Alibi: Review

Alibi: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Deduction, Party, Cooperative, Word Game 
Player Age: 10+ 

Player Count: 2 - 6 Players

Time to Play: 20 Minutes 
Game Designer: 佐藤 雄介 (Yusuke Sato)

Game Artist: Albert Monteys

Publisher: AllPlay

Year Published: 2025

BGG Weight: 1.4

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Introduction:

Alibis is a fast and fun word connection game, which has all the players cooperatively trying to deplete heat tokens by guessing the correct pairs of suspects and ultimately deducing the perpetrator. The twist is that each round every player is both the guesser and the clue giver.

Game Anatomy:

Word Cards:

There are 91 word cards in the game, each double-sided. These are the words players are trying to connect. A maximum of 39 words is used in a game, so there is a vast array of variability.

Suspect Boards and Perpetrator Board:

Based on the player count, there will be a certain number of player boards displayed in the centre of the table, always starting at 1 and continuing numerically. Based on the player count, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 players will have 9, 13, 9, 11, 13 suspects respectively.

There is also a perpetrator board, which will have the leftover suspect each round, creating the perpetrator.

Suspect Cards:

There is a suspect card for each suspect in the game. At the start of each round, a player will gain two suspects. These will be the two words a player will have to link in a creative way to get the other players to link these words.

Player Pieces:

Each player has a whiteboard with each suspect on it, a permanent marker, and a board (alibi tile) to write their clue each round, with a symbol denoting who that player is when other players are filling in their suspect whiteboard each round. 

Setup:

- Each player will gain all of their player pieces. 
- Place the perpetrator board to the side of the table with heat tokens equal to the player count. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 players will have 20, 30, 32, 40, and 48 heat tokens matching the player count, respectively.
- Place suspect boards explained in game anatomy.
- Create a suspect deck matching the suspects in the centre of the table.

Round Setup:

- Place a word card on each suspect.
- Deal each player two suspect cards the last suspect will be placed on the perpetrator board.

How to Play:

Cooperatively, players are trying to remove all the heat counters in three rounds. To do this, each player is trying to guess the perpetrator each round to remove three heat. Each player knows two of the suspects are innocent and they are trying to signal with a one-word clue to every player what suspects these are, the clue is trying to connect the words that the suspects are holding. 

Each round consists of each suspect receiving a word, and each player gaining two suspect cards (the last suspect will go face-down as the perpetrator). Each player will then write on their board a clever one-word clue linking these two words together. When everyone is ready, the clues will be revealed.

On every player's suspect whiteboard players will secretly write what they believe each suspect is tied to, one of the players (they will use the symbol on that players board) or the perpetrator (they will signal this wjth a p). 

When everyone has filled their whiteboard, everyone will reveal their whiteboard, suspect card, and the perpetrator. Each player will remove one heat from the game for each pair of suspects they wrote correctly and three points if they guessed the perpetrator correctly. After three rounds, if all heat tokens are removed, the players win. If not, they can check the rulebook to see how well they performed.

Final thoughts:

- Players are both guessers and clue givers in each round.
- Fun comic aesthetics.
- Plenty of word variability.
- Words can be very challenging to pair as players don't have options on the words they choose, this is can be very fun/challenging but also tricky for newer players.

There is a genre of word deduction games that have players guess linked words through one-worded clues, codenames is the most famous in this ilk. Alibis is the latest game in this vein, but does it stand out in this genre. I believe it easily does, for the main reason being that players aren't stationed as merely the clue giver or guesser  in Alibis, everyone shares the same workload. Each turn, players are forced to find a clear connection between two random words to clear the air that two suspects are innocent. After everyone writes their one-word clue, everyone is trying to guess which suspects everyone else had, ultimately leaving one suspect behind as the perpetrator. Players are trying to remove enough heat to win, one for a correct pair guessed and three for the perpetrator being correct. Alibis has an interesting mix of being harder but faster than other games in the genre because there is no selection of words, players have to make or break a connection from the two words they have. If you enjoy this genre of games, I think Alibis is faster to set up and play while still keeping a fun and vibrant theme and keeping a good level of deduction puzzle, which has everyone equally involved. This is an easy recommendation and is staying in my collection.

Click...feed the addiction: 

All Play

Alibis on BGG
Facebook page

Expand Your Game Instagram