There are a number of ways to stimulate the senses in gaming that I have run into. Visual beauties to entertain the eye, different surfaces and components to explore through touch and even some with humorous or engaging sounds to please the ears. One world I have not seen in gaming is smell-but what if there was such a game as that? Today we are going to explore a game that does just that in Aroma!
Aroma is designed and illustrated by Odd Hackwelder. It is designed for 2-4 players and plays anywhere from 20-60 mins. It is produced by Organic Aromas.
This game is unique to anything I have played before. Let’s start with the most unique part of this-the essential oils. It comes with 20 bottles, each 2mL of essential oils. These include 4 different categories like Plants, Trees, Floral and Citrus. They are 100% natural per the booklet and each are listed as blended carrier oils. They are not to placed on your skin and instead they recommend rolling them on to a strip of paper as you play the game.
There are four different game types in the box and I want to describe each of them and what the gameplay entails.
- Revolve
Here players are taking turns at the same time with one bottle rotating around to every player for the round. Each player takes one sniff and then passes it to the next player. Guesses as to the identity of the oil is placed face down in front of the players and then revealed all at the same time. Players who guessed the correct oil move their player piece one space forward.
The game continues as players advance over the course of four rounds. The player who advances the most over the rounds is the winner. Ties are broken through a sudden death smell of four different oils.
This game is fun to see the differences that people guess at and there are definitely some different answers as we played it.
2. Collect
In this version players are looking for all the aromas that belong in their category.Each player chooses a game board and places it to form an empty square in the middle with the oils there.
Players will take turns selecting an oil from their tray and choosing a player to smell it and guess where it is from. Players keep going until they are able to correctly identify one of their oils. Plays continue until a player collects all the oils belonging to their category.
Collect was fun game that let you keep pushing to find your own scents in the oils. Mixing up the oils in your tray is important to keep the players trying to find theirs from memorizing where you put them.
3. Discover
In Discover players try to identify their five aromas faster than their opponents do. Each player will get a game board and place it in front of them. Each gets a tray and places 5 random bottles in it.
The starting player selects an oil smells it and identifies the oil without revealing it. They then challenge another player who will either agree or disagree and then they will get to move their cube. Play continues clockwise until a player reaches center first.
Discover was the first one we played and it was fun to see the back and forth between the players as we all took our turns trying to move forward. The disagree choices added a wrinkle where players tried to move more if they guessed and got it right. This one moved well as we played.
4. Survive
Here players try to eliminate others by naming their aromas. This one gives each player 5 oils and the tags to identify them face-down along with a ID card with all of them listed.
Players try to guess an oil in front of any other player and eliminate it from their stash in front of them. If you guess it correctly the oil is removed from the game. When a player loses all 5 they are out. Play continues until there is only one player left standing.
This one was a lot of fun trying to jockey around the table knocking players out if you could from the game. I really enjoyed the back and forth of how you could challenge other players in this one.
Overall
Aroma is a unique game experience like I have never played before. Utilizing smell for a game was completely new for me and I enjoyed the difference experience it was. Using the small strips of material is a must so that players are not touching the bottles to their noses or skin when you play. This kept it sanitary throughout gameplay.
We played it as a family and my kids really enjoyed the silly fun we had. I did learn some smells for oils that i was unaware of, so that was a fun learning experience in the game. A lot of them were unique scents that none of us had ever experienced. The familiarity with the different oils started to catch on but there was definitely some difficulty with remembering them as you went.
Overall Aroma is a learning experience for how to identify the different types of essential oils out there in the world. It was a wide variety of different types and in that I appreciated the education. It is less a game than it is an experience in the world of essential oils, so if that sounds like something you would enjoy this game may be the right choice for you.
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