Make Some Noise in What's That Sound?

What sound do you make for a panda eating bamboo or a deep-sea diver? You’ll have to decide, and hope other players agree with you, or risk losing points!

What’s That Sound? is a party game from Blue Orange Games, all about making sounds and trying to get other players to guess correctly which card that sound goes with.

Gameplay

Players take turns being the imitator. On your turn, you draw four image cards and lay them in a row. Each of these cards will show a picture of something such as piñata or a hairdryer. You then draw a sequence card. The sequence card shows you which cards you will be trying to get the other players to guess during your turn and in what order, based on their position in the display.

You start by making a noise for the first card indicated by the sequence card. The other players then race to place their hands on the card they believe you are making the sound effect for. You cannot use gestures or words to get them to guess. You may only make the noise you think the image depicted would make.

After everyone has guessed, you reveal the answer. The player whose hand got to the correct card first takes the card and places it in his score pile. If no one guessed it, then the imitator loses a point and the correct card is discarded.

The imitator then draws two new image cards, one to go in place of the card that was just removed from the row, and one to add to the display. This is done after each noise and answer reveal so that during the final round of your turn, when you are making your fifth noise, there are eight cards in the display rather than four.

Once you have made your fifth noise and revealed the answer, all cards in the display are discarded and your turn as the imitator is over. The game ends once everyone has been the imitator once and the player with the most cards in his score pile wins the game.

Review

What’s That Sound? is a simple concept that makes for a really fun, light party game. Some of the images can be quite easy to fit a sound too, while others are a lot more difficult — but sometimes even easy ones can become more complicated based on the other images on the table. A screaming man seems easy, but if another image shows someone bungee jumping, you need to think about how you would differentiate the two.

There is something quite ridiculous and fun about the sounds you end up making, which can lead to plenty of chortles and laughter, which is perfect for a party game. It also plays quite fast so that it’s easy to do several rounds.

The game has a lot of variety in the types of images, and the cards are double-sided, bringing the image count up to 280 — meaning you can play the game thirty-five times before you’re going to start running into the same images again.

While speed games can be a lot of fun, racing your opponent to reach the correct card first, we did wish the scoring rewarded the imitator somehow for having more players find the correct card. This would encourage the imitator to think more carefully about how to differentiate between similar images, rather than just guessing that at least one player is likely to hit the right one when there are two similar ones to choose from.

What’s That Sound? is fun, silly, speedy, and quite an easy concept to teach. It’s a pretty unique idea in the party game realm, and is just a thoroughly enjoyable and accessible game.

Pros: Variety and number of image cards, plays fast, silly sounds that the players end up making

Cons: The scoring system could be a little improved

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.