Rhymes with Duck – Is it a Quacking Good Time?

What rhymes with ‘wish’? Have you thought of the same word as the other players? Or maybe you got really lucky and thought of the same word as only one other player.

Published by Gray Matters Games, Rhymes with Duck is a 30-minute party game for 4-8 players.

Gameplay

Each round, a different player takes Chuck the Duck. The player with the duck draws a word card, reads it out loud, and then places it on the table for everyone to see. Then, every player must secretly write down a word that rhymes with the one on the word card.

Everyone then reveals their word. If only two people have the same word as one another, they score three points each. If more than two people match, each of them scores one point. In addition to those points, any person who matches with the player who has Chuck earns two bonus points, and the player with Chuck scores a bonus point for each player that he matches with.

Finally, if someone fails to match with anyone, they earn no points and also gain a penalty letter. The player with Chuck earns two penalty letters for not matching. If a player earns five penalty letters (spelling out QUACK) the game ends and the person with the most points wins. The game also ends when someone reaches 20 points.

There are a few more rules to consider when writing a word. Players’ words must have the same number of syllables as the word card and cannot be the same word on the word card but with a letter removed (for example, "rant" cannot become "ant"). Words that sound the same as the word card cannot be used (toe and tow, for example). Also, words do not technically have to actually rhyme with the word card; players still earn points so long as they match with one another. 

Review

Rhymes with Duck is a fun enough party game but it feels a little messy around the edges, with some arbitrary rules in what’s a legal word and what's not. These rules also feel more like guardrails for ensuring more people match, especially as in smaller groups it can be more challenging to match on rhymes than you’d expect.

The role of Chuck the Duck feels like it adds an extra level of complication to the scoring. The person with the Chuck still writes a word, still tries to match with people, and yes, it can be fun to be that one person who scores the bonus points, and it can serve as a catch-up mechanic if the right circumstances align, but overall, it just feels like it overcomplicates things unnecessarily.

Production quality of the game is excellent, with the rubber duck being a table favorite and an excellent component that's super fun to play with. The title of the game may seem to insinuate that this is an adult party game, but it's actually family-friendly.

It's fun to try to match with other people and sometimes find yourself overthinking things as you try to get that match with just one person or try to guess what most people will be going for. However, there are very similar games out there, such as Blank Slate, One Word, even the classic Scattergories, and outside of presentation Rhymes with Duck doesn't feel like it brings that much new to the table. Trying to think of words that rhyme also felt slightly less fun than the requirements of those other games. That being said, ducks are just fun, so it might be worth it just for what Chuck brings, especially if you're already a big fan of this genre of party game.

Pros: Ducks, it is always fun to try to match with people, rules manage to avoid arguments over whether something really rhymes or not

Cons: Feels like there are better versions of this game out there, scoring system is overcomplicated

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