Are you planning some family get-togethers and still need a couple of fun party games to play? If so, Sounds Fishy and Chicken vs Hot Dog from Big Potato Games are worth grabbing on those last-minute shopping trips.
What Are Sounds Fishy and Chicken vs Hot Dog?
Sounds Fishy is a party game for 4-10 players, ages 10 and up, and takes about 10 minutes to play. Chicken vs Hot Dog is a party dexterity game for 2 or more players, ages 8 and up, and takes around 15 minutes to play.
Sounds Fishy was designed by Rob Plesse and Big Potato Games and published by Big Potato Games. Chicken vs Hot Dog was designed and published by Big Potato Games.
Components
In the box for Sounds Fishy, you’ll find 1 “True Blue” kipper, 7 “Red Herrings”, a bunch of 1, 5, and 10 point tokens, a card despenser, and lots of question cards.
In the box for Chicken vs Hot Dog, you’ll find two “Sling’ems”: a chicken (not real), a hot dog (also not real), two sets of character cards, two sets of bidding cards, and a set of challenge cards.
All of the components are very well made. I particularly like the shiny gloss on the fish from Sounds Fishy, and neither the chicken nor the hot dog have ever been returned to the box after I first opened it. Most likely, neither will.
How to Play
Being party games, both titles are very easy to explain and play.
The Goal
The goal of Sounds Fishy is to get the most points by choosing the fake answers to questions and avoiding the real one.
The goal of Chicken vs Hot Dog is to flip or toss either the chicken or the hot dog onto the table.
Setup
Setup of Sounds Fishy is easy: Take a set of question cards and place them in the dispenser. Hand out the fish face-down, making sure there’s one blue one and enough red ones for everyone except the first guesser. Everyone looks to see if they got a red or the blue fish.
Setup of Chicken vs Hot Dog is even easier: break up into two teams. The teams take their chosen Sling’em and their appropriate set of character cards. Each team shuffles their bidding cards and takes four at random. The character cards should be assembled, and on the grey side.
Gameplay
In Sounds Fishy the guesser starts by drawing a card from the dispenser. They should hold it so that they can see the side that only has the question, and everyone else can see the question and the answer. The Red Herrings have 15 seconds to come up with a wrong but plausible answer. Then, the guesser goes around the table and asks each player for their answer. The guesser then tries to eliminate each answer one and a time, going for the fake answers first, by flipping over that person’s fish. If it’s a red herring, they get a point and can keep going. They can stop at any point and bank what they earned, but if they flip over the Blue fish before eliminated all of the red herrings, they lose all of the points they earned this round and their turn ends immediately.
Once the round ends, either by the guesser giving up, flipping the blue fish, or flipping all of the red herrings. The guesser gets whatever points they banked, as long as they didn’t flip the blue fish before all of the red herrings. They get an extra, bonus point if they do flip the blue fish last. Each red herring gets zero points if their fish was flipped, or one point for every unflipped fish, including the blue one, if their fish wasn’t flipped. The blue fish player gets one point for every unflipped fish on the table if they were flipped before all of the red herrings. If the guesser correctly waits and flips the blue fish last, then the blue player scores zero.
The fish are then collected, shuffled, and redealt, with the next player becoming the guesser.
In Chicken vs Hot Dog, someone turns over a challenge card. Both teams decide how much they want to bid to take on the challenge. The higher the bid, the more confident they are that they can do it. Both teams place their bid face-down on the table, and then simultaneously reveal. The winning (higher) bid takes on the challenge. The challenges include things like needing to flip their Sling’em so that it only flips once, or maybe twice, or maybe it has to be thrown over the shoulder. There are some even more ridiculous challenges.
If the player succeeds – which means that the Sling’em ended up standing straight up on the table (the suction cup does not need to stick), then they flip over one of their character cards. If they fail, the other team flips a card. (Hint: there will be far more fails than successes.) The rules do clarify that if a Sling’em falls off the table but lands upright, it counts.
If both teams bid the same amound, the game goes into “Flipperama!” mode. Both teams start flipping their Sling’em simultaneously. In a two-player game, whomever succeeds in getting their Sling’em to stand up twice wins. In a team game, every player on each team must land a single flip before passing it to their teammate. The team that wins the Flipperama! can then decide if they want to take the challenge or force the other team to do it.
Once a team runs out of bidding cards, they draw four more from the deck. In team games, every team member must take turns doing the challenges.
Game End
Sounds Fishy ends when everyone has been the guesser twice (in a 4-5 player game) or once (with 6 or more players.)
Chicken vs Hot Dog ends when one team flips over all of their character cards.
Why You Should Play Sounds Fishy and Chicken vs Hot Dog
Look, there are times when I want to spend two hours with my friends obsessing over small details in a highly strategic game. And then there are times I just want to laugh and have fun. Both of these games land solidly in that second category.
And around the holidays, there are already so many stressors, it’s nice to just relax and get everyone laughing before going back to the dinner table and arguing over politics again.
These games are inexpensive enough to make an easy last-minute decision to pick one or both up, and unless you have people coming over who just have no sense of humor at all, why wouldn’t you want to add some fun to your day?
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
