Twister is played on a large plastic mat that is spread on the floor or ground. That mat is like a board game. It has four rows of large colored circles on it with a different color in each row: red, yellow, blue, and green. A spinner is attached to a square board and serves as a die for the game. The spinner is divided into four labeled sections: right foot, left foot, right hand, and left hand. Each of those four sections is divided into the four colors (red, yellow, blue, and green). After spinning, the combination is called (example: right hand yellow) and players must move their matching hand or foot to a dot of the correct color. In a two-player game, no two people can have a hand or foot on the same circle—rules are different for more people. Due to the scarcity of colored circles, players will often be required to put themselves in unlikely or precarious positions, eventually causing someone to fall. A person is eliminated when they fall or when their elbow or knee touches the mat. There is no limit to how many can play at once, but more than four is a tight fit.

Twister was submitted to be patented by Charles F. Foley and Neil Rabens in 1966, but it did not become a success until Eva Gabor played it with Johnny Carson on television's Tonight Show on May 3, 1966. However, in its success, Twister was also controversial, probably was because Twister is the first game to use human bodies as playing pieces.