Party games often prove the old saw, "There's nothing new under the sun." The most successful party game of all time was just a packaging of trivia questions. It's nice when something different comes along, and even better when it's good. Thlink isn't perfect but it doesn't just regurgitate common ideas, either.
Play centers around a tableau of cards with photographs of a scene or drawings of an item. A separate deck of cards determines a category, such as "Song titles" or "Parts of a car." Players then have thirty seconds to scan the images and try to make associations between the category and as many cards as possible. When time expires, the current player snatches all the cards for which he's thought of links. The other players bid for the right to do the same with the remainder, with the high bidder taking that many cards.
To claim a card, a player must announce his link. Suppose the category is "Song titles" and there are cards showing the Statue of Liberty, a stereo, and a stack of books. You might link them with New York New York, On the Radio, and Turn the Page. The question, of course, is how broad can your connection be? Can you get away with The Alphabet Song for the last picture, reasoning that books are full of letters? That depends on who you're playing with. And Thlink has a rather nice system for adjudicating the inevitable disputes— one which our group may well adopt for other games.
Everyone gets issued two Challenge cards at the start of the game, which get played to challenge a player's link. The challenger explains why she thinks the link is bogus, then the challenged player offers a rebuttal. Nobody else may speak during this process. Once each player has had a say, the other players vote (with ties going to the defense). If the defender loses the challenge he must discard the disputed card and an additional penalty card. The winner of the challenge gets to keep the Challenge card— so if you challenge capriciously, you'll find yourself unable to do so when it counts.
Players keep cards from successful links, and replacements are dealt to fill in the gaps in the tableau. A new round begins with a new category and starting player. After ten rounds (to be fair, adjust the length so each player has the same number of times at bat), the player with the most cards wins.
Thlink isn't perfect. The right cards can make a category a snap, and some categories are easier than others. And inevitably, someone will get disgruntled over a rejected link. It's important to allow creative links yet discourage tenuous ones. But these quibbles aside, Thlink offers a nice change of pace from the usual party game grind.