Game Overview: A trivia game where you compete against your family and friends answering questions in categories of Who Am I, What Am I, Where Am I, and the Hard Ass question.  Be the first to make it around the board by correctly answering the questions to determine who is the smart ass among your family and friends.

Box Contents: Inside the box you will find a nice plastic storage compartment.  This has areas to store each of the cards and an oversized place in the middle to store the dice and game pieces.  The game pieces are cardboard donkeys with a number on them and a plastic color base.  Two  plastic 12 sided oversized dice are included.  They feel a little cheap, but work well for what is needed in the game.  The 461 cards are on the thin side.  The game board rests on top of the plastic storage compartment and is well made with a thick cardboard that is 19.5 inches by 19.5 inches when folded out onto the table.  The only complaint that we have is that the storage compartments for the cards need to be a little deeper.  The top few cards of each deck don’t quite fit and can come off of the stack of cards inside the box.

Clarity of Rules: The instructions are very easy to read and understand and only cover two pages of the four page paper manual.  The entire manual is text with no pictures, which is fine for this game.

Game Play:  When starting the game, players all put their selected game tokens on the starting space.  The first player rolls the plastic category die.  The color on the die corresponds to the card type that will be read What Am I?-Blue, Where Am I?-Green, and Who Am I?-Orange.

Each card has 10 facts.  The first fact read is usually obscure and most players won’t be able to figure out the answer from that one.  As you progress through each fact, they get easier and easier.  Any player can yell out the answer when they think they know it.  If they are correct, they roll the movement die and move their game piece that many spaces along the board.

If they were incorrect in their answer, they are not able to answer again for the card currently in play.

After reading all of the facts, if no one is able to answer it correctly then the person reading the card gets to roll the movement die to move along the board path.

As you move around the board, there are three different special spaces you may encounter.

Dumb Ass Space x2- When landing on this space, you must sit out the next round and are not able to answer the next the question that is read.  If it was going to be your turn to read the card, this is instead moved to the next player so that you truly do skip your turn.

Hard Ass Space x3- When landing here, you have a chance for the bonus question that can be found on the Hard Ass cards.  Only the player landing here will get a chance to answer.  If answered correctly, they roll the movement die.  If they are unable to, no additional action is taken.

Kick Ass Space x2- If you end up here after rolling the movement die, you must move back three spaces on the board.

Play continues to move around the board until someone rolling the movement die moves into the final spot on the board, titled The End which resides on the donkey’s back side.  An exact die roll is not needed

Replay Ability: As with any trivia game, there is a limit to how many times you can play it before you start getting into questions that you have seen before.  For this game, it will be a while before you see that with 461 question cards including the 56 Hard Ass cards that have 2 questions on each card.  If you can, it is best to put the questions you have seen at the bottom of the deck and don’t shuffle the cards.  That way, you will continue to see the cards that are new to you.

 

Appropriate Audience: The game suggests 12+.  Don’t let the name of the game fool you, there isn’t anything obnoxious about this game if you want to let kids play it.  Someone younger than 12 can play it but ultimately it comes down to being knowledgeable across the different questions.

 

What We Liked/Didn't Like: The family enjoys playing the game and how quickly you are able to finish a game.  Some trivia games can drag out.  Smart Ass typically plays in less than 30 minutes.  It does try to address the issue that you see with other trivia games where someone with the most general knowledge can run away with the win.

This is addressed with players landing on the dumb ass space which handicaps that player from answering the question, taking turns asking the questions instead of answering them, as you progress through the facts on each card they get easier and easier, and if no one knows the answer the person reading the question “wins”.

With that being said, there are some questions that the younger players have absolutely no answer for.  This puts them at a huge disadvantage at times in the game.

There is a learning factor here for everyone playing, as you will likely come away from the game learning facts that you did not know before.

Add-ons/Other Releases:  A travel version of Smart Ass is available, which can be used as a booster pack for Smart Ass.  Also available is Dumb Ass, which plays differently in that all players are read a multiple choice question.  You must choose the wrong answer and all players have the ability to correctly answer the question by using cardboard tokens for their answer.