Butts on Things

If your household is anything like mine, anything fart or fart-adjacent is considered hilarious. Ne’er a day passes without my husband or son showing me a video or song about farting or bottoms or bottoms farting. So when they read Butts on Things i.e. the title of this game, their eyes lit up!

Cheeky!

Butts on Things is exactly what it says on the box. The cards in this game show everyday objects suddenly sporting bottoms! Burgers with butts. Dice with butts. Pencils with butts. Even bowls of cereal with butts! You get the idea. But why are they gloriously gluteus?

This is a simple pattern matching, card collecting game. The rules are simple: place a card from your hand into the developing grid. If the butt card you place matches the butt card on the other end of the row or column, you get to take all the cards along that line. The cards show how many of each that type are in the deck: 1,2 or 3. Now you may be thinking “how do I match a 1 butt card?” and you would be correct for being puzzled. Luckily, there are some wild butts which can act as a pair for those lonesome butts.

The back of some cards also show a dump-truck that allows players to suddenly scramble to pick up as many butts from the grid as possible, adding in a dexterity element. And if taking a row or column ever splits the existing grid, the next player must place their card in a position that reconnects the existing cards before anyone can take a row or a column. The game ends when no more cards can be taken, and the winner is the player with the must bountiful butt collection.

Final Thoughts

Butts on Things is a super-fast, easy to learn game for 2 – 4 players which our son loves. Every butt revealed to the grid creates a giggle and inspires him to announce its arrival in his best tv presenter voice! “Taco Butt….come on down!”

Before reading the few rules there are, I was expecting some form of set collection or scores based on butts which differed in value. But it’s simpler than that. You do need to collect matching butts. But you only need one in your hand so long as there is another matching one at the end of a row or column. The need to connect the existing cards adds a little bit of restriction, as does only being able to use wilds with 1 butt cards. But luck plays a big part in what you get and what you can take. If you have a bum hand that isn’t producing any matches, you’ll be behind from the start. You also don’t know what your opponents have in their hand. And although you know how many of each butt type there is in the deck, you probably won’t be counting.

Our son loved the sudden card grab – he’s a Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza pro – whereas I was still processing the change in tempo whilst he was stripping the grid bare! And he is definitely looking forward to playing Butts on Things with his Cub group when term resumes next week.