Imagine the scene in the game design office....
"Right lads, we need a new game, something which will really get sales moving."
"Errm, how about we get a few concepts from other games and see what happens when you combine them all?"
"Yes, and lets ditch a few traditional concepts to balance it out"
"Won't this lead to confusion and more than a few family arguments?"
"of course, but that's what family board games are all about, lots of bits, lots of rules, a bit of ambiguity and Bob's your uncle."
"Great, you've got two weeks"
This doesn't sound like the best start to a game but surprisingly it's more fun and chaos than a barrel full of live monkeys. Taking concepts from trivia games, physical challenge games, bidding/gambling games, and mental agility games, setting them all against the clock and then getting rid of the idea of rigid turn based play, Chalenj! Manages to deliver a whole lot of fun and the range of challenges prevents any one person from dominating the game leading to a balanced few hours of amusement and anarchy with lots of friendly arguments and noise. It looks complicated to set up but is actually a breeze and quick to start. The game works best with all 6 players but we've managed fine with less.
Genuinely, a great laugh and a LOT of fun.