

Aesthetically, The Rank Game comes in a small box, easy to store and stash with other games, and the colors pop out and are appealing. The cards provided are high-quality. You should be able to let your 3-year-old touch them and not worry that he’ll rip them. They are glossy, (not paper), so pencil or pen marks shouldn’t appear on them either. Because of the small box, you get 3 packs of cards with the game. 12 expansion packs are available. You will need to keep in mind that you can’t fit the expansion packs with the original game, so you may want to find a way to keep everything together.

Because it isn’t terribly important that everything is written and scores kept, The Rank Game can be played on a long card ride, too. Ultimately, it’s up to the players to make the most of it!

Overall, I think families, churches, and friend groups could benefit from this game. Adults and children can all play together. Even a child who can’t read the cards yet can simply guess letters. The team competition modes can be used for church youth activities as well. I don’t know if The Rank Game would be life-changing for anyone, but I think if you like board games this can be a good ice-breaker.

Do I Recommend It?

I can recommend The Rank Game as a family-friendly game with enough customizable options for the cards and gameplay that it should be fun for a long time. If you click the links in this post to buy it and use the coupon code thingsaboveus, you can get 20% off or a savings of $6 off $30 at the time of posting.

Buy the game here.