Ages: 12 and up

Players: 3 to 8

Playing Time: 20 minutes

What's it to Ya? asks the question what matters most. In the game players must prioritize 5 things or concepts into their personal order of importance. The game is compact, straightforward, and a lot of fun. You can learn a lot about people by playing What's it to Ya with them.

What's it to Ya? comes with two types of cards: ranking cards and item cards. Players can play as either partners or individuals. Five item cards are placed on a table at a time. Take a set of the ranking cards that are marked with letters A-E and place one by each item card. Now each item card has a ranking card that players will use to represent which card is most important, second important, and so forth. Players lay their ranking card facedown on the table in front of them. Players reveal one at a time their personal ranking orders, beginning with what is most important to them.

Points are scored differently depending on if you are playing with a partner or not. Partnerships only work if there is an even number of players. One partner is the Boss while the other player is the Guesser. The Guesser tries to determine the rankings of the Boss for the item cards. When a match is made, slightly slide the ranking card forward to show it as a match. The team with the highest number of matched rankings scores one point. If there is a tie, then all the teams that tied score one point. When playing as individuals, you score one point when you match the majority of rankings of all the other players. In both versions, if player(s) match all five rankings, then that player(s) will earn two points. You can also just play for fun, not really concerned with points but with matching rankings with one player.

The first person or team to score seven points wins the game. To make the game last longer, you can always play to a higher number of points. What's it to Ya? is a very flexible game that is not rules-heavy. You can play as partners, as individuals, or take turns being the Boss where everyone tries to predict what matters most to you.

What's it to Ya is part of the Black & White Game Blanket Project. What's it game developer Mike Petty donates all royalties from the game to the project that is helping in the rebuilding effort of those areas most affected by Hurricane Katrina. It is nice to see that people are not forgetting about the people of the Gulf Coast even though it has been over a year since Katrina came ashore. There is still much work to be done. Mike has added a second game to the project, Snakebite.

This party game is not only fun but can be a useful tool for special groups like Sunday School. My class loves when I pull out this game to play. It gives us a chance to think about what matters most while giving me a little more insight into how their minds work.

What's it to Ya makes a great party game because it's compact, easily taught, and a lot of fun.

I received What's it to Ya from New World Games. The review is 100% my own opinion.