In a face-off, the two players with matching symbols each try to come up with something that fits the category on the OTHER player’s card. Whoever shouts it out first, wins the face-off and takes the loser’s card to put in their winnings. Anomia is a super easy game to play and understand. So, if you have 2-5 people with you (plus yourself of course), ready to get their board gaming hats on, this game is perfect for you all! Anomia is clever in the fact that it knows that our minds are always thinking about something. What are you thinking about right now? I bet you're thinking about nothing now that I've made you ACTUALLY question yourself. But that's the thing, you are still thinking of something, even if not subconsciously. I know. The brain is a powerful thing. There are also wild cards that may flip out; so rather than a player’s play pile, put those in a central area near the draw piles so everyone can see. You’ll cover up any previous wild cards, as well.

It’s a simple game with a decent amount of replayability, although if you were to play consistently with the same group of friends answers may become repetitive.

End of the Game

But if two symbols around the table do match, or they match through a wild card, it’s time for a face-off! Anomia Face-Off It’s also definitely best at five or more players – that gives enough variety around the table to get lots of face-offs – and lots of laughs.

van Hees, S., Angwin, A., McMahon, K., & Copland, D. (2013). A comparison of semantic feature analysis and phonological components analysis for the treatment of naming impairments in aphasia. Neuropsychological rehabilitation, 23(1), 102–132. When the Draw Piles are depleted, the person with the most cards in their Winning Pile wins the round. Freed, D. B., & Marshall, R. C. (1995). The effect of personalized cueing on long-term naming of realistic visual stimuli. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 4(4), 105–108.

Object of the Game

Not to mention there’s a lot of screaming in the game as players try to spew out some answer. And if a youngster’s on the other end of that adult frantically pointing their way shouting out crazy stuff, it can be pretty intimidating. It was definitely surprising that our biggest fear turned out to be an asset in the funniest way. Recommended? Boyle, M. (2010). Semantic feature analysis treatment for aphasic word retrieval impairments: What’s in a name? Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 17(6), 411–422.