You know what’s great about being in the game industry?  Free games.

Of course, there are a zillion other reasons I could have given but free games are definitely a perk.  As with anything free you’re stuck with what you get and sometimes I get games I already have but more often it’s a game I don’t own so it requires some further investigation.

Recently, I got really lucky and a couple of free games came my way (this will be a 2 part entry).  One was a fun party game from Buffalo Games called Last Word, which is a free-for-all category game.  You get a letter and a category, like “Cartoon Characters,” and you and your opponents yell out answers that start with the given letter — “Spiderman” “Sideshow Bob”  “Stimpy” “Samurai Jack” — until the timer buzzes and the last player to say something wins the round.  What makes it really exciting is the timer is random so not only do you have to come up with a lot of answers, you also have to be strategic about WHEN you yell them out.  You don’t want to run out of cartoon characters too early but if you wait to long, you’re outta luck!  Simple, great game that I enjoy playing with a group.  And a great game to play with a variety of ages.

Last Word stats:

• ~$20 at Target, Barnes and Noble, online retailers
• 2-8 players (but I say at least 3 players to make it fun, 4+ for best outcome)
• ~30 minutes
• Ages 10 and up