Back in a simpler time, Cards Against Humanity ruled the party-game world. Its crude and crass pre-written humor guaranteed a laugh amongst friends and dysfunctional families alike. That was true until you played it a few times and saw all the jokes. Eventually, my circles moved on from it, though sometimes I still see it brought to parties and even being played at bars. With the jokes now extremely outdated, I can’t say I ever want to play it again, but there were some great memories made with it.
After more than a decade and millions and millions of dollars made, the company has come up with a new game idea. Will this be their next cash cow? Head Trip is a cooperative party game for 3 to 10 players that takes about 30 minutes to play.
Gameplay Overview:
In Head Trip, players are working cooperatively to defeat 7 Heads. The gameplay is dead simple. During set up, 7 Heads are randomly selected and placed face down on the table. Heads are simply a character that players need to embody while answering ridiculous questions. For example, “You are a pothead robot.”
Each round, one player plays as the Tripper and draws a question card. Question cards offer a multiple choice question.The Tripper must answer the question as if they are the current Head. This is done in secret. After that, all other players can discuss and then must individually vote on which answer they believe the Tripper chose. After all players have voted, the Tripper’s answer is revealed and scored. If even one other player voted for the correct answer, the Head is defeated, and players move onto the next Head. If all players voted incorrectly, the next Tripper must use the same Head with a new question and the current Tripper loses one of their chips. If all players voted correctly, a bonus chip is awarded to one of the players. Once 7 Heads have been defeated, the players have won the game. However, if players all run out of chips, they lose the game.
Game Experience
The humor in this game definitely brought back memories to my first five or so plays of Cards Against Humanity. The Heads cards range from relatively simple like, “You are Kanye West” to absolutely ridiculous like, “You are a man who has ordered way too many pancakes but is too proud to admit his mistake.” The questions and especially the multiple choice answers run the same range. There are even more nuanced ones, but I’m too lazy to type them out. I’d rather use my finger muscles on the previous sentence and this one elaborating on it. You probably already know if this is your type of humor or not. While they have toned down the offensive content (blatant racism, misogyny, etc…), the spirit is still to get a reaction out of people. There is also still very crude humor, so this is not a family game (unless you have a family like mine).
The gameplay is simple but still engaging and entertaining. The team discussions can get very heated over the silliest topics. Believe it or not, hilarity ensues. On top of that, there’s a bit of gambling and hedging-your-bets strategy to be had. Sometimes, the team will be confident enough to all vote the same and try to get that sweet sweet bonus chip. Other times, the risk is too great. Of course, there is, occasionally, the temptation on both sides to just choose the funniest answer. There will be a meta that develops over a single game, especially if you play multiple times with the same people.
Look, it’s not smart and deep like So Clover may be at times, but you do need to think and discuss to actually do well. The challenge of winning comes from both core disagreements/different thought processes, as well as some combos just being downright arbitrary. Still, the balance is there for a semi-challenging co-op experience. After all, the last head must be defeated with a unanimous vote. As long as you can laugh at the prompts, you will be engaged throughout. My win rate is about 50-50, which is a nice balance. We have been absolutely wiped out while playing too loose and casually and have also had some very close wins. There are variants to make it more challenging, which I would like to dig through in the future.
This is clearly an attempt to capitalize on the cooperative party game craze, but not at all a lazy one. This isn’t the same formula, rehashed with crude jokes inserted. Head Trip will not live up to the likes of Just One, So Clover, or Wavelength in that it cannot be enjoyed by every group. However, with the right group (you know the one), it’s going to provide a lot of entertainment. The discussions it creates are reminiscent of those co-op titans; they are just a bit more absurd in nature. You will be forced to think of scenarios you never would have otherwise. There are some Head/Question combos that are dumb, but that’s not true most of the time. Once you get through all of the cards (and there are a lot), the shimmer may start to wear off. Of course, the Head/Question combos will pretty much never repeat, but I will admit that sometimes the funniest part is just reading a card for the first time.
Final Thoughts:
After agreeing to this review copy, I regretted it for a bit. I never tried to pull Head Trip out with my regular game group as I would have been embarrassed if it didn’t go over well. However, with my casual gaming friends and even my family, it was a hit. I don’t regret my time with it, and I plan to put it into semi-regular rotation, but will be picky about the audience. This feels a bit more like a Jackbox game than some of those other co-op party games. For me, those can provide an awesome time with the right people. I know this will tarnish my reputation as a game reviewer, and that’s okay.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – An engaging and entertaining co-op party game for those with a crude sense of humor.
Hits:
• Engaging co-op gameplay with some gambling built in.
• The cards and combinations can be hilarious (if you’re still a 14-year-old boy on the inside, like me).
• Hilarious and interesting discussions will be had after every question.
Misses:
• The humor is very particular and sometimes offensive.
• Since the humor is baked into the cards, the replay value is a bit limited.
• Some card combos are so arbitrary that it becomes all luck for a round.
Source: Board Game Quest
