The content of this post originally appeared in the “JNL” section of the Janesville Gazette daily newspaper in the mid-1990s.

The board game, “Blurt” manufactured by Patch Products of Beloit, is a good fun game for a wide range of ages. It consists of cards that have a definition on them; after the definition is read, the first person to blurt out the correct answer gets to move the specified number of spaces. The first person (or team) to get all the way around
the board is the winner, of course.

On one side of the definition cards are questions for people ages 10 to adult; on the other side are questions for kids ages 7 to 10. This way, the game can be played by a wide range of players. This does pose a problem, though. if you are playing with people in both categories, which side do you use? For both ages, the questions can be challenging, and there are some that are very simple. You’ll find yourself saying, “I know it, but I can’t think of it.” You rack your brain, and then when the answer is given, you yell out, “I knew that.”

You have to pass the box of questions around after every turn, and that gets tedious. It could be easier if the game came with two or even three boxes of questions. Anywhere from three to 12 people can play at the same time. You can’t have less than three because there has to be one person to read the question and two to guess against each other. The maximum is 12 because the company is assuming if people play on teams, they won’t have more than two or three people on a team. If there were more than that, it would get crowded around the board.

Overall, this is a nice, fun game that can be enjoyed by most members of the family. it is interesting to see how many words people guess that are so close to the answer. But the game requires exactly the word that’s on the card. it does have drawbacks, but it’s a good game.