Despite my deep rooted distrust of Reliance ADAG, it’s hard to not be impressed with their relentless presence — Marks&Spencer, the iStore, etc. To see the big Zapak logo on the Alias box was a serious deterrent to buy. A quick read of the reverse of the box had Password written all over it.
Playing in teams of two or more, you draw a card of eight random words. You give clues desperately, without using the word or parts of the word, and if your team gets it right, you win a point. Run through as many of the word cards as you can but within a time limit set by a sand timer. A printed game board has a numbered start-to-finish path snaking its way around in the most unusual manner. The numbers indicate the particular word from a set of eight, you’ll clue on each card you draw that turn.
Alias is a humbling experience. It challenges any misconceptions you might have had about your word power. It fires up parts of the brain which were long rested. How would you clue “button up”, “pelican”, “armpit” and “agreement” in quick succession? On “pelican” I wasted my entire turn, making little progress with clues like “bird-white-large, bill-action packed, legal, thriller-briefcase”. I maddened my team mates, and earned us a negative point. But I am delighted with my Rs 399 purchase, despite aforementioned reservations of the Alias lineage!
The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com