ImaginIff….

The Funniest Game you can imagine 3 to 8 players Ages 8 and up

The first time that I saw the cool black box of ImaginIff I was curious. But I decide to pass. A few weeks later I was in the same second hand store, when the box called to me again and I thought sure why not? I’m so glad I did. This game has turned into one of our favorites.

It’s such a favorite, that we created our own version called Pretend That. You can check it out here.

The Object

The object of ImaginIff is to be the first player to make it to the finish line by matching answers with other players.

Set Up

The board is made of wipe off material. Before starting, you write all of the players names on the outer ring of the board. If there are more spaces than there are players, then you fill in the blanks with people that all the players know. The gray token is placed on this outer ring. All players get cards numbered 1 to 6 in their mover colour.

Play

The first player rolls the dice. Next, she moves the gray token in either direction the number of spaces rolled. The name that the token lands on becomes the subject for the next step.

Next, the player takes a card from the box and reads the question using the name from the first step. Then all players chose the number that they feel best fits. The players each takes that number card and places it face down on the table. When all players have decided then they all turn over their cards. Every player who choose the most popular choice moves ahead one square on the board. The player whose turn it is moves forward two spaces if she also chose the most popular answer.

If there are two answers that have the most votes then all players who chose either answer moves forward.

On the rare occasion that everyone chooses a different answer, no one moves and the turn is over.

Play then moves clockwise to the next player. The second player then rolls the dice, moves the gray token and reads the question with the new subject.

Challenge

On the outer ring, there is one space with the word challenge written on it. When a player lands the gray token on this square then he chooses one other player to play against. Next, the player rolls the dice again and moves the gray token to a name. That name is then used as the subject of the next question card as usual. However, this time only the player whose turn it is and the chosen player choose an answer card. If the players’ answers match then they both move forward 4 spaces. On the other hand, if their answers do not match, then both players move back 2 spaces.

Bonus Cards

There are a few special cards in the question deck. When a player draws a bonus card, he then keeps it in his hand. At some point when he feels confident of a match, he plays this bonus card with his number card. If he matches with the most popular answer, he moves the number of spaces on the bonus card and the regular amount of spaces. If he does not match, then he does not move. In either case, the bonus card is placed in the discard pile.

Winning ImaginIff

The first player who reaches the finish line on the board is the winner.

Tie Breaker

If there are two or more players who land on the finish line at the same time then a tie breaker round is played. All players choose answers but only the tied players score. This continues until one player is declared the winner.

What We Like

We like that this game is personalized. Not only does it make it fun to guess what kind of hamburger topping your family and friends would be but it makes it so that the game is different every time. The questions are also something we enjoy as they are often funny, making us laugh.

Next, the quality of this game is good. Even the wipe off is still in good shape.

What We Don’t Like

First, some of the questions are outdated. There are questions with music and other pop culture subjects that the girls don’t know. This makes it challenging to play. We either explain who Willie Nelson is or we skip the card.

Second, some of the other cards are little wired. This made it more weird when we put our cat as one of the choices—what kind of house the cat would be? Lesson learned; the cat is not a good subject for this game.

Lastly, it seems like we almost always move the same amount of squares. In fact, once we had three out of four of us on the finial square (the fourth was only one square behind). This could be due to the lack of using the challenge square or the fact that we think alike. We haven’t had the opportunity to play this with a larger group and I believe that it would be a different experience.

Conclusion

ImaginIff is a fun game that is a little out of date. Overall, it is a fun game that is different every time. If you can find a copy of ImagineIff second hand we would recommend this game for your Family Game Shelf. And you can check out Pretend That, our spin of this game here.

To get your copy of Imagin Iff here. Canadians can get their Imagin Iff from here.

Rating:

Pros: quality, personalized, funny
Cons: outdated
Mom: creative thinking

And if you’re looking for other games for your Family Game Shelf, read our reviews here.
For more fun see our Card Game section and our Dice Game section.