Keepsakes review

Keepsakes is truly a lot of fun!  This game puts you in a position to come up with memories that maybe you forgot about or fun ones you haven’t talked about in a while. The key is not only to remember the memories you put on the Keepsakes cards but also to listen to the other players and remember what memories they impose on the other cards as you build the timeline. Let me explain…

The Game starts with three Memory Cards flipped over from the deck and put in a line, a timeline of sorts, and the youngest player gets to name a memory for each of these cards. In order, those memories are now associated with each of those cards. The answers can be one word or possibly a few words to remember, but the key is to listen and remember them in order!

Each player in turn will turn over the next memory card in the deck, and add it to the line. One might get “Remember your favorite pet”, and that player will say the name, Spot, and you will have to remember that card is now associated with that memory word “Spot”. That player will then start at the beginning of the line and recite exactly what each answer was to the cards in order. This is easy at the beginning but gets more difficult the more cards are added to the line.

The next player will turn over the next memory card, and recite all the memories in order, card by card, until all 20 cards have been added to the line.

So here is the twist, if remembering them isn’t hard enough, you are given the opportunity to perform challenge cards after the first round. These cards are in substitution of your turn, but allow you to earn additional Keepsakes counters, which at the end of the game denote the winner.

A challenge card may say, “Remember as normal, but then start at the other end and do it in reverse.” That challenge card was not easy to remember them backwards. At this point, someone may want to have a timer, because it could delay the game. Other challenges may ask the player to turn over Memory cards, hiding the subject of the memory, which was clearly a hint, now making it more difficult to remember that specific card.

If a player during their turn doesn’t recite the line correctly, any player that catches the mistake steals one of your Keepsakes counters. If they are wrong, they must give up one of their counters to you.  Remember, you want as many Keepsakes counters as you can to win!

One last note: there are memory cards that don’t need a memory answer but require an action, like “wink at another player”. Yes, you must remember to wink when you are reciting the timeline.

The game is funny and stimulating and keeps everyone engaged as others recite the timeline while you try to remember ones that you may have missed to get ready for your turn again.