I definitely have a soft spot for these creative card games. Snake Oil is a game where you are inventing a product and selling to a specific customer. This game is good for three to ten players and takes about half an hour to play. The game says 10 and up, but I’m fairly sure you could play with younger kids, as far as I can remember the cards weren’t bad.

To start the game each player takes a hand of six word cards. Each round one person will be the customer. That player will pick a customer card for the first round.

The customer reads their card aloud and takes on that role. This is a cool idea, it’s one thing to invent something for the general public but when you are specifically creating something for a bus driver or scientist it does factor in largely to the cards you choose.

The other players combine two word cards from their hand to create something specific for the customer. Going clockwise, players will then pitch their idea to the customer.

Once everyone has pitched their idea, the customer will decide the winner and gives them the customer card to count as a point. Everyone grabs two more cards and a new round begins. After all the players have had a chance to be the customer, count up your customer cards and whoever has the most wins.

We’ve seen this type of game a few times now, so it’s not exactly a new idea. I do like it as an option that’s good for a younger audience. Also it’s interesting when you play that if your cards are good, the answer could be a really smart idea. However, when your cards are bad, you’ll have to stretch the idea pretty far to get everyone on board. The range from serious answer to outright ridiculous is huge and either way there’s a lot of creativity in the answers. I love a party game that breaks the ice quickly, this definitely does, even with similar game out there it is still a good option.

If you like Snake Oil, try some of these games:

Fun Employed

Superfight