Matthew BaileyOne thing I realised the other day is that most of the games I review on a week-to-week basis—whether they’re designed for very young children or much older adults—are usually serious games. Generally speaking, I tend to shy away from party games, largely because the main interaction comes from the social aspect rather than the actual game itself.
So, in a complete break from normal programming—and as we approach the Summer Games Festival, which begins on July 1st (name still very much up in the air)—I thought, for once, let’s feature some silly nonsense. And with that, I give you Bean Boozled by Jelly Belly.
Essentially, Bean Boozled is a party game where you spin a spinner, it lands on a flavour of jelly bean, and you eat that flavour. You’ll either get a nice jelly bean or a purposely disgusting one.
You can pretty much tell how this is going to go straight away. It’s silly fun that the kids really enjoyed playing—but it’s not without its criticisms.
Firstly, the ratio of disgusting jelly beans to nice ones seems to be about 50/50. That means there’s roughly a 50% chance you’re going to get a gross jelly bean, which, oddly enough, takes away from the “Russian roulette” feel that makes the game so appealing. Ideally, the number of gross ones should be radically reduced so there’s only a small chance of getting a disgusting flavour. That way, when you do get one that tastes like stinky socks, dirty nappies, or whatever other horror Jelly Belly has dreamed up, it’s a bit more shocking and a lot funnier.
My local sweet shop actually sells Jelly Belly beans individually, and I’m planning to go down there and pick up a handful of nice ones for each flavour. That way I can tweak the ratio and make the game a bit more interesting.
One of the more curious match-ups is blueberry vs. toothpaste. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider toothpaste (basically just mint) to be that gross—so that one feels a bit odd. Also, the kids weren’t keen on the popcorn flavour, which they found unpleasant regardless of the alternative.
Another small issue is the smell. Because all the jelly beans are jumbled together, the box just smells overwhelmingly gross. I’m not sure how you’d fix that—maybe separate compartments for each flavour? It would also help with portioning, as we found some flavours were quite sparse (like the blueberry/toothpaste ones) while others were overly plentiful. You can buy refills for the game, and they’re not outrageously expensive, but we ran out of some flavours fairly quickly and ended up having to just re-spin.
All that said, this is actually—despite my expectations—quite a fun, silly game that the kids really enjoyed playing for 10 minutes or so. It’s not going to carry your next big family game night, but if you want something ridiculous for a summer playdate or something fun to play with the grandparents, Bean Boozled fits the bill nicely.
I never intended to review this at all. It wasn’t even on my radar until Jack got it as a random birthday present. But actually—if you know what you’re getting into—it’s quite good fun.
