Cost: $30 From: Family Games, (800) 291-1176 Players: 4+ Playing Time: 45-60 minutes Type of game: Party Complexity: 2 Skill level: 6 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 3.1, Winter 1994
Headline Deadline is kind of like Outburst with news headlines. Players split into two teams. One team reads a headline from a card. The other appoints one member as "head writer." For the next thirty seconds, that team shouts out things relating to the headline. The head writer frantically scribbles down as many of these as possible. When time expires, the team moves its token forward one space for each item on their list which matches one of the four items on the card.
To make things more interesting, the team then rolls a special die. If the value matches the score they just received, they double their move. If they also began on a space with a clock picture, they triple their move. The teams then swap roles. The first team to reach the end of the track by exact count wins.
Simple enough. An Outburst-style game based on news events sounds like a kick. And, executed properly, it could be. But it's not.
The big problem is the inanity of the cards. The headlines don't merely describe an event, they usually spell out the answers too. For instance, one card reads, "Simon and Garfunkel reunion fills a large New York City park." The four items on the card are "Paul", "Art", "Central", and "1981". Hardly a mindbender.
It seems like 90% of the cards involve a year, and there's nothing to stop you from just writing as many years as you can. There's no penalty for non-matching items. Most cards involving people give the last name and have the first name as an answer. And many of the same people keep popping up— Streisand and Anka appeared at least three times each in one game. The uniformity of the cards is what ultimately dooms the game— they're all constructed in the same way, and guessing the answers soon becomes child's play.
It's always a shame to see a decent idea ruined by poor execution, and Headline Deadline is a perfect example. If I were to add a card, it would read, "New party game disappoints reviewer."