Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples is a card based party game designed by Mark Alan Osterhaus and Matthew Kirby and first released in 1999 through their company, Out of the Box Publishing, before Mattel acquired the rights to the game in 2007 and continued publishing it. Each round one player serves as judge and lays down an adjective card, while the remaining players privately choose a noun card from their hand that they believe best, or most amusingly, matches the adjective, and the judge picks a winner based purely on personal preference rather than any objectively correct answer. The game is intended for four to ten players, with typical sessions lasting between thirty and seventy five minutes, and its box recommends it for ages twelve and up, though numerous themed and junior editions have broadened its audience. Because judgment is entirely subjective, the game plays differently with every judge and group, and its irreverent, sometimes absurd noun to adjective pairings have made it a long running staple of casual party game collections.