Sausage Roll Party Game review

Price on writing: £17 (down from £25) | Buy now from Amazon

Our rating:

What we like

Easy to understand, can begin playing very quickly
Good quality sausage roll prop (important as it is used a lot in gameplay!)
Once you get the knack of rolling the sausage, it’s quite easy to score

What we don't like

Many of the challenges and forfeits require a timer, which is not included
Scoring requires a measure of co-ordination which can place younger players at a disadvantage
Requires a bit of floor space (which can be a challenge at Christmas time!)

Key specs

Our verdict

Sausage Roll is a brand new, super-simple interactive party game invented by British YouTuber LadBaby. You have a mat, you have a sausage roll and the idea of the game is to roll the sausage roll down the mat and complete the corresponding challenge to score points.

My family loves a good game, from card games like Exploding Kittens and Dobble to board games such as Villainous and Pandemic. We bring games to family holidays, get togethers and weekends and there’s rarely a time we all see each other that someone doesn’t have a game tucked into their bag or a pack of cards in their pocket.

So when given the chance to try out the brand new party game Sausage Roll on a recent (game playing) weekend spent with my brother-in-law and his three kids, we were only too keen to comply. Although the rules state that game play is for 2+ players, we quickly realised that the scoreboard only has space for six. Luckily, we had six kids between us, so they happily took on the game themselves with a bit of adult supervision.

Although there were a few minor quibbles - no timer prop included despite many of the tasks requiring a time limit - once the kids all found their knack for rolling the sausage roll onto the mat, game play was fast, funny and undeniably silly. Any game that involves more laughter than tears (my five-year-old son is wildly competitive) is a win in my book, and Sausage Roll certainly had us all (even the super cool 14-year-old) cracking up.

How we tested

I tested Sausage Roll with the help of six children aged from five to fourteen. All of them were able to grasp the rules very quickly and all were able to complete the different challenges and forfeits involved in the game (though we did need to help some of the younger ones with some of the cards).

In terms of scoring, the fourteen-year-old was definitely at an advantage as she quickly found a good technique for rolling to score highest (landing on the furthest space gets you four points automatically) so it might be worth adding an extra handicap for older players if you want to make it a bit more evenly matched.

What’s in the box?

Instruction booklet
Game mat
Foam sausage roll
75 challenge cards
Scoreboard and marker pen

Is the game easy to set up?

Yes. You lay out the mat and sort the cards into the different categories and you’re pretty much ready to go.

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How do you play?

Whoever loves sausage rolls the most goes first (we knew that this highly contentious deciding factor might delay things somewhat in our family, so we deviated to youngest first). They take the sausage roll, stand behind the line on the game mat and roll it underarm. They must try and land the roll on one of the furthest sections to have the chance of scoring the most points. If the sausage roll goes off the mat, their turn is immediately over.

An older boy in a blue sweatshirt playing the Sausage Roll Party Game

Whatever section the sausage roll lands on determines the different challenges the player must complete. For example, the Sausage Role cards feature three actions - the player has 30 seconds to act them out using the sausage roll as a prop. If the other players successfully guess them, the player scores the points shown on the space where they landed (there’s potential for sabotage here, so you might want to keep an eye on some of your sneakier players). Other squares involve challenges (and some of these cards mean points scored for multiple players, which is a nice touch) and funny forfeits to do while rolling.

We found it easier to have a non-player mark up the scoring as it’s easy to accidentally wipe the points off the scoreboard when you’ve got six overexcited kids playing a fairly physical game.

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Is Sausage Roll a good family game?

Overall, the kids had a great time playing Sausage Roll. There were some minor niggles with the game, such as the fact that potentially some players can sabotage others, but if everyone plays in the spirit, this is a fun party game. Older or more co-ordinated players will probably find the rolling of the sausage roll easier than littlies so you might want to incorporate some handicaps to avoid them running away with the game (I’d say our players aged seven to ten were the most evenly matched). Also, you’ll need to organise a timer/stopwatch because there isn’t one included. And probably some sausage rolls as a snack, because inevitably that is what everyone is going to be craving.

Looking for a Christmas gift for a younger child? Check out our guides to the best toys for 2-year-olds and the best toys for 3-year-olds, featuring products tried, tested and recommended by Mumsnet parents.

About the author

Jenny Wonnacott is a Content Editor for Mumsnet, specialising in writing, editing and optimising pregnancy, baby care and general parenting-related content. As a parent of three primary school-aged children, Jenny is passionate about making Mumsetters' lives easier through rigorous research of all items recommended in reviews, features buyers' guides.

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