Scrutineye

Spot it before they do.

Somewhere in that gloriously busy scene is a tiny hidden umbrella, and whoever spots it first gets the points. Scrutineye is the hidden-object hunt in Party Fever, where a beautifully illustrated scene fills the TV and players race to find and name the objects hiding in plain sight. There is a twist: each round gives you a set of starting letters, and only words beginning with those letters count. Sharp eyes win, but a quick vocabulary wins faster.

With fourteen richly detailed scenes ranging from a bustling global bazaar and a deep-space research lab to a sunken Atlantis and a Japanese castle festival, and a huge dictionary of findable objects, Scrutineye rewards the observant and the quick-witted in equal measure. It is the I-spy of your childhood, supercharged for the whole family.

How it works

A detailed scene appears on the TV alongside a set of allowed starting letters. Players scan the scene and type the objects they spot on their phones, but only words beginning with the allowed letters score. Rarer, harder-to-spot objects are worth more points. When time is up, whoever spotted the most wins.

A great equaliser between kids and adults, where a sharp eye beats age every time.

Tips and tactics

Work the letters, not the picture. Before you start hunting, glance at the allowed starting letters and let them guide your eye. Scanning for anything at all wastes precious seconds.

Sweep the scene in a pattern rather than darting around. Left to right, top to bottom, one band at a time; a systematic sweep beats frantic scanning almost every round.

Do not stop at the obvious. The rarer, half-hidden objects are worth more points, so once you have banked the easy finds, slow down and look into corners, behind other objects, and along the edges.

When to play it

Scrutineye is the great equaliser of a family game night. Sharp young eyes routinely beat adults, and it needs no general knowledge, so nobody is excluded by age or background.

It is also the calmest of the six games, which makes it a good choice when you want everyone engaged but the room does not need more noise, or as a breather between two high-energy rounds.

Common questions