One of our new favourite Party Game producers MadPartyGames has come out with an evolution of a classic drinking card game that will have you laughing and cursing in no-time. With 3 unique phases and a ton of drinks to be had, this game is a great way to get the party started.
Mad Bus takes a lot of it’s inspiration drinking games like Pyramid, Ride the Bus, and others. The game is played in a few unique phases that are easy to understand, eventually ending up with the unluckiest player riding the bus that could amount in a lot of drinking.
How to Play Mad Bus
Mad Bus is a card game that’s broken up into 3 phases, each with more drinking than the last.
Phase 1
This is the phase where each player is slowly dealt their cards, while guessing characteristics of the next upcoming cards. Wrong guesses result in drinks, correct guesses result in giving drinks. The 4 questions in order are “man or woman”, “higher or lower”, “inside or outside” and ” same or different suit”.
Phase 2
Once everyone has their cards it’s time to start phase two, which is similar to the drinking game Pyramid.
In this phase 10 cards are laid out to form a face down pyramid, and each turn a card is flipped. If a player has a matching card in their hand they can play it on someone to make them drink and draw one of the face down ticket cards. Each row of the pyramid results in more drinks than the last.
Phase 3
This final phase is for one single player who must attempt to ride the bus. To decide who is the unlucky player, each player flips their Ticket cards face up and totals up their money. Whoever has the most must be the one to ride the bus.
The rules to this part is similar to the first player. The player must guess the next four cards in the same way as before “man or woman”, “higher or lower”, “inside or outside” and ” same or different suit”. However if they mess up they have to drink equal to which card placement they messed up on and start again from the beginning. This continues until the player can get all 4 in a row and escape.
Mad Bus Review
Having played card games like this in the past we pretty much knew what to expect going in to this game. What we were not expecting was the ton of improvements they made on the game like the hidden tickets and the additional card effects that kept everyone guessing.
Much like many card drinking games, this one tends to end up worse for some players than others. It’s a combination of luck and targeting players that can end up different every play.
This is really everything a drinking game should be. Easy to understand, fun to play, and doesn’t take up your whole night. A great addition to any party or hangout. After having played a number of party games from Mad Party Games one thing became clear. They make very fun and balanced games that can be played again and again.