Codenames in the hit party game you know and love and have probably had the pleasure of playing at least once. The game comes in the original form with words, Pictures which add graphics over words and Duet for a 2 player version. The game has released other IP editions as well such as Marvel and Disney. Well today we are going to look at the XXL versions of the Pictures and Duet game and see how they stack up.
Codenames is designed by Vlaada Chvatil and illustrated by Tomas Kucerovsky and various other illustrators. It is published by Czech Games Edition (CGE) and is designed for 4+ players.
Codenames Pictures is setup with two teams split into equal size and skill. One member of each team is the spymaster and everyone sits opposite their spymaster as field operatives for their team. 20 pictures are arranged on the table in a 5 x 4 grid and a key card is placed so that only the spymasters can see it. Blue squares for the blue team, red for the red team, pale spots for innocent bystanders and the black square is an assassin. The starting team is on the sides of the key card-they have 8 pictures and the other team has 7 pictures to guess. First team to get them all wins!
Teams compete by having the spymaster give a clue than a number that the members of their team, the field operatives must guess. If the pictures matches their team, an agent card of that color covers it and the team may continue to guess. Picking the opposite team or a bystander will end the turn. Picking the assassin will end the game and the other team wins!
Codenames Duet offers a cooperative word game for 2 or more players where you are your partner sit at opposite ends of the table. You created a 5 x 5 grid of words in the middle and the 15 green agent cards are placed to the side along with the assassin card. There are 9 timer tokens that look like the innocent bystanders in the other games. The key card is placed so that each layer can only see one side of it. Each side of the card has 9 correct words in green, 3 assassins and bystanders.
The goal of the game is to guess all 15 words in 9 turns or less. You are both giving clues for 9 green words, but some overlap giving a total of 15. The clues given work the same, a word and a number for your partner to guess. If they are green, it is correct and you cover it with the green agent card. If it the black spot, it is the assassin and you both lose. If it a tan spot for you, cover it with a timer token with the arrow pointing towards your partner. You don’t want to cover the word because it may be one your partner wants you to guess still.
Turns go back and forth, with a timer token either going on a missed guess or your partner taking it in front of them to indicate the end of the round. Once all green words are guessed, the player wins the game!
Impressions
I love Codenames and all the different versions that they have put out. I have them all in my collection and have gotten a lot of play with them especially with family. It is an easy game and popular one to put on the table at extended family gatherings-the ease of entry for this game is perfect for young and old alike. It scales so well with any amount of players and presents a fun and interesting challenge on the table depending on who you are partnered with!
The XXL versions of these games bring something I had thought about but never really considered a possibility-size. The game is awesome but in the middle of a full table with 6, 8, 10 plus people crowded around it, the words can be hard to read and the pictures can be hard to see sometimes. The XXL version really jumps that way up, making it so much easier to see and explore the pictures and words with ease. I can’t believe how much this really improved the gameplay.
The other great thing about these games is how easily they smash together. You can take the words from Codenames and Codenames Duet and build a huge library of words! You can switch out the words and add the pictures to Codenames Duet and have a different game experience! The game is easily interchangeable and that lends itself to a different experience often when it hits our table.
Overall if you haven’t played Codenames-what are you waiting for?? You need to get in on this and see how awesome of an experience this game is. And if you have and already love it, can I recommend the XXL versions as an awesome level-up for the game you already know and love? It will give you a bigger and easier to access game with a big presence for your next gathering. Make sure to get this to your table soon!
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