Man Bites Dog Card Game Review

Hilarious Headline Card Game 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up

The first time I heard of the card game Man Bites Dog, I thought “what is this?” It’s a card game that you put together word card to make headline—the crazier the better.

This is a zany word game, one that you’ll like if you like games like the wackiness of Sleeping Queens, the creativeness of Scattergories and the silliness of Kerfuffle.

The Man Bites Dog Cards

There are two types of cads. First, are the word cards. Each card has a word or small cluster of words on them. These can be nouns like singer or market. Or they can be verbs like downsize or jilted by. They can also be descriptive words like bizarre or new, Then there are the works that can have multiple means such as nails and model. All of them have a point value.

Second are the exclusive cards. These cards are a great find as they double the score.

Playing Man Bites Dog

To start, every player is dealt five cards. Next, players evaluate their cards to see if they wish to discard any of them. They may discard up to three of the cards. For each card that was discarded, a new card is dealt.

Next, the dealer goes first to put down a headline. The headlines can be funny or serious but they must make a proper headline. For example, “Green DNA Dunk” doesn’t form a headline. What does it mean? On the other hand, “Green DNA saves dunk lady” does make a headline. The DNA was green and it saved the lady in the dunk tank. They don’t have to make logical sense just grammar sense.

After making a headline, and maybe having to defend it and win over other players, a player adds up the numbers on the card to make her score.

When a player plays the exclusive card at the end of their headline, they score double the points for the round. It pays to have the exclusive.

If a player can’t make a headline (very rare) then they score 0 for the round.

A new dealer then shuffles the deck and deals out five new cards.

Winning Man Bites Dog

The first player to reach 500 points win the game. When there are more than one player who have reached 500 points in the same round, the player with the highest score wins.

What We Like

First, we like the creativity of this game. We’re all for games that let us think outside the box—and argue our for our points.

Next, we like that this game is a fast playing game. It takes only a few minutes to play and you can shorten the time by playing only a few rounds or to a lower score level.

We also like that it plays the same with two or three or more players.

Last, we like that it takes less room on the shelf but is in a sturdy box. No cardboard sleeve box that will rip and be too small for when the cards expand (as they will do over time).

What We Don’t Like

First, as Canadians we found that there are some words that we struggle with, especially our kids who don’t really know what Wall St is. Of course, these are learning opportunities. Next, the game doe get a little repetitive, especially when you end up with the same words.

In truth, some of us found it a bit hard to get into the swing of things as headlines are not like any other type of sentence out there, but after a few coaching lessons and a few play through, we all go the hang of it.

The Last Word

If you’ve ever dreamed of working for a high powered newspaper or if you just like word play games, then you will enjoy Man Bites Dog. It’s fun and fast and makes you think of the craziest things that will get you a great laugh. We do recommend adding Man Bites Dog to your Family Game Shelf.

Shop here for Man Bites Dog to add it to your shelf. Canadians can shop here.

This is a University Games game. You can check out their website here.

Rating:

Pros: creative, size & quality, fast
Cons: a bit repetitive
Mom: grammar, creative thinking