Intro
My brother-in-law has the original Sounds Fishy. We took it on holiday with us to Spain for 2 weeks last year and had an absolute blast playing it, getting through every single included question. It was super fun for all ages from 9 to 69 and everyone in between. It also played very well at 9 players, which is very rare for a game, and I’ve been recommending it to anyone who will listen ever since.
However, the box is fairly small to begin with so I was surprised to find out it had a new Sounds Fishy Travel Version. I’ve now had a chance to play it for a while so let’s dig into how it plays compared to the original and which version you should buy.
First Impressions
My immediate first thought when I saw the Sounds Fishy Travel Version is how cute it looked. It’s around an eighth of the size of the original and it’s packaged in a box the shape of a sardine tin. I opened it up and the components are definitely a lot different to the original with simple cards replacing the red and blue fish components of its older brother. It feels a little cheaper because of it but for half the price, that is completely reasonable.
Intro
My brother-in-law has the original Sounds Fishy. We took it on holiday with us to Spain for 2 weeks last year and had an absolute blast playing it, getting through every single included question. It was super fun for all ages from 9 to 69 and everyone in between. It also played very well at 9 players, which is very rare for a game, and I’ve been recommending it to anyone who will listen ever since.
However, the box is fairly small to begin with so I was surprised to find out it had a new Sounds Fishy Travel Version. I’ve now had a chance to play it for a while so let’s dig into how it plays compared to the original and which version you should buy.
First Impressions
My immediate first thought when I saw the Sounds Fishy Travel Version is how cute it looked. It’s around an eighth of the size of the original and it’s packaged in a box the shape of a sardine tin. I opened it up and the components are definitely a lot different to the original with simple cards replacing the red and blue fish components of its older brother. It feels a little cheaper because of it but for half the price, that is completely reasonable.
The player count is capped at 8, which is a shame but again very understandable. The price point is very good value and so they’ve done what they can to keep the game as intact as possible while bringing their costs down to deliver the game for that money. It’s competing with other travel games like Uno, etc… and it does it very well. The scoring has been simplified, which I don’t think was necessary but could make it easier for kids to understand it if that was their aim.
How It Plays
For those who haven’t played the original, the active player takes a card with a piece of trivia on it, for example “What was it illegal to do in Oklahoma until 1905?”. On the back of the card, everyone except the active player can see the answer.
A fish (or in this case fish cards) for each non-active player are shuffled and dealt out. One is blue while the others are red. The player with the blue one has to tell the truth while the players with the red ones must lie.
The active player then scores points based on how many red herrings they can turn over and can quit at any time banking the points they earn, creating an engaging push your luck mechanic. Blues score points based on being picked by the guesser and reds score points for not being picked as a lie.
It’s very simple and very fun. It’s a great feeling as a bluffer, avoiding detection, as a blue fish holder for sewing the seeds of doubt about your answer, and as a guesser for seeing through the murky waters and netting yourself a clean sweep.
Since the cards in the Sounds Fishy Travel Version are also in the original, there is no point in getting both. So here are the plus points to each edition to help you decide which one is best for you.
What makes the original better than the travel version?
– Having 100 cards instead of just the 50 that come in the travel version makes the game last a lot longer and have double the replayability factor.
– The fish components are really cool.
– The scoring is much better. If you’re the red herring, you get points for how many of the active player’s guesses didn’t target you, while as the blue herring you got extra points for being picked earlier. The travel version removes that and just gives a single point to each for being flipped/ not flipped, taking away some of the drama.
– It is better value per card. At only £16, but with double the questions, it makes it a very slightly better cost per hour of play.
– You can play at 9 or 10 players. Most of the time I’ve spent playing this game has been at 9 players so that is a big plus for me, but if you only plan to play it with 4-8 then it’s not something that you would take into consideration.
What makes the travel version better than the original?
– It’s cheaper. At just £9, it offers very similar gameplay to the original but for a fraction of the price. If you’re not sure you’ll even play all 50 cards because you’re taking lots of games on holiday with you, then it’s not really a consideration that you only get 50 instead of 100.
– It’s much smaller. While the original is still small and easily taken on holiday as we did, you could take 8 games this size in place of just the original box. Great if you like to take a variety of tiny games with you on holiday.
– The box is hard wearing and not cardboard so you don’t need to worry about damage from overzealous baggage handlers, a toddler spilling or an uncle divebombing in the pool after his 6th San Miguel.
Replayability
A little note on replayability of both versions. Once you run out of questions, that’s it. The game relies on hidden knowledge so when that knowledge is known, it can’t be replayed until enough time has passed that everyone has forgotten all the trivia. For some people who have better memories, that could be years.
This game is here for a good time, not a long time and I’m still happy to recommend it despite this. There is a bonus pack of new questions from Big Potato Games to satiate your thirst if you’re still gagging for more once the trivia cards run out and it retails for around £20 for another 100 of them.
Final Thoughts From Me
If I had £9 to spend on a fun bluffing trivia game for all the family and/ or wanted to take quite a few games on holiday with me, I would definitely get the Sounds Fishy Travel Version. But if I had a bit more to spend and was only taking one or two games with me on holiday, the original edition with its better components, more satisfying scoring and double the amount of question cards would be my pick.
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
75%
