"The wonder ball goes round and round, to pass it quickly you are bound. If you're the one to hold it last, then for you the game is past, and you, are, out!" How many of us played that game when we were children, passing a ball around the circle with the poor soul stuck with it at the end of the rhyme getting evicted from the game? Pass the Bomb, as with Catch Phrase before it, takes the "hot potato" premise and builds a word game around it. But this game from Gibson's is more satisfying than last year's party game from Parker Brothers.
A game consists of thirteen rounds. At the start of each round a card is turned over to reveal 2-4 letters. Over the course of the round, players will try to come up with a word which contains those letters in sequence. To add a bit of spice, a special die determines where those letters may not appear— at the beginning of a word, at the end of a word, or no restriction.
At the heart of the game is a charming timer, about the size of a tennis ball, in the shape of a Keystone Cops-style bomb. When the timer is turned on, it ticks. A nice, steady, ominous tick-tick-tick. When you have the bomb, you must say a word which fits the criteria for the current round and which hasn't been said already, then pass the bomb to the player to your left. Sometime between ten and sixty seconds after the bomb starts ticking (it's random each time), it "explodes". If you're holding it when that happens, you claim the card used in that round. After thirteen rounds, whoever has the fewest cards is the winner. Ties are broken by a series of sudden death elimination rounds.
A simple idea, and largely well-executed. A simple rule eliminates any dodgy tactics like not taking the bomb when it's passed to you (it's considered yours as soon as the previous player makes an effort to hand it off). The only nits I have are that the timer's explosion could be a bit louder (it can be hard to hear), and it can get a little confusing when someone repeats a word or says one which doesn't fit the round's criteria. There are rules to cover this, but it can get a bit fiddly and when the timer's ticking, you don't want to stop for a debate.
Pass the Bomb has style Catch Phrase lacked. People immediately want to play when they get a look at the timer. The panic striking when the bomb makes its way back to you and you've got no new word in mind is delicious. A trifle expensive for what you get, but Pass the Bomb is anything but its namesake.