Matthew BaileyThe Chameleon is a surprisingly difficult party game that is great fun but might not work with mixed age groups as well as I’d like it to. The version here is the Picture Edition but the main version is essentially identical, just using words instead of pictures.
In each round, players are secretly shown a picture. Everyone sees the same image except for one player. That unlucky (or very lucky, it depends on how you want to play it) player is the Chameleon, and they have no idea what picture everyone else is going to be commenting on.
Players then take turns saying a single word related to the image. The aim for most players is simple: prove you know the picture without making it too obvious. The Chameleon, meanwhile, is desperately trying to fake it, using the other clues to avoid being caught.
This is where the first issue kind of appears with younger kids. Sure, they know the words, but invariably, the word association is difficult to get at the right level. Generally, when we played it, clues were either too obvious or absolute nonsense.
Once everyone has given their word, the floor then opens for you to discuss as a group who to blame as the liar. If the group correctly identifies the Chameleon, they get one final chance to guess the picture and steal the win. If they guess correctly, they triumph. If not, the guessers take the victory.
This is the second way that it kind of falls apart a little bit, as we found it really easy to guess when the kids were lying compared to adults.
Overall though, the game is lots of fun but its mileage will vary depending on your kids. Mine are very seasoned board gamers, as you will imagine, but even they struggled with the word association social deduction aspect of the game.
Components are good and everything works well, and to be honest, I really like the game and would recommend picking up a copy, just maybe to play on an adults-only evening and not with the kids.
