Mental Blocks, Tongue Twisters, and Big Button Timers: A Review of 15

Can you name enough red objects in 15 seconds to complete the challenge? With a ticking timer, the pressure is on!

15 is a family party game designed for 2-8 players, ages nine and up.

Gameplay

Five cards are dealt to each player. Cards in the deck are challenge cards, yo cards, and other cards which consist of different special abilities.

When a player has a yo card, he can at any point in the game, as discreetly as possible, place it in front of himself face-up. When another player notices the card on the table, they should immediately replicate the hand gesture shown on the card. The last player to replicate it must draw a card from the deck. Everyone else, except the person who played the yo card, may discard one of their cards. The abilities on the other cards may force another player to draw a card or force another player to perform a challenge instead of you, for example.

On a player’s turn, he must select an opponent, choose one of the challenge cards in his hand, read it aloud, and then have the opponent attempt to perform the challenge while the 15-second timer runs. If the challenged player fails to complete the challenge, he must draw a card from the deck. It is now the challenged player’s turn. (On any player’s turn, a player involved in the previous turn may not be challenged again). Examples of challenges included in the game are attempting to say specific tongue twisters without making a mistake or listing a certain number of objects in a specific category.

Once a player has played all the challenge cards in his hand (he can have other cards still remaining), it is time for the block-stacking throwdown. He becomes the challenger and chooses another player to be his opponent, and both players take turns stacking the ten blocks in the game. If the challenger manages to stack more blocks than his opponent, he wins the game, otherwise he must draw four new cards and the game continues.

Review

There’s a lot to enjoy about this game. The challenges are lighthearted and fun, and many of them rely on the stress of going against a ticking timer. There’s a fun range and variety to them, which makes for a fun, amusing game.

The production is also really good: the quality of the cards, the look of the game, and the design of the timer. It’s fun to have one of those big button timers again. Too often, timers are left out of games in favor of a phone time. But this timer ticks down in a loud and satisfying way, adding to the suspense as a player races to complete a challenge.

There are a couple of elements that don’t quite work, however. For example, there is an ability card that you can play to allow another player to skip a challenge he’s just been challenged to. But there’s not actually any mechanical reason why you’d ever want to play this card, since you don’t need to entirely empty your hand to win the game (you just need to play all your challenges). This is a light party game, and who wins isn’t really the heart of its fun, but it still feels odd to have cards that significantly assist other players. The same applies to the yo cards. They’re a fun idea, but at the same time, there’s not a lot of motivation for someone to play one.

Having to win the game on the block challenge is a fun idea, in theory — a big finale to end on. But none of us found stacking the blocks very challenging, so ultimately we had to make a house rule where the challenger won on ties.

Despite a couple of messy elements, we had fun with this game. It’s fun to try and decide who is the best player to use each challenge card against, while balancing that with how many cards are still in each player’s hand. You probably don’t want to play a challenge card against someone who only has one or two cards left…but what if you really think that player won’t be able to complete your challenge? It’s the best way to ensure they’ll have to draw more cards!

We liked the mechanic of racing the clock combined with the challenges themselves being a little more low-key and mentally based. There are a few dexterity challenges, but they’re not the main focus. We also appreciated that this is a game you can play with your family. Nothing here is designed to be at all awkward or embarrassing. All things considered, this is a nice party game for a social evening.

Pros: Great production quality, mostly mental challenges that aren’t awkward or embarrassing, quite lighthearted

Cons: Some cards lack incentive to play, block-stacking challenge is a little too simple

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