Electronic Pictionary Man Game
by Mattel
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Toys and Games Reviews of Electronic Pictionary Man Game
Customer Review: We had a BLAST with this toy!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Let me start off by saying that NEITHER my husband nor I are 'board game' people. Aside from children's games that I've learned to play because I have two young ones, I haven't the slighest clue on how to play Monopoly, card games and others.
We're trying to come up things to do as family that will get everyone involved so I thought that this would be good and that we could alter some things for our young 4 and 7 year old boys. Granted our 4yr old is too young to have his own turn, he happily participated but now our 7 yr old was able to get about half the 'subjects' and play along. My husband and I however HAD A BLAST! In fact, we all did!
Basically, you have this hard plastic 'man', a rectangle 'block' that comes apart for storing your pens, cloth to wipe off the drawings and a score card, and a circular shape 'pedastal' thing...both the circular and rectangular items can be used as props in the game. The rag, 2 dry erase pens and score card are included as are the batteries for "PICTIONARY MAN" as we call him.
Basically you divide up in 2 teams and one designated person pushes a button under his foot. In the screen under his 'feet', a word or phrase will appear. That person then to the best of their ability draws on the man, the circular or rectangle shapes to try to get their team to guess what the word is. If your team gets it right, you get a point. Whoever gets I believe it's 5 points, wins the game.
My husband was REALLY reluctant to play and honestly, he ended up having just as much fun as the boys and I did. I think this would be great for family get togethers, adult parties, a small family game night - even for couples.
I rated this a 4 in durability...ONLY because it's the hard plastic that doesn't 'give' like say tupperware would so if you drop it on tile or linoleum, I can see it cracking but other than that, it's extremely durable (as long as it doesn't get dropped). It's low maintenance (just add batteries when they run low) and replace the dry erase markers when they run dry. I love that this does NOT take up a lot of storage room, not very hard to understand at all and just FUN!!
I think what would make this game even BETTER though - actually I have to confess that my husband thought of it, is if they perhaps offered various cartridges based on skill level, genre and even age range...say a simple one that young kids could do when they started to learn how to read. HE even thought that an 'adult' version would appeal to adult audiences. I think they could even offer different cartridges in other languages such as Spanish and Japanese. YES, the game DOES allow you to scroll through various subjects but we thought that after playing for a while, it would be nice to have new questions and expand on it. We are NO WHERE near that now but we like it so much that we could see playing for years. We decided on the day that this game arrived that we'd make Wednesday nights 'Family game night'. In fact, we're all lighting up the fireplace tonight and playing this game first!
Overall, on a funfactor scale of 1 to 5, we rate this a 10!!!! Get it and add it to your barrel of laughter!!!
Customer Review: Electronic Pictionary Man is fun, easy to use and great for parties!
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Pictionary is a game that has become a staple in party games and to get a large number of people into groups and have an enjoyable time.
Mattel now brings us Electronic Pictionary Man and definitely introducing another fun way of enjoying the popular party game.
This time around, this game comes with a figure (which needs three AAA batteries), a round prop, a rectangle prop, 2 erasable markers, wipe cloth and the game rules.
The object is still the same, divide players into two teams and a team will select who will draw the clues on their turn. And of course, you change a person will draw the next clue on their turn.
The game is separated into the following categories:
People (Character, Celebrity, History)
Actions
Titles (Movie, Music, TV)
Role Play (Occupations and Pastimes)
Miscellaneous
So, instead of a dry erase board, you have the markers to write on the figure, the round or rectangle prop.
Under the figure is a digital screen and two buttons (and an on and off button). Push the large button and you will be given a clue, and then a brief time to think of what to draw and then the timer will start. Push the button again to stop the timer. If your team fails to answer the correct clue, you pass on the figure and props to the other team.
After 7 turns, Pictionary Man will then go into a challenge round and teams will see need to answer as many answers in the time allowed. And also teams can be allowed to steal points as well. The first team to reach 15 points can win the game.
So, an example of a clue is the film "Men In Black" how would you use the figure or the round or rectangle props as clues. Or another clue would be "librarian", "ballet dancer" or Roseanne Bar, how would you draw these? The game also features over 2,000+ clues, so plenty of clues and it's quite random, so you don't have to worry about getting the same clues over and over again in a round.
As for durability, they are pretty much hard plastic and the round and rectangle props can be opened to store things inside. The rectangle stores the marker wipes and you can even put the markers inside them.
As for the figure, it has a speaker and digital display on the bottom, it's pretty hard plastic but I wouldn't drop it from a high distance.
And I think that the battery life is quite long, especially since it has a sleep mode included.
As for the ease of use, it's actually quite easy to use. There are only two buttons and the digital display tells you which button to press (1) or (2).
I enjoy Pictionary Man because if you have a small group of people around a table, then it's quite fun to play. Also, because you get the three props, a little more creativity involved in how you use them.
All in all, highly recommended to those who love party games!
