You've Been Sentenced Board Game Review...

Thanks to McNeill Designs, we recently had the chance to review this fun board game, You've Been Sentenced:

About McNeill Designs:

"Founded in 2004, we at McNeill Designs have never considered ourselves an ordinary game development firm. In fact, we prefer to title ourselves a “Think Tank,” where creative ideas are allowed to run wild and innovation isn’t a request, but a requirement. Now, they say that great minds think alike. However, at McNeill Designs we sometimes find just the opposite, due to the sheer number of revolutionary game, novelty, and product ideas generated by our 40+ team members. In 2005 this creativity was put to the test when we brought our first product to market. As our flagship offering, the unique card game “You’ve Been Sentenced!™” now sets the tone for all future McNeill Designs’ endeavors. The result of thousands of man-hours in research, development, design and redesign, this game succeeds where others have failed, by making sentence forming an entertaining, challenging, fun, and easy-to-learn game. So what will we think of next? As it turns out, we've thought of quite a lot. Several spin-off versions of “You’ve Been Sentenced! ™” are now underway with language translations versions, an educational color-coded version, and licensed specialty versions due to hit the market throughout 2006 - 2008. We have already launched our second game, “Twisted Fish” and are currently developing several other unique games and products for 2007. "

About You've Been Sentenced:

"For ages 8 and up, 30-40 min to play, 3-10 players, with extensive rule variations available on the website. The latest in the evolution of games, “You've been Sentenced!” is the first game in history to really turn making sentences into a very funny, playable, and challenging game. Using a unique word deck of pentagon shaped cards containing conjugations of funny words, famous names from throughout history, familiar places, and wild cards, players have to make grammatically correct and justifiable sentences. The real fun begins when players have to read their sentences out loud and explain what they mean to the rest of players. They form the jury and vote thumbs up or down on whether the sentence and justification stand and the points are scored. 540 cards with over 2,500 words insure billions of possible sentences so the game is never repetitive and has unlimited re-play value.
Multiple other methods of play are available on our website that turn “You've been Sentenced!” into not just a game, but a full game system! We even have a lesson plan to turn “You’ve Been Sentenced!” into a classroom teaching tool. This game makes learning grammar and sentence construction fun and easy.
Bringing friends and families together“You’ve Been Sentenced!” appeals to all ages and skill levels. Socially interactive, players become members of the Jury and can ask a player to justify and defend the grammar, sense and meaning of the sentence. The player has a chance to convince the Jury to accept their often outrageous and hilarious sentences. Never the same game twice. A word deck with over 2,500 individual words, plus Wild Cards, ensures an infinite number of sentences, guaranteeing maximum re-play value. You’ve Been Sentenced!” offers unlimited play, without ever becoming stale or repetitive."

What we thought: When we first heard about You've Been Sentenced, I was super impressed with the long list of awards it had received. McNeill Designs games have been given awards from Oppenheim, iParenting, Spewgie, Dr. Toy, FAO Schwarz and more!! Since bringing it into out home and adding it to our weekly Family Game Night, we have come to understand why it is so highly praised and awarded. This game is ridiculously fun AND funny and even though are kids are fairly young, they still had a great time playing along with us. I know it will be a wonderful learning tool when they get a little older. I love that it was easy to learn and has so many variations...this game will never get old! You've Been Sentenced is another game that will be added to our Game Night repertoire, no matter which crowd we're entertaining...it has been fun for everyone! We recommend You've Been Sentenced to game-lovers everywhere!! ABCD Diaries gives McNeill Designs and You've Been Sentenced an A+!!

Buy It: Find You've Been Sentenced online or check the store listing for a retailer near you!  Update: This game can now be found at Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble and Kohls!


Disclosure: ABCD Diaries was given a board game for review purposes only. We were in no other way compensated. The opinions expressed in this post are ours and ours alone.


10/27/11:This is an updated post from last year...there is no giveaway for this game at this time.