Review of Doodle Rush

Blurb from the publisher: 'In Doodle Rush you will try to draw six pictures as fast as you can. Draw well, because the other players need to guess what you have drawn! You don't want your donkey to look like a car, do you? And you'll need to be speedy at guessing the other player's drawings too, because only the quickest guesser will score points!

Doodle Rush is a fast-paced family and party game which will keep you on your toes and challenge you to be quick on the draw!'

What you get: Your EUR 20 or equivalent will buy you Doodle Rush, a three to six player drawing game that lasts exactly 6 minutes.

In addition to the rulebook in English that can also be found on the publisher's website free of charge, the game also contains the following: 36 drawing boards (6 boards in 6 colours), 175 double sided cards (easy and hard), 6 drawing markers with 6 cleaning cloths attached, as well as one 1-minute sand timer.

Gameplay: You'd better be good at drawing, or at least doodling. After players decide whether they will play on the easy or the hard level, each draws two cards. Each card has three items on it. Seed, rabbit and eye are three easy ones, while trash, oil and town are three difficult ones. Players keep their cards and items secret. When the timer starts, they will all have simultaneously one minute to draw as many of these six items as humanely possible, one on each of their drawing boards, without using any numbers or letters.

As soon as that minute is out, the timer is instantly reset. Now the players have one minute to simultaneously guess what the drawings of the other players depict. They can only reply to questions with yes, no, close and far, but with nothing else, and especially not commentary. A player must find the exact word that is on the card. A rabbit is not a bunny, and a car is not a vehicle. When a player correctly guesses a drawing, he gets that card in front of him and turns it face down. Once the guessing minute has passed, the timer is once again immediately reset. This is the second drawing round. The players can retouch, retheme or even start their remaining drawings from the beginning, in order for them to be properly guessed. At the end of that minute, a second guessing round starts, lasting for another timed minute. A third round of both drawing and guessing follows, after which the game ends.

Each correctly guessed drawings confers one point, while each of your own drawings remaining in front of you loses you one point. The winner is obviously the player with the most points. In case of a tie, the player with the least unclaimed drawings in front of him wins. Easy, isn't it?

The strong points: Doodle Rush is practically the definition of an inoffensive party game where everybody can participate without protest. Its duration is an incredible selling point; few games achieve as much in such a short time, with the adrenaline rush that it all entails. You don't need to be Picasso; this is about communicating a fast and efficient message, not about creating art for the ages. I am not fully convinced about some of the words falling on the easy or the hard categories, the distinction however makes sense. How do you draw a 'duplicate', or an 'itch'?

The guessing phase is probably the most interactive phase I have experienced in any game. The wild negotiating under duress of Dragon's Gold comes to mind, but even that is tamer than the present experience. You are expected to respond to people checking your cards, while at the same time checking other people's cards and blurting out your guesses. That's not as easy as it sounds. A common occurrence that happens rather subconsciously is for people to look only at one of their competitor's cards and try to guess what it is. Poor tactic, I say! You have to look around constantly, think and blurt out whatever comes to mind (Bird! Chicken! Rooster!). If by the third word in a second you still haven't figured it out, move on to the next one, and then the one after. Don't get stuck!

Three players is ok, yet the game is a killer with six players on the table. That's clearly the way to go.

There is no theme or particular art, seeing how it is an abstract word game. The production values are good. The markers might not last for a lifetime, but they are a staple that can be found practically everywhere.

The weak points: It's highly unlikely that hard core gamers will meet for Doodle Rush. This is a filler while waiting for the permanently late member to arrive, a party affair which works irrespective of whether you had a couple of drinks (or ten), and a nice diversion for kids waiting for something to happen.

Those who get too fanatic about the game might start experiencing card fatigue after a while. The reappearance of already known cards for somebody who might remember them will have a negative effect in a group where others do not know them. This isn't a biggie, and a rather easy thing to house rule. Just pick three cards instead of two and draw two out of the three words in each card.

Some people's interaction is other people's chaos. It is true that, depending on your game's particulars, you might be required to shout during the guessing phases. However, how is that a bad point? Does anybody remember the sellers on the stock exchange back in the 1980's, shouting desperately to get heard in the chaos? That's actually positive in my book. Caveat: make sure you that hear and that you reply to all the exclamations of your co-players. Some will mistake your silence for a negation, even though they might have stated the correct word. No matter what you are doing, always reply. Always!

Depending on the level of play and how hard the words are perceived as, each round that passes might seem less chaotic and more benign than the previous one. This is to be expected. It does however at times make the game feel flatter, especially when things get too quiet.

Taking the nature of the game into account, it is clear that it cannot be played unless you are an English speaker; the more fluent and word-knowledgeable the better. If you want to play it in any other language, you will have to wait for that version to hit the market.

Conclusion: Doodle Rush is a nice little diversion and a game that will appeal to families or groups of much younger gamers. It is also the kind of game that can incite vehement non-gamers the way very few, if any, games can. Easy, wildly interactive and extremely intense, it can easily find its way to your gaming collection.

To find out more about Doodle Rush and Brain Games, take a look at http://www.brain-games.com.

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