What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Friday, November 14, 2014

Review: Snake Oil Party Potion

The last review of the year!  Wa-HOO!  And guess what?  You don't need to be a homeschooler to enjoy it!   Today's review is for all the game-lovers out there...you know who you are.   And just in time for maybe a little Christmas gift giving or post-Thanksgiving Dinner giggles?!  I think so.


I present to you, from Out of the Box Games, the Snake Oil Party Potion game!!!  (cheers!  hurrahs!  oooh's and aaahhh's!)  This game is a version of the original Snake Oil game with cards that are geared to a younger audience.  The original Snake Oil game is for age 10+ and the Snake Oil Party Potion (the one I was given an opportunity to review) is for ages 8+ though I can attest, with a bit of help Adele' (at 6 years old) was able to make some convincing sells!



The object of the game is to create products that your customer can't live without by combining two words out of your hand of cards.  Some of the combinations are really easy, some are more difficult, many of them are just plain CRAZY.   Try selling a Gorilla Potty, my friends.   Or a set of fur pants.  Or a satellite parachute.



One person becomes the customer and they adopt the persona from one of the "customer" cards...things like, pop star, artist, robot and snowman.  All other players are given six word cards and must "pitch" their products to the customer and the customer then chooses which product they like best.  The "snake oil salesman" who pitched the winning product gets the customer card and it goes round and round again.  At the end, whoever has the most customer cards is the winner of the whole game!



Snake Oil Party Potion can help children with vocabulary and public speaking skills. It encourages creative thinking and problem solving. It can coax shy people to get out of the box (get it?).  It is certainly imaginative and requires some quick thinking and the practice of persuasion.  (Out of the Box Games even has a downloadable pdf about how to use it in the classroom.)  But even without all those perfectly good justifications~ it's a riot!  And that is enough.  Toy companies understand this which is why it is not surprising that Snake Oil Party Potion has earned itself several awards, including one from Dr. Toy, National Association for Gifted Children, Major Fun! Keeper,  The Toy Man, and Mensa Select.



It is a 3-6 player game but they have an alternate way to play with large groups where an 'audience' is the customer and they choose their favorite product by cheering the loudest.  I could totally see this being played with all the extended family after Thanksgiving dinner or within the Christmas festivities!


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun game! Thanks for sharing, I am always looking for fun educational games. Jennifer

Rozy Lass said...

What a fun sounding game! We love word games and I've been looking for a new one to play during the holidays. Thanks for sharing.