Customer Review: Fun For a While - but Limiting
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I was very excited to get this game - we are a huge game family, and we love regular pictionary. We opened it and played the instant it was delivered. While it was fun for a while, because of the novelty of it, the limitations inherent in the poor design grew increasingly aggravating and we tired of it after a few days.
The game includes a plastic man (who gives the word your team will guess on the bottom of his foot - very similar in style to the word delivery in 'catchphrase' - which by the way is an excellent game), 2 plastic 'props' (a rectangle and a circle), markers & a wipe-cloth, and a scoreboard. You are meant to either act out the word with the man & his props, or draw the word (or clues to the word) on the man and/or his props.
At first there was a lot of hilarity involving writing on a man or making the man act things out. But the poor design of this game imposes many limitations on what you can do. For example, he doesn't bend at all so there are many 'actions' and 'role plays' that would be easy for a person (or a bendable man) to act out - but which are impossible to act out with this guy. The 'props' are similarly limiting. We would try to draw on a prop to indicate what it was and then (awkwardly) have the man 'use' the prop... but it wound up being faster and easier to draw clues on the rectangular prop as if it were a blackboard... which sort of defeats the purpose of Pictionary Man. I think the lack of posability of the man is the number one problem with this game. Also it would be nice to be able to choose your own category (such as with catchphrase). Also occasionally the category given wound up having nothing at all to do with the word. We found the 'Challenge Round' to be an annoying complication. Lastly, and I didn't 'mark off' for this as it could just be my family - it would be better if the markers were retractable (instead of having caps) because in the frenzy of the game my furniture was frequently marked up.
All that said, we did have fun with this game for a time. Bottom Line - if someone else has this at their house, it is a fun way to spend an hour with your family, but it won't be enjoyable for long enough to justify buying it. This game will not, in my opinion, ever become a 'classic'.
Customer Review: Great Fun For Everyone
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I have to admit, I thought the concept was good, but had doubts the fun would last beyond the initial few games. I am happy to say I was wrong about that.
If you've ever played Pictionary before, you know the basic gameplay. This version adds some electronics to the selection of clues you must describe by drawing a picture and replaces the old paper and pencil with a smooth plastic character (and a few other shapes) along with a white-board marker and eraser. It's a neat idea to extend the concept.
On the foot of the Pictionary Character is a small screen which gives you the clues to describe to your teammates. You describe the clues by drawing on the Pictionary Character and the other shapes. You have a bit more freedom than the original Pitcionary and can draw on the various pieces in order to create a "cast" of characters and props to illustrate your clue.
The great thing about all of this is that it's an easy game for anyone to play, even a family with younger children. The first time we played with just a few people. It takes a little getting used to, drawing on a couple of pieces vs. drawing on one or two pieces of paper as with the original Pictionary, but most people will pick it up quickly. After a few tries, you'll find it is really quite fun. Everyone will enjoy the game, but I think the kids will like it more than the parents, and they will have alot more fun making the peices "act out" a clue.
The only concern I have with this game is that you have a limited pool of clues and you can't really buy an "expansion pack" because the clues are all built into the electronics (permanently I guess). Eventually, you may run out of or start to recognize past clues. Of course, you also get a little messy during gameplay, as you have to clean the Pictionary Man between plays, but it's fairly dry and washes right off so it's not a big deal. Also, some of the clues were challenging, and younger children might need help now and then.
All in all, if you liked Pictionary, you'll find Electronic Pictionary Man fun as well. Better yet, the kids can easily join the fun and it gives them a reason to be creative in a new way..
Customer Review: 2 1/2 Pithecanthro-nary Destrustus
Summary: 2 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
THis supposedly hi-tech version of the classic Pictionary game amply illustrates why simpler is often better. There's a lot of bells and whisles that don't amount to much (You get a lit-clue on the figure's foot bottom! Alarms go off! ...whatever), and the Pillbury Doughboy-like figure limits the relevance and range of the clues.
The basic idea was to go 3-D with a anatomically incorrect plastic figure that you draw on to try to illustrate a secret word. There's also a few flat surfaces of like material that on which you can also draw. A few problems: Some of the clues fit the person or occupation category (which makes the "doughboy" handy, but some don't. SOme of the categories are misleading too. As a clue, you give your team mates a category related to your word, but that word or concept (i.e.,the one they're trying to "get" from your picture) doesn't REALLY fit that category. This lack of precision leads to frustration and feelings of inequity if the other team gets better clues.
Several times, we just ditched the figure, and drew pictures on the rectangular piece of plastic. We could have done just as well with a piece of paper as in the original game, and not paid as much. Directions are somewhat confusing, with twists that are supposed to give the other team a chance to catch up. This aspect was unclear to us, although it must be said that the game experience did little to motivate us to delve very deeply into game-playing variations.
As for using charades... well, you can just decide to add that to regular pictionary, Moreover, the brief duration of your turn doesn't leave you much time to communicate using nonverbals. Our fun-loving group of seven was generally disappointed, and did not feel this version was better than the original. Perhaps we're just traditionalists, but the game didn't feel very well thought out; for us, it seemed the emphasis was on how to make Pictionary different rather than how to make it better.