Unless you’re wealthy, charming or exceedingly attractive, trying to strike up that special spark at a bar is hard work. BarCards is an action-trivia game where up to eight of your friends try to find people who can answer questions or perform activities as described on their particular card. Each player gets three questions, with a minimum of five minutes to get someone to answer their question. The loser would then have to supply the winner with a drink.
The question selection is the most important part of this sort of game, and BarCards has an excellent variety of questions. Some are silly; for example, “Stand up, do the pose and say, ‘I’m the king of the world’,” while others test pure trivia knowledge, such as. “Find someone who can name three best actor Oscar winners and their movies.” Regardless of format, it’s not inconceivable that you’d be able to find someone at bar to answer your challenge. Thus BarCards accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do – helps you break the ice.
Still, BarCards is far from perfect. Although you’re allowed to customize the length of time someone has to answer a question to very unnecessary lengths, you are somehow unable to set up a game where each player gets more than three questions. On one hand, it makes sense to try and keep games light and quick, but if you’re going to give someone more than 30 minutes to answer one question, you should probably let them ask a few more questions, too.
Similarly, there is no tie-breaker scenario built into the game. If two players have the first two questions right and the first player answers his third question correctly, he’s named the winner of the game. There is great potential for some sort of lighting-round final round, but it’s not to be found here.
While the simple layout of the game makes perfect sense for a quick trivia game, the lack of customization in many areas makes BarCards a more frustrating experience than it should be. It’s still worth $1, but it could be do so much more with a little effort.
