How good is your short-term memory?

I used to think my memory was superb…until I played That’s Not A Hat by Ravensburger.

It’s a simple party game to play but it can also pack a deceptive punch.

That is, a punch right to your pride in front of your friends and family when you can’t remember what’s on the card just passed to you (or that you just passed to someone).

I first heard about the game last summer and it sounded like a fun group game. So I bought a copy and have had fun playing it with family, friends, and co-workers on lunch breaks.

Will you be able to remember if you were just passed a hat?

 

How to play That’s Not A Hat

That’s Not A Hat is a simple game to learn and play.

To begin, shuffle the large stack of cards and place them in the center of the play area. Deal 1 card face up in front of each player and decide who will go first.

The first player draws the top card from the deck and shows and tells everyone what it is. Then, that player places it face down above their existing card. Next, they take their face up card, flip it over, and then pass it face down to the next player in the direction the arrow on the back of the card indicates. They place the card above the other player’s existing card and say what “gift” they’re giving them. For example, “Here’s a muffin”.

The player who receives the card will then choose whether to accept the gift or challenge.

If the recipient accepts it, they then pass their own card (bottom of the now two cards in front of them) to the next player and say what they’re passing. Then that player can likewise choose whether to accept or challenge.

If a player doesn’t think the card being passed to them is what they were told it is, they may challenge. For example, “That’s not a muffin”.

The card is then flipped face up to reveal what it really is. If it is what the previous player declared it was, then the challenger takes the card as a point against them. If it is not what the player said it was, the player who passed the card takes the card as a point against them.

The player who took the card (as a negative point) then draws the top card from the deck and continues play.

The game ends when one player has taken 3 cards.

Players count how many cards they’ve taken and the player who took the least amount of cards wins.

 

Can the whole family enjoy That’s Not A Hat?

That’s Not A Hat is game that can be enjoyed with the whole family. It’s a challenge for players of all ages.

For younger kids, it’s a great way to strengthen their memories. For older players, it’s a great way to get a good laugh out of how temporary your memories really can be.

Every game we’ve played comes with a lot of laughter. (Mostly laughter when you can’t recall what’s right in front of you.)

Of course, players can also use that to their advantage by pretending to not remember what item is on the card in front of them. Then when they pass the card, the recipient will doubt if it’s really that item or not – getting them to challenge what it is and being wrong.

At the start of the game, when you see everyone’s card face up, you might think it will be easy to remember which cards are in play. But then little by little, they get flipped over and passed in different directions. Pretty soon, you’re questioning which card is right in front of you!

Having cards being passed in different directions is like watching a magician hide a ball under a cup and trying to follow where it goes.

The arrow on the back of each card determines if it will pass to the right or left around the table. So you’ll have cards coming at you from both directions – which means it’s not as simple as just remembering the order of the cards in a single flow.

You could pass a card to the left and that player may be passing their card right back at you and then you pass to the right and they pass one back to you which you will have to pass to the left later. So keeping track of which items are where can really mess with you.

And that’s also what makes it a fun and quick game.

We have the original version of That’s Not A Hat. But there’s also a That’s Not A Hat: Pop Culture edition with a whole new set of items.

 

How does That’s Not A Hat score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

That’s Not A Hat scores high on our “let’s play again” game meter for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s a relatively simple and quick game that’s easy to just shuffle and start over.

But mostly we play a few games in a row because we’re mad at ourselves for not being able to remember such simple things so quickly. And we must redeem ourselves!

The biggest challenge in playing multiple games back-to-back though is that what you’ve seen in a prior game starts to creep into your memory in a subsequent game. You may think you have a stapler in front of you. But when you try to pass it and the other player says, “that’s not a stapler” and you reveal it to find out it is in fact not a stapler, only then do you remember that the stapler was being passed around in the previous game.

It’s a simple memory game that you’d think should be more simple than it really is. Give That’s Not A Hat a try with your family!

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