Pling Pong
Overall Rating: 7/10
Age: 8+
GLAM Age Range: 8-Adult
Number of Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 20 min
Publisher: Buffalo Games
Complexity: Low
Available At: Amazon.com
Quick Take: It's basically beer pong without the drinking and with a few more rules that makes it a little more strategic and fun in my opinion. You can play with as many as four teams at once so actually the max players are 8 instead of 4. I thoroughly enjoyed this game, it's a great option if you have a free table and some open space in a room and want to play a social game. Kids love throwing ping pong balls, if you can control the chaos you can play this with any age.
How to Play: Your goal is for you to be the last person with any cups left. Each player or team gets to throw two balls each. If an odd number of balls lands in a cup it is removed, if an even number lands in a cup the cup stays in the game. The black cup is bad news, you don't want your ball to land in there because it penalizes you with one lost cup and rewards everyone else with one of their cups added back in the game. Odd and even number of balls rules apply to the black cup as well. Not too complex but the black cup rule adds a fun element to what would otherwise be a very basic game.
Variations: When we played with rotating groups for a church event we simplified the rules dramatically. No cups were removed and you didn't have to bounce the ball on the table before it landed in one of the cups (we didn't have the table space). We just counted up points each round and maintained the rules about only scoring cups with an odd number of balls in them. Same thing with the black cup. Kept things moving quickly and we didn't have to reset the board. People still enjoyed the game, quick and easy to play. They also have a few other variations listed at the back of the official rules, like how to play a 3 person game, speed round rules, and high stack rules.
Similar Games To Check Out: Coinhole, Hedbanz, Bounce-Off