Drinking games are normally fun, hopefully creative games that involve you and your friends making each other consume alcohol as a way to get intoxicated.  The Drinking Game is neither fun, nor creative.  In fact, I’m not even sure that it can count as a game.  My roommate downloaded it off of Xbox Live’s Independent Game section a while ago.  We messed around with it for a bit and then tonight I took another look at it and played with an energy drink instead.

After pressing start and deciding how many people will play (2-16 are able), the game starts.  A slot machine will appear and the player who’s turn it is will press the “A” button, and spin the slots.  The three slots will then display some images, either fruit, one beer, two beers, or a German lady holding a lot of beers.  Fruit means nothing, one beer means you have to take one sip, two beers mean you have to take two sips, and the German lady means that everyone has to drink the combined total of that round, instead of just that player(and also counts as one sip).  The player drinks, and then passes the controller to the next player.  Repeat until everybody wins/loses.

The game will eventually achieve the goal of drinking games; you’ll be drunk by the end.  However, it takes quite a long time and is incredibly boring.  After ten turns of a four player game, I was still not halfway though my 16-ounce drink.  These turns were taken very quickly, too, as I found the game incredibly boring and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

Drinking games in general are very hit and miss with people.  It’s fun to drink and its fun to feel like you’re contributing in making your friends become less and less intelligent as the night goes on.  This game, however, offers no fun.  I would rather just enjoy my beer, drink it at a leisurely pace (faster than this game), and have a nice conversation with friends.  I would even rather play beer pong and try to show off at least some physical skill.  Pressing a button and the screen telling me how much to drink is not a game.  Hopefully, I’ll get around to creating one that will actually be fun.

The Drinking Game gets 2 out of 10, as it will accomplish the goal of making you drink alcohol.