Saturday night, Lafayette Hall, 12 a.m.:

A group of students on the seventh floor called the new party board game called “Hilarium” lame. Victims asked for a restraining order and for the game to be removed from production. Suspect was described as a major toy and game manufacturer named Mattel. Open Case.

Hilarium is similar to charades. At the beginning of the round, every player holds five cards, each with an action or scene like “watching a tennis match” or “having a migraine.” The goal is to act out the cards and find another player who has the same card. When they get a match, both players put down cards and draw a new card from the pile. Play continues until all the cards are gone. At the end of the round, each player receives a score in the form of Hilarium Bucks based on how many matches he made.

The instructions, while full of witticisms, are a bit confusing. There are several technical rules that seem to have no basis in playing the game. For example, the instructions devote a paragraph to preventing players from counting their Hilarium Bucks. There does not seem to be any real reason for this. In fact, the instructions even say “this is just ‘one of those rules.'” Presumably, that means “one of those rules . which makes zero sense.”

The press release for Hilarium suggests that it would be “a great drinking game.” Our test group had difficulty interpreting the rules while sober, and it is unlikely that the group could do better inebriated.
This game is not fun.

The box suggests three to six players. The Hatchet test group consisted of five people who could only bear to play one round.

Players are supposed to avoid simply blurting out what it says on their card. In the heat of game play, our test group had a difficult time following that rule. However, since only one player knows what is on his card, there is no way for other players to enforce this rule.

The general consensus was that the test group would not choose to play the game again. Bystanders agreed.

“You guys are damn fools,” said freshman Maria Senger, who was observing. Later she added that she thought she would not enjoy playing the game.

On a positive note, the game is relatively fast paced, and a group can choose the number of rounds that they wish to play.

Freshman Andrew Thell expressed the general negative feelings toward the game, saying, “This game sucked; let’s burn it.”