Monday , March 18 2024
mega mouth

Game Review: ‘Mega Mouth’ from Big G Creative

Mega Mouth from Big G Creative offers a big new twist on classic word-guessing games. Parlor games going back centuries have had players trying to determine what word their teammate is trying to tell them, whether through body movements, drawing, or giving verbal clues. Mega Mouth asks players to mouth the words, giving a new dynamic for careful watching.

Mega Mouth begins with players dividing into two teams. The game begins with a challenge itself: everyone hums a single note, and whoever can go the longest without taking a breath goes first. While going first may not seem too significant in all games, Mega Mouth actually has a great deal of strategy based on its end-game scoring. Players may exhaust their lungs to hum for that lead, while others may throw in the towel early on in hopes of jumping past their opponents in the end.

During each round, one teammate is nominated to be the “Mouther” who prompts the rest of the team by holding a magnifying piece of plastic over their mouths while they silently make the motions of saying the passwords. The Mouther draws a category card such as “basketball shots” and has 30 seconds to get the team to guess as many of the seven words, like “three pointer” or “free throw,” as possible. At the end of the guessing, the team gets a point token for each correct guess. If the Mouther makes any other sound than “yes” for a right answer or “pass” to skip, the round is automatically over and no points are awarded.

The biggest trick in Mega Mouth is to keep from giggling. With everyone staring intently at one’s mouth, the Mouther can easily get caught up in nerves, especially when one of the lip-readers starts to snicker. The game is a mega opportunity to practice stage discipline as well as elocution in proper mouth movements.

Mega Mouth goes into its final phase when one team collects at least 21 tokens in total. When they cross that 21 threshold, the opposing team has one more chance in their turn to collect enough points to beat their opponent’s score. Strategic players may flub a round so that they end up with 20 points and thus have the biggest potential to bring in the high score. Then again, it all depends on the next category drawn.

Mega Mouth is a party game for four to eight players aged eight and up. While the mechanics are easy enough that even younger players might join in on the fun, some of the categories might be a bit advanced. Since there is the opportunity for seven points each round, games of Mega Mouth go very quickly, lasting 15 or 20 minutes. It can go even faster or take longer depending on how knowledgeable players are in the categories drawn as well as everyone’s lip-reading skills.

About Jeff Provine

Jeff Provine is a Composition professor, novelist, cartoonist, and traveler of three continents. His latest book is a collection of local ghost legends, Campus Ghosts of Norman, Oklahoma.

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