Best Party Games

Best Party Games

Wednesday November 3, 2010 12:13 am PDT
By Ben Tan, Yahoo! Southeast Asia
Game on!
Yahoo! Singapore Weekend Edition's "Planning The Ultimate Party" series aims to help you plan memorable events with insider info and success-proven tips. In the second part of the series, Ben Tan gives the run down on party games.
The music is rocking, the food is excellent and the drinks are plentiful. Yet somehow there is a disconnect among the revelers. Conversations are stunted. People seem lost. A general buzz is lacking about the place.
Cue the party game.
Whether its an intimate gathering among close friends or a big bash, these games are sure to liven up any atmosphere and serves as an ice breaker.
Charades
A simple game that exhibits people's improvisation and acting skills, and is a good way to get a lot of people involved in the festivities. Played by 2 teams acting out words or phrases, the aim of the game is to guess as many of them correctly as possible.
With crazy categories like "Porn movie titles" and "Most annoying people you've ever met", Charades can be that laugh-a-minute party energizer to get everybody in the mood for a good time.
Remember to have your cameras ready!
You will need: Lots of imagination and a healthy sense of humour!
Circle of death
In this game, players do certain actions that are pre determined for each card. Usually, cards are shuffled and dealt into a circle around an empty cup, and each player takes turn drawing cards, and the players must participate in the instructions corresponding to the drawn card.
The beauty of this game is that it is very flexible and can contain an assortment of mini games that encourage drinking, you'll be amazed at how everyone starts to ‘sabotage' each other, with each praying that they won't have to drink out of the King's cup!
You will need: A deck of cards, cups, and alcohol. For non alcoholic parties, water will suffice, though no one is allowed to go to the bathroom until the end of the game.
Power hour
This is one of the ultimate ‘guys night out' games. Every guy has a shot glass in front of him, with a few cans of beer handy. All you need to do is chug a big gulp of beer every minute for the next hour and beyond. Skip a gulp and you lose. Puke out the beer and you're thrown out as well. The last man standing wins.
It sounds easy, but like every good drinking game, take this lightly at your own peril! The least number of shots I've seen taken was 18. And the most? 150. Can you top that? Girls are more than welcome to try, some of you might even give the guys a run for their money!
You will need: Glasses for every participant and lots of beer. You could use hard liquor although I would highly NOT recommend it.
Never have I ever
Time to get everyone to let their innermost secrets out! The game is about people taking turns to say "Never have I ever ______". And for those people who have done what that person has not does a forfeit.
You'll be amazed at the revelations and might even see your friends in a different light after all the juicy details have spilled out.
You will need: An open mind.
7 up
7 up is a game that can push your maths skills to the limits. Players sit in a circle and start counting from 1 in a direction. Every time the number 7, or its multiples are called, replace it by saying "Up". So numbers like 7,14,17, 21 are out of bounds. The first person to break the cycle does a forfeit.
To make things more challenging, you can add in extra rules, like "No finger pointing", "You can only hold a cup with your left hand" and "Change directions at every "Up".
With a bit of booze, this game can be absolutely hilarious.
You will need: Alcohol. Calculators and arithmetic tables are strictly prohibited.