Great game: Tick Tock Boom

Tick… Tock… Boom is an awesome game my son discovered.

You flip over a card that has two or three letters on it: for instance, OU or IRD or REW. Then, each person has to say a word that includes those letters. The catch is, after you say your word, you pass the next person a “ticking time bomb.” Whoever’s holding it when it makes its hissing sound, loses.

It’s a fast-paced game (a whole game takes about 15 minutes) and even more fun than you’d think, because inevitably someone accidentally comes up with some crazy word like “glarg” and then everyone starts laughing as the person madly tries to think of a real word.

I wasn’t too sure about the ticking time bomb. But it’s quite quiet, and it just ends up being more like a round, black timer. There’s also a “junior” version of the game that involves pictures rather than words.

In a pinch, you could make a version of this game yourself, using flip cards and an egg timer. But this game is quite well made and worth the money.

I went to the manufacturer’s website, Piatnik, but I couldn’t find the exact version of this game. But I did find it for sale here, at the Cyberboutique of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. I’ll contact Piatnik and see if I can find out more because I’m wondering if they have more word games. Stay tuned.