De Slimste Mens Ter Wereld – Board Game Review
A lot of board games have gotten their inspiration from tv-shows or games. ‘De Slimste Mens ter Wereld’ or ‘The Smartest Person of the World’ is such a game as it is based on the popular Belgian gameshow. While this game usually has a spiffy quiz-master in order to spice things up, we were wondering how this home version would feel like. Do you have what it takes to be the smartest?
Content
- Console with four digital timers
- Card box
- 270 question cards
- Index cards
- 1 pawn
Overall, the quality of the cards and the console are really decent, although the buttons of the timers don’t always trigger, which is quite important though when time is your dearest friend. Although there is a big console, you can remove the four timers so you can hold it in your hand for example. There is also a fancy box which contains all of the cards, the pawn and the four timers. This means that you can to take it with you on a journey as the big box requires a lot of room. It is great that the developers thought of this, as it gives you more opportunities to play the game.
Mechanics
The game works almost exactly like the real show. This means that you will need to ‘gather’ as much seconds as possible to win the game and become the smartest person on the planet… for a while at least. You can play the game with two to four players and the mechanics differ a bit, depending if you’re with two or more. If it occurs that you’re with more than four people, it is possible to go to this website and use the online timer. This way, you can have the same fun with more people.
One person is the ‘quiz master’ and will read the question. When you answer it correctly, you might get 20 or 40 seconds, depending on which round you’re playing. If you don’t know the answer, the person next to you gets a chance. During the first round, the quiz master gets a shot as well when no-one else can answer the question, nonetheless with a new question as answering his own question, with the answer mentioned would be rather silly. Despite the fact if the question is answered or not, the next player becomes the master and so on.
Everyone starts off with 60 seconds which are shown on the timer. During the first round, you can think for a limited time, but you won’t have the pressure of your seconds depleting. This is different during the next rounds though, as thinking will cost your sourly earned time. This means that you will need to reconsider if you want to spend more time on thinking, or stop the clock from ticking away precious time.
There are four rounds in total and a finale to determine who is the biggest smartass. Every round will have similar mechanics but a different way of questioning. For example, the second one will have you search for four keywords (each correct answer is worth 40 seconds) while the third round will have you combine four elements to find the answer (which is 20 seconds). At the finale, you will have to give five answers and each correct answer will deplete 20 seconds from your opponent. When you stop, your opponent get the opportunity to add more answers and returning the favour. Depending on who has the lowest amount of seconds will determine who will start during the next question.
When you’re just playing with two people, you just read a question to each other and there isn’t a possibility to answer the other one’s question (you know the responses of course). This means that it really depends on the difficulty of the question if you can get points or not. The same goes for the finale, as someone can just keep on eternally answering questions by keeping his seconds lower than the opponent. This is the more strategic part of the game, but it is quite dull that there isn’t any mechanic foreseen to make things equal.
Luck or Strategy?
This boardgame can be marked as a combination of luck and strategy, depending on how many players there are and the questions you get.
If you’re playing with two, you’ll notice victory depends on the difficulty of questions. It could be that you would have known the answer of your opponent’s question but you won’t get a shot at it. This problem is less the case when you’re playing with more people, as you can get more possibilities to answer.
Strategically-wise, the game is a real gem as you have certain elements you must keep in mind. For example, you need to keep an eye on your own timer while you’re trying to find more answers. This makes things really intense, which can also make you stress out and give you black-outs. On the other side, the finale is quite special as well. Will you let your seconds deplete so you can get underneath your opponent, but will you be able to answer the next question? This might give your opponent an advantage? A lot to think about and to reconsider.
Conclusion
If you know Dutch and you’re looking for a fun game in which you can boast your knowledge, then this is the game for you. It is fun to go through all of these rounds and feel like a real contestant. Be wary of the fact that if you’re just with two players, the mechanics might not be that great.
De Slimste Mens Ter Wereld - Board Game Review,
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