Pummel Party

Pummel Party is built for noisy local multiplayer, where the point is to stir up trouble, laugh at it, and move on to the next board game-style round. By our assessment, its strongest feature is the sheer variety of minigames and the way a match keeps changing shape from one round to the next. The downside is also familiar: party games like this depend a lot on having the right group, because the jokes land less well when nobody is in the mood for chaos. In play it tends to feel more like a social argument wrapped in minigame rules than a serious competition, which is the attraction if you want that kind of evening. It sits among the rowdier party games rather than the careful skill games, and it is not trying to be elegant. Pummel Party is most useful when a group wants mess over mastery.