ImaginEngine

Apples to Apples was developed by ImaginEngine and published by THQ. It was released December 7, 2011 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

When the word practical is in question, which comes to mind first: video games or card games? It all depends on the context, doesn’t it? Not in Apples to Apples, where silliness abounds and players can make as little or as much sense as possible. This party game is roughly a million years old and has been played roughly forty bajillion times, and it’s finally found its way to Xbox Live Arcade.

Apples to Apples is a very simple game where a variable amount of players take turns choosing green apple cards with adjectives on them such as “explosive”, “repulsive” or “loud”. All the other players then choose from a hand of seven red apple cards with all sorts of words which endeavor to be like that green card, ranging from actions such as “running” to people like “Leonardo DeVinci”. The goal is to match the green card with a red card as best as possible, but Apples to Apples has always been a party game and party games love house rules, so some players may not play by the book. The XBLA version introduces a single player feature as well as a different variant to the game’s multiplayer, but at its core this is a game of silly comparisons.

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