Articulate For Kids is a bitesize, kid-size twist on a familiar classic

Articulate is a classic for a reason, it very much takes the frenetic energy of parlour games and combines it with prompt cards and a ticking timer. Articulate for Kids takes on the incredibly daunting task of trying to adapt that format to being family friendly and still work with younger family members.

Articulate for Kids has quite a few things going for it straight out of the box. For a start, it’s an incredibly compact twist on the classic version, secondly, its a recognisable brand and that means that most people will already know how to play, finally, the card retention after getting a clue right is an easy score-taking method.

The big issue is, Articulate for Kids is aimed at 6+, but there’s a fundamental difference between a For Kids edition and a Family Edition, and fast-paced games — as Articulate is — don’t mesh well with younger kids that have limited knowledge. In fact, it demonstrates the major issue with trivia and prompt-based games in 2025: The world is so wide that there’s no real guaranteed set of prompts for a light-obscurity culture game.

All of that said, of the 330 prompts included (6 prompts on each of the 55 cards) the team have done a pretty good job: Train Driver, Woods, Photography, Tearing, Christmas Tree and Scissors all being straight forward for a 6-year old, however X-Factor and it’s judges being littered through there, as well as Harry Potter characters, does ensure that this remains a team game with adults involved rather than just a kids game.

What I did find interesting was that the minimal box was not made smaller by removing the scorecards, which require you to have 30 points (a point earned by banking cards at the end of your team’s round) and instead have players simply race to take the lion’s share of the included 55 cards. The inclusion of a 30 second hourglass, rather than a longer one, in a kids game also seemed a little odd; but I’m perhaps overthinking things.

What can’t be denied, though, is that the box is wonderfully compact, the brand and rules are incredibly familiar, and the action of grab a card, roll the dice, get your teammates to guess is a fast and memorable pattern that makes Articulate For Kids, something that people will grab from the shelf to play again during a little bit of time away from the screen.

Articulate For Kids is available now from Zatu Games.