Words of a Feather Review

Our family tends to bring “word games” to the table when we have big family events. There’s always a word game on the table around Thanksgiving and Christmas. When the parents drop by around birthdays, chances are that we’re going to play Just One or Werewords. During the holidays, we checked out Words of a Feather from Turn Sideways Games and Grand Gamers Guild.

The Peacock of Word Games

Words of a Feather immediately draws people in with the incredible table presence. Word cards are setup facedown in a circular display in the center of the table. These feather cards will center around a ceramic bowl filled with blue gem tokens. This presentation is gorgeous and makes you feel like you should play the game with your pinky raised in a fancy manner.

Players are given a dry erase marker and small white board. Everyone will start the game with 3 unique word cards to start the game. The active draws 2 new word cards, giving them 5 words to choose from. This player comes up with a single word and writes it on their white board, concealing it from the rest of the table. They then choose 2 word cards to present to the rest of the table, followed by a third verbal word clue that is said out loud.

The rest of the players at the table will write a word on their white board, trying to match the word written by the active player. The active player will gain point gems for every player who matches their written word. All other players will gain point gems if they match ANY written word at the table. Players who think alike gain points even if they aren’t on the same page as the active player.

With each guess, players can wager 1 or 2 gems in hopes of doubling this bet. Players double their wager by matching any other player with their written word. Words of a Feather ends when a player has earned 20 or more gem tokens.

Connecting the Clues

We have about half a dozen word games that hit the table with family and friends. Giving the active player the agency to come up with a third clue, that isn’t confined to a card, makes a huge difference. Players are working to tie together clue cards with this third clue.

The active player wants to give a clue that’s clear enough to earn a large amount of gems. When it’s not your turn, you just need to think like one other player at the table to earn points. There’s interesting strategy here as you try not to give a large amount of points to the active player each round.

Words of a Feather supports 3 to 8 players and works really well at the highest player counts. Our family played at 6 and 7 players most often and had a great experience. The game moves quickly since players are already see 3 word clues they can choose from before becoming the active player.

While Words of a Feather has some amazing table presence, it does come with a couple minor issues. Creating the beautiful concentric circles of word cards in the center of the table takes a couple minutes to setup each game. This is totally about the presentation and adds nothing to the gameplay.

The huge box created for the game is more of an art piece than a functional game box. The size of the box keeps it from being a game that we can throw in a bookbag when we travel. On the back of the box is a hole for the purpose of hanging the box on the wall. This is a great solution to keep it from taking up a ton of room on your shelf but hanging on your wall isn’t for everyone.

Final Thoughts

Words of a Feather is an impressive word game. Its presence immediately invites players into the game. With each game lasting less than 30 minutes, it’s a game that can hit the table multiple times during a game night. It’s a party game that supports a high players count and was a surprise hit with my Dad who plays very few games.

If you’re looking for a casual word game that will bring the whole family together, Words of a Feather is worth checking out. It’s a game that will continue to hit the table during family get togethers and holidays.

Words of a Feather is now available from the Turn Sideways Games webstore or from Grand Gamers Guild webstore.

This game was provided to us by the publisher for review. Read more about our review policies at One Board Family.