‘Sculptapalooza’: Art, Education, and Fun All Rolled Into One

Summer’s over, school has started, and in some parts of the country, it’s already getting cold. That doesn’t mean the fun has to end though. Ready for a laugh-out-loud afternoon of unplugged entertainment? Grab Scupltapalooza and get set for squishy, squashy, giggly fun.

What Is Sculptapalooza?

Scultapalooza is a hot new a Playfoam powered sculpting game from Educational Insights that offers hilarious challenges and fast-paced, family-friendly fun for anyone age ten and up. This energetic, hands-on, sculpting game pits teams against each other in an exciting race against the clock.

Setup

Inside the box you will find:

• A colorful block of Playfoam
• Sculpting mat
• 100 category clue cards
• 100 lightning round cards
• 20 blank clue cards
• Scorecard
• 7 tokens
• Timer
• Die

Both the category clue cards and the lightning round cards are double-sided with different information on each side. This means that you are actually getting two hundred of each, which is great in terms of replay, especially if you have an ASD child (like mine) with a computer-like memory. The sculpting mat is relatively sturdy, thick cardboard coated so that the Playfoam won’t stick. The clue cards are brightly colored, with the categories clearly marked and twenty of them are blank so that once you get a feel for the game you can create your own customized clue cards.

How to Play Sculptapalooza

Scupltapalooza is one of those hilariously creative, ridiculously fun team games that works as well for a group of adults as it does for a group of kids. You start out by splitting into teams so ideally, you want to have at least four players. If for some reason you don’t have at least four players, Educational Insights was forward-thinking enough to include rules to a variation that allows individual gameplay in a cool cooperative manner. We had well over four, so we played by the traditional rules.

Once you have your teams set up, choose the order in which the member of the team will sculpt. It’s a good idea to write this order down as this order stays the same throughout the game. Next, decide which team goes first. There are no rules for that, so feel free to flip a coin, guess a number, or have the team with the youngest member go first.

The first person to sculpt will roll the die to determine the category. If 1-5 is rolled then the sculptor will draw a clue card and sculpt the item listed under the category that was rolled.

Rules

Every category has the same general rules.

• No talking
• No sound effects
• No sculpting words (full or partial)

Each category also has special rules for play, as well making it far more challenging for both the sculptor and the team guessing.

Straight Up Sculpt: You must keep the Playfoam on the sculpting mat. You can move pieces of Playfoam around the mat (such as making a dog chase a cat) but you cannot pick them up to act things out.

Put It on Your Face: While this category says face, any body part or parts will do for this category… Yes, even that, but please keep your audience in mind. You can make facial expressions, wear the Playfoam, or attach it to your body/face (i.e. armor, helmet, watch, or such) but you cannot use it as a prop (cell phone, pencil, spear…) or you could lose a point.

Just Close Your Eyes: Exactly as it says. You have to sculpt this one with your eyes closed. A “pin the tail on the donkey” type of blindfold is recommended if you have wiggly ones who struggle to keep their eyes closed.

Playfoam Props: This is the category for sculpting a prop and using it to get your clue across. Get up, move around, create a prop with the Playfoam to act out a scene that gets your team guessing.

Sculptor’s Choice: The only rule here is that you choose the category of rules you will follow.

Tag Team Lightning Round

When a lightning bolt is rolled in Scupltapalooza, it’s time for the tag team lightning round. Speed and zaniness abound in this sixty-second free for all. The sculpting starts with the person who rolled the dice and moves to the person who guessed the correct clue. It continues until the timer stops. Anyone can guess the clue no matter who is sculpting and anything goes. The sculptor can get up, move around, sculpt props, use the Playfoam on their face or body, whatever it takes to get the clue across.

Scoring & Game End

So how do you win? That’s everyone’s question when you start a new game. Your team scores a point for every correct clue that is guessed, and that allows you to move your token one space forward on the scorecard. If the team that is sculpting runs out of time before they guess the clue, the opposing team can make a single guess. If they get it right they “steal” the point from the sculpting team.

Lightning rounds are a great way to rack up a large number of points. Since anyone can guess the clue, it’s a race to shout the correct answer first. At the end of the sixty seconds, one point is awarded to each team for each of the correct clues guessed during the round. One lightning round can make the difference in the outcome of the game.

The team the racks up twenty points first wins. If you want to do a quicker game, there’s a ten point marker on the scorecard that can be used for abbreviated play sessions. In the end, the team who hits the target score first wins so it’s important to score early and often.

Why You Should Play Sculptapalooza

Sculptapalooza is one of those great family-fun games that is playable in so many situations. As a family, in a group of friends, as a way to get your kids and their friends doing something unplugged for an afternoon, and even for a ladies night. Play it by the rules for good, clean, laugh aloud fun. In an all adult group, add alcohol and a few house rules for some hysterical results. Buy an extra pack of Playfoam in additional colors to spice it up. This game offers a lot of fun for a little price.

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Disclosure: GeekMom received a copy of this game for review purposes.