During October and November, I will be reviewing a selection of new games ideal for families during the holiday season. Today’s pick is Who Did It? All the games in this series are easy-to-learn, family-friendly, reasonably-priced, and a whole lot of fun, making them perfect for family get-togethers and playable by everyone from kids to your great-grandma. Check out the Games for the Holidays tag for more.
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What Is Who Did It?
Who Did It? is a silly and short card game for three to six players that will really appeal to kids, thanks to its toilet humor, while adults will like that it helps with memory skills. In the game, players need to deflect blame away from their own pets when “an impressive poo [is] found in the middle of the living room” by placing suspicion on another player’s animal friend. Fail to pass the buck and you’ll end up with a Poop Token. Earn too many and you’ll lose the game.
Components
- Six Rabbit Cards (One of each color in six different colors, repeated with all animals)
- Six Fish Cards
- Six Parrot Cards
- Six Turtle Cards
- Six Cat Cards
- Six Hamster Cards
- 13 Poop Tokens
- Instruction Sheet (Our Set Came with seven instruction sheets in seven different languages)
Our edition of Who Did It? (which appears to be a UK-specific version) came in a really cute little hand-sized box that neatly fits all of the components inside without wasted space and without anything getting squished. It’s also almost entirely plastic-free aside from one little bag used for the Poop Tokens, which is great to see, although including seven separate instruction sheets did seem wasteful when they would be easy enough to download. We loved the artwork which is the perfect blend of cute and funny—ideal for a game like this.
A second variant edition of the game is also available in a plushy poo-shaped pouch bag. This edition is mostly the same except that the playing cards are triangular to make them fit into the bag more easily, and the Poop Tokens are more emoji style with grinning faces.
How Do You Play Who Did It?
Setup
Setup is incredibly quick and easy, taking literally a few seconds. Each player selects a color and takes the six animal cards in that color into their hand. Any unused cards are returned to the box.
The pile of Poop Tokens is placed to the side and the game is now ready to play.
Gameplay
The youngest player begins by choosing one of the six pet cards in their hand and placing it face up in the middle of the playing area. As they do this, they say the following sentence (or words to this effect) out loud:
“It was not my [pet card type they just placed] that pooped in the living room, but I think it was someone else’s [pet type – can be the same type of pet already on the table].“
The other players now rapidly search through their own hands to find their card that matches the type of pet mentioned by the current player and race to be the first to place it down on top of the first player’s card, thus proving the innocence of their own pet. Play then passes to the player who successfully placed their card down first who says aloud:
“It was not my [pet card type they just placed, as stated by the previous player] that pooped in the living room, but I think it was someone else’s [pet type].”
The other players again race to place their matching pet card on top of the pile and prove its innocence.
Play continues in this way until a round ends. Should a player have no cards left in their hand during a round, it simply continues without them. They have proved all their pets to be innocent for this round but will be back in the game a few minutes later when the next round begins.
Ending a Round
A round of Who Did It? ends when a guilty pet is identified. The player whose pet takes the blame is handed a Poop Token. There are two ways this can happen:
1. If the active player attempts to pass the blame to another animal, but none of the other players have that card type in their hand. For example, if the active player says:
“It was not my cat that pooped in the living room, but I think it was someone else’s fish”
However, none of the other players still have their fish card in their hand, the active player has failed to pass the blame on and the round ends with their cat taking the blame and them receiving a Poop Token.
2. If only one player has any cards remaining in their hand when everyone else has gotten rid of all their pet cards, that player owns the guilty pet because there is no one else left to take the blame and they receive a Poop Token.
Ending the Game
The game ends as soon as one player has received three Poop Tokens. The player with the fewest tokens is the winner, but should two or more players tie, they share the victory.
Should You Buy Who Did It?
This game has gone down a storm with my ten-year-old son and his friends, as I suspected it would! Every game of Who Did It? we have played has resulted in children rolling around on the floor in fits of giggles as they get to triumphantly hand their friends small cardboard poop symbols. The artwork is hilarious (my favorite animal has to be the intensely guilty-looking parrot) and with a game easy to set up and play in under fifteen minutes, this is a great choice if you’re looking for something that will fit into those breaks in an evening when you just need something quick, fast, and fun to do.
While the game is clearly aimed at kids (the suggested age recommendation is six and up which feels about right), that doesn’t mean that they’re the only group who will enjoy it. I’m sure that Who Did It? will be a hit at family gatherings—although perhaps leave out any overly prudish relatives—and, as with many kids games, adults will probably enjoy it a whole lot after a few drinks, especially as the memory aspect of the gameplay will be impacted too making it all the harder to play.
Who Did It? isn’t my favorite game of the year, and it was never going to be, it simply wasn’t aimed at my demographic. But while the theme isn’t exactly my cup of tea, the artwork is more adorable than gross which does somewhat make up for it. What I do like about this game is the memory skills it helps to build. In order to win, you need to remember which cards have come out so far so that you can choose to assign blame to a type of pet that at least one player still has in their hand. At the start of a round, that’s easy enough, but once everyone has taken a few turns and the cards in their hands are starting to dwindle, it gets increasingly tough to remember who still has what in play. With memory skills so vital for kids both in school and out, this is a really fun way to help boost that key area.
A whole lot of hilarity for under $10, Who Did It? is a sure-fire winner for kids and its small size will make it an ideal stocking-stuffer this holiday season.
GeekMom received this item for review purposes.
