Disney Sketchy Tales Drawing Game: How Will the Picture Evolve?

Can you draw Maleficent driving a monster truck? Belle playing pool on the moon?

From Big Potato Games, Disney Sketchy Tales is a family-friendly drawing game about drawing a prompt, seeing how another player interprets it, and discovering how it evolves as it works its way around the table.

Gameplay

Each player takes a sketch board and checks the number on the back so they'll know when it makes its way back around the table. Then, being careful not to let anyone else see them, everyone draws one double-sided character card and one double-sided action prompt card. You choose one of the four actions on the action card and then draw one of the two characters from the character card, performing this action. After everyone has finished drawing, you pass your sketch to the player on your left.

Next, each player examines the picture they have been sent. They then clip a second sketch card over the drawing, covering it and writing down what they believe the image depicts. Everyone then passes the sketch cards again. This time, you are confronted with a description. You again clip another sketch card over the description and attempt to draw it and pass it once more. You continue alternating writing descriptions of images and drawing images, until your original sketch board makes its way back to you.

Each player unclips all their sketch cards and lays them out in order, seeing the way the images and descriptions evolved as they were passed around. Everyone chooses their favorite picture or description from their set of sketch cards (not including their original drawing). You earn a point for each player who chose your drawing or description. If the first drawing in a series is mostly similar to the final sketch card attached to it, the player who did the first drawing earns three points.

You then wipe off all the sketch cards and begin another round. The game ends once someone earns points equal to the number of players plus two, and the player with the most points wins.

Review

Disney Sketchy Tales is a fun family party game that adults and kids will be able to play together. Drawing off of the popular "Telephone Pictionary" concept most notably found in Telestrations, this game nicely taps into a beloved theme that expands the game’s reach and makes it a good fit for family gatherings.

There’s a wide range of characters from many Disney films, both old and new, and the starting action prompts are varied and amusing. We appreciated the fact that you have four actions to choose from at the start, particularly useful for those who are more drawing-challenged.

It’s amusing to see the way each picture has evolved by the end of the game, and the more iterations the better, making Disney Sketchy Tales a party game that is excellent for large groups.

The components are nice quality. We really liked the sketchy colorful artwork for the Disney characters and the clipping of sketch cards on top of each other works well and is a great way to keep things hidden. Eight unique backs for the sketch boards with not just numbers but also Disney characters, to help you keep track of which set of drawings is yours and when it’s made its way back around to you, is also a nice touch.

The only issue we had with the components as that you are supposed to draw the double-sided character cards in a way that prevents the other players from seeing them, but that can be tricky as they are, as stated, double-sided.

Disney Sketchy Tales certainly has some rules that are similar to other drawing games, and if you have those you might not feel the need to add it to your collection. However, the theme is going to be loved by a lot of people and makes the resulting pictures even more enjoyable to review at game end (who doesn’t want to see Bambi smashing up a building?). If you’re a Disney fan, this is a solid family-friendly drawing game that you will enjoy.

Pros: Beloved theme, good for large groups, clipping sketch cards mechanic, good for families

Cons: Keeping the double-sided cards secret can be tricky, you may have similar games in your collection

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.