Hitster Bingo – Music Quiz Meets Disco Ball

Everyone is sure to reminisce when they hear songs from their youth, school days or special moments. Jumbo Spiele released a game called Hitster some time ago, or rather a series of games, in which you listen to pieces of music and have to put them in the right chronological order. There are songs from over 100 years, from current hits (at the time of release) to really old pieces. In addition to the original game, there are also themed games such as Guilty Pleasures, Schlagerparty and Summerparty. Hitster Bingo is now a completely new format that, as the name suggests, combines the game with bingo.

Who visites Hitsters If you don't know it yet, here's a quick rundown of how the game works: Each person gets a card and turns it over to the side with the year. That's the start of your timeline. Then you take turns and whoever's turn it is draws a card from the pile and scans the QR code (you need the Hitster app, which accesses Spotify - but you don't need an account and I think it's even better without Premium). Then you hear an excerpt from a song and have to place it in your timeline. At the beginning you have to decide, for example, whether the song was released before or after 2004. If the card is right, it stays. That's good, because as soon as you have 10 cards, you win the game. If it's wrong, the card is taken out of the game. There are also tokens that you can use to guess when it's the others' turn, but that would go beyond the scope now. Instead, we're going into the disco and taking our bingo pad with us.

Hitster Bingo

At first glance, you'll notice that the game is bigger than before. There's a simple reason for that: in addition to the cards, we now have a round game board and a disco ball.

You will receive 225 cards with QR codes, a round double-sided game board with two levels of difficulty, 6 bingo boards and 6 pens. You will need the Hitster app, which you can use to scan the respective card. Without Spotify Premium, one person always has to play the DJ and scan and start the song. With Spotify Premium, everyone can guess and in principle the entire song would play.

Gameplay

Before you start playing, activate the disco ball. Then turn the disco ball – you will see a small beam of light shining on the cards. As soon as the ball stops, the beam shows the category you are playing with. On the beginner's page you need to know

1. Whether the song is by a band or a solo artist
2. Whether the song was released before 2000
3. When the song was released – you can be within a time span of +- 4 years
4. When the song was released – you can be within a time span of +- 2 years
5. In which decade the song was released.

The advanced page you need to know

1. What the title of the song is
2. The exact year of publication
3. name of the band
4. The decade in which the song was released
5. When the song was released – you can be within a time span of +- 3 years

Once the category has been selected, the DJ takes the card and scans the QR code. As soon as the song starts, you press the disco ball, which now acts as a timer. The ball changes color for 25 seconds and gets slower and slower until the red color is permanently lit.

While the timer is flashing, everyone writes their answer on their card. As soon as the ball lights up red, the music card is turned over and everyone who has a correct answer can make a cross in their bingo box. They use a box that is the same color as the current category.

Then you continue playing clockwise. The first person to complete a row on their bingo card wins.

Conclusion

I like Hitster a lot, even though I don't know much about music. But that's not a bad thing with Hitster, because I don't always have to know the song. Especially on the beginners' page, there are categories that I can score points with, even if I don't know much. Some of them even seem too easy, but the good thing is that everyone plays with the same song at Hitster Bingo.

Yes, with the larger box the game takes up more space in your backpack, but it is now easier to play in larger groups, as you only have the game board and the disco ball in the middle. Another big plus point is that everyone can play at the same time. This means there is no waiting time or frustration when others get the much easier songs. The disco ball is a cool feature, although I am curious to see how long it will last. This mainly applies to the technology that is built in and detects when the ball is being rotated. So far it has already survived two parties well.

While the theme games simply swapped the cards, Jumbo has come up with a few new things this time. Whether it's the categories or just the ball, it feels like a game of its own. Small weakness for music nerds: It can be a bit disappointing if you can classify the song perfectly, know the band and title, but then only have to answer whether it was released before or after 2000. Hitster has always been able to shine quite well in this respect, but here the requirements vary.

If you don't let that put you off, Hitster Bingo is a very interesting and entertaining party game. For me, it's perfect for larger groups for the reasons mentioned. For two people, I'd probably go for a normal version of Hitster, but otherwise Hitster Bingo will probably still be part of one or two parties or game nights.

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