Matthew BaileyToday we’re going to be talking about Twister. It’s an extremely well-known, super mainstream game, and chances are every single person reading this has heard of it. Oddly though, Twister is actually quite an unusual game. It’s a dexterity game, but one that is far less about hand dexterity and far more about flexibility and physical fitness.
There really aren’t many other games out there that match the same kind of vibe. There are a few games where you have to hold things in the crooks of your body, but nothing quite recreates Twister. So I thought it was worth doing a review, looking at what I think about it, where it could be improved, and what the general issues are.
In case you’ve somehow never played it, Twister is a game where you lay a large plastic mat on the floor with coloured spots printed on it. Players have to place their hands or feet on those spots to play. The game works by having someone else spin the spinner, which means you do need an extra person and not just the people playing. The spinner will call out something like “right hand on green” or “left foot on red”, and all players must place that specific limb on that specific spot.
As the game goes on, players get in each other’s way, and if you fall over with your bum touching the floor, or everything just collapses into a massive catastrophe, you’re out. The game continues until only one person is left. There are versions with other odd rules, like making noises or doing silly actions, but those are largely just set dressing and don’t really change the core experience.
At its base, it’s actually really fun to play, and the kids genuinely enjoyed it. That said, there are a few caveats and issues that stop it working quite as well as it could.
First and foremost, there’s a massive size disparity. An adult is going to find this far easier than a four year old, and even a four year old playing against a ten year old can struggle. Even if the younger child is more flexible and has better core strength, they simply don’t have arms and legs long enough to reach some of the positions.
Secondly, it works best with more than two people. With just two players, you often end up in a weird stalemate where one person stays at one end of the mat and the other stays at the opposite end. It becomes surprisingly hard to really mess each other up, and it doesn’t always work as well as intended.
The final issue is the mat itself. If this were a proper grippy mat, something like neoprene with a non-slip underside, I think it would work far better. If you printed it onto a rug or something similar, it would also improve things massively. As it is, the mat is just a thin sheet of plastic. It inevitably bends, shuffles, and slips around, and after more than a dozen turns it’s usually just a crumpled mess on the floor.
There are workarounds for all of these problems, and you can always house rule things. However, when I review games, I try to use the rules exactly as they’re printed in the box. If you do that here, you’re likely to run into a few issues, especially when playing with a wide mix of ages.
There are other versions of Twister out there, but what I really want is a deluxe version that comes with a genuinely high-quality mat that properly supports the gameplay. The spots are all arranged in neat lines, and I think it could be really interesting if they were spread out more irregularly instead.
Overall, Twister is a bit of fun. It has issues and it has problems, but it’s usually cheap and most people probably already own a copy. It’s definitely worth mentioning if it’s somehow passed you by. It’s not a 100% must-buy recommendation, but for twenty minutes of silly fun, you could do a lot worse.
