''Cranium'' is a

party game Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games.Frankel, Lillian; ...

created by Whit Alexander and

Richard Tait Richard Graham Tait Commander of the British Empire, CBE (born 22 May 1947) is a British journalist and Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University. He had been a member of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporat ...

in 1998. Hasbro purchased Cranium, Inc. Initially manufactured by

Cranium, Inc. Cranium, Inc. was a toy and board game developer. The company was founded in 1998 by two former Microsoft executives, Richard Tait and Whit Alexander. They co-developed the '' Cranium'' board game. History After realizing that he always won at th ...

, which was bought by

Hasbro, Inc. Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

for $77.5 million in 2008, it is billed as "The Game for Your Whole Brain". Unlike many other party games, ''Cranium'' includes a wide variety of activities. Giorgio Davanzo handles packaging and branding for the game, and the artwork is by cartoonist

Gary Baseman Gary Baseman (born September 27, 1960) is an American artist, cartoonist, and animator who investigates history, heritage, and the human condition (especially love, longing, and loss). Through iconography and visual narratives that celebrate “ ...

Board

The board is laid out as a circuit, consisting of four equally split colored spaces. Each color corresponds to a question card category that players must pull from on their turn. The purple "Planet Cranium" space gives the team their choice of category. Red is "Fun Facts", green is "Act & Hum", blue is "Sketch & Sculpt" and yellow is "Word Puzzles".

Expansions and spinoffs

*Booster Boxes: boxes of cards (and clay) sold separately from the game that contain a new deck of each type of card. , Booster Boxes 1 and 2 are available, along with a special New York edition pack. *''Cadoo'': a children's version of the game that has some elements of

tic-tac-toe Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses (Commonwealth English), or Xs and Os (Canadian or Irish English) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players who take turns marking the spaces in a three-by-three grid with ''X'' or ''O''. T ...

. *''Conga'': a version with a slightly older target audience than ''Cadoo''. Incorporates a musical timer of ''Cranium'', designed for two or more players to play cooperatively. *''Cranium Hullabaloo'': a children's dancing game *''Cranium Kabookii'': a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

version available on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

platform. Activities comprise a mixture of some from the original game and new games better suited for a video game environment. *''Cranium Scribblish'': played very much like the game of

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

. Players start by drawing a caption card from the deck and must draw the caption, then pass to another player who captions what they believe the other person has drawn, then draw said caption. Winners correctly guess which drawing started as their own. *''Cranium The Family Fun Game'': a game similar to the original ''Cranium'' with some minor changes. *''Cranium Turbo Edition'': a version of ''Cranium'' designed for a faster game. *''Cranium Wow'': a similar game to the original with new cards and activities from ''Cranium Turbo''. *''Cranium Pop 5'': a pop-culture focused version released in 2006 where one team assigns the point value (ranked from 1–5) the other team will earn depending on how the other team guesses the clue (through acting, drawing, humming, sculpting, or using letter cubes). *''Cranium Brain Breaks:'' 200 one-minute mini games. *''Cranium

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

Edition'' *''Cranium Partyland Park: Is a children's game by Vtech, and

Vsmile The V.Smile (stylized as V.SMILE TV LEARNING SYSTEM) is a sixth-generation educational home video game console manufactured and released by VTech. Titles are available on ROM cartridges called "Smartridges", to play off the system's education ...

* ''Jam Pack Jam'': a travel-themed twist on Buckaroo * ''Cariboo'': a children's game * ''Balloon Lagoon'': a children's game * ''Bloom Bingo * ''Cranium Zigity''

References

External links

* * * {{Hasbro Board games introduced in 1998 Party board games Hasbro franchises Hasbro games Cross and circle games Quiz games