Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus Game Overview

By Susan Weber

The Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus game gives you a fun way to explore what you know about others and the opposite sex. It's designed for adults to play against other adults, either as couples or a team of men playing against a team of women.

Game Background

In 1992, Dr. John Gray published the book of the same name and became a frequent guest on major national talk shows like Oprah and Larry King Live. With his boyish look and slight Texas drawl, Dr. Gray would explain his concept that men and women did not approach problems, challenges and life in the same way. His ability to give tangible examples of how to improve communication and harmony between the sexes made him a television persona.

Since his first book, Dr. Gray has written over 10 additional relationship advice books giving further examples of how men and women can successfully meet everyday challenges if they base their actions on the basic differences between the sexes. Some of the books include:

The "Venus and Mars" concept was quickly picked up in popular culture with spoofs on the adult comic television shows "The Simpsons" and "South Park", as a musical romantic comedy and in 1998 as a board game.

Two Versions

The first version of the Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus game was released in 1998 by Mattel. The question categories are simple and the game is designed to be played by teams. It is a fun adult game and can provide an hour or two of laughter and friendly teasing as team members expose how they feel about a wide variety of issues and how they would prefer to act in certain situations. This is a great game for a group of adults who don't know much about each other.

A second version of the game was introduced in 2002 by Endless Games, a leading distributor of games based on popular television shows. This game is more complex, has more question categories and is designed for couples to be able to successfully predict the answers of their partner with the more successfully couple winning the game. The partner-to-partner nature of the game can make the game more introspective for the players and may not be as fun for the entire group as the Mattel-version. This version is very difficult to find and may be out-of-print.

Game Pieces

The Mattel, team-oriented game comes with:

1 game board
3 teal hourglass-shaped voting tokens for women
3 red cone-shaped voting tokens for men
2 yellow team mover hourglass-shaped tokens for women
2 yellow team mover cone-shaped tokens for men
1 teal round voting selector for women
1 red round voting selector for men
2 "My Two Cents" chips (1 for each team)
1 Mars card deck
1 Venus card deck

The Endless Games, couple-oriented game comes with:

1 game board
1 die
4 movers
180 category cards
25 Together Forever cards
20 Heart cards
20 Star cards
12 Voting cards

Playing the Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus Game

Both versions of the game are relatively easy to play. The major difference between the two versions is the couple versus team play difference. Each game is designed for at least 4 players, ages 18 and up. Either game can take from an hour to two hours to play, depending on how engrossed players get in the game.

The Mattel Version

Players divide up into two teams based on gender - the Venusians versus the Martians.

For each turn, a player or team leader draws a card from the Mars or Venus deck and reads a question from the card. The questions deal with provocative and sometimes sensitive topics (sexuality, values, etc.), so one of the choices that is available to the answerer is "choose not to answer." This non-answer is called the "cave" for men and the "well" for women.

Each question has three possible answers. For example:

From the Mars deck - Women try to match how a male opponent might answer a query from the Mars deck like:
- "The hardest thing for a man to admit is that he's: a) broke b) impotent, or c) aging."
From the Venus deck - Men try to match how a female opponent might answer a question like:
- "For me, it would be most difficult to ask for a: a) date b) loan, or c) promotion."
- "The sexiest man wears: a) a silk shirt b) a T-shirt, or c) his heart on his sleeve."
The player or team leader records his or her answer. Each team uses their voting tokens to mark what they think the answer is. Points are awarded for guessing correctly. Your team moves ahead on the board according to how many tokens they placed on the correct answer.

The Endless Games-version

The game play is very much like the Mattel version with the major difference being that couples predict the answers of their partners, not of the opposite team as in the Mattel version.

Winning the Game

The winning player or team is the one to best predict the answers given by the other team or player.

The Fun Factor

The level of fun you have with this game depends on the personalities of the players. Players are more likely to have a good time if they are willing to laugh at their own views on relationships and the other sex or if they are willing to be teased or if they have fun poking fun at each other. But some players might get embarrassed at their answers or the answers given by other players. You can purchase the game at Board Game Geek.

If you have any concerns about whether people will have fun opening up about their feelings on relationships with the other sex, then you might want to consider another adult game like Dirty Minds or Boxers or Briefs.