Pete the Cat Groovy Button Game (review)

Still looking for some board game ideas? Check out the Pete the Cat Groovy Buttons Game by Briarpatch (University Games). The game is fairly quick, so if you need a game that takes little time, this is a good choice. Likewise, if your kids prefer to play more than one game in a row, this is a great option to not take up too much time!

Setting the game up is super easy, and it also includes my new favourite feature: an in-board spinner! (Check out my Kids onStage review to read why!) The down side is that you do risk the child(ren) leaning on the board to reach the spinner when they first start playing, and that will knock your pieces over. Once they get used to not pushing or leaning on the board with all their weight, it works quite well!

The buttons all go in a pile to the side of the board, and each player gets a button jar. All the pieces are cardboard (spinner arrow and stand for your game piece aside) and can easily be stored in a single sandwich bag.

To play, you select your game (Pete the Cat character) piece and place it in any of the green circles on the board corners. Movement is clockwise around the board (the number of spaces that your spinner lands on), and youngest player goes first. If you land on a green button, you take the number of buttons shown on that spot from the button pile and put them on your button jar. If you land on a red button, you place that number of buttons from your jar onto Pete the Cat in the center of the board. If you land on a blue space, you can switch your button jar with any other player’s button jar (getting all their buttons). The goal is to have the most buttons when the button pile is gone.

You have the option of going through the center part of the board (towards Pete the Cat) from either direction. If you land directly on Pete the Cat, you get all the buttons that are on him (from people landing on red spaces). This encourages planning ahead since they need to decide if it will be worth going that way due to all the red buttons and how many buttons are sitting on Pete the Cat.

When the button pile is gone, any buttons sitting on Pete the Cat are divided evenly amongst the players. When our first game ended, however, Bobble had only a handful of the 40 buttons, so we just gave all of them to him (he still had the least number of buttons). The person with the most buttons wins!

This game encourages counting skills the most, but it also encourages colour recognition (and having to remember what those colours mean in the game). It also encourages basic strategizing in giving the option of moving towards the center of the board or not.

 

My kids loved this game right off the bat because: Pete the Cat. The game play, as I mentioned, was pretty decently paced, so it wouldn’t be frustrating if the kids want to play more than once.Since it’s just counting, it’s not really boring for the older people playing like some children’s games are. If you’re looking for a fun, decent-paced game for a younger child, Pete the Cat Groovy Buttons Game is a good option!

You can find the Pete the Cat Groovy Buttons Game for around $20. Don't forget to check out AreYouGame.com to find games for all occasions and all ages!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was sent this product for review in exchange for my honest opinion. This did not influence my opinion of the product in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Count Your Chickens! (game review)

One thing we noticed when we first started playing board games with the kids was just how competitive Bobble was. That doesn’t really come as a surprise to me since I’m a very competitive person, but the display he put on when he lost a game was absurd. When he won, he’d boast and brag. I get it, he’s proud he won. Still, getting him to understand sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t was hard. The games from Peaceable Kingdom help eliminate that sort of issue.

Count YourChickens! is a cooperative game where everyone works together to win. You either all win, or you all lose. Nobody is better than anyone else in the end, so you all feel good, or you all are determined to try again to succeed as a team.

Although it might be a minor thing, I love how the instructions are on the inside of the game box. The lid contains the instructions so you can't lose them, and there isn't excess waste from adding more paper to the game packaging. Save trees, and don't lose your instructions at the same time!

Count Your Chickens! has 40 little chick chips or tokens, a mother hen game piece, a spinner, and the board. To set up, you put the mother hen at START, and you scatter the chicks all across the board (anywhere except in the coop). The goal is to get all the chicks into the coop before the mother hen gets to the coop.

Actual game play sees everyone playing as the mother hen. The players take turns spinning, and each spin determines the number of chicks placed in the coop. If you spin the cow, for example, you count the number of spaces you move to get to the next cow space. If you moved 4 spaces, you put 4 chicks in the coop. If the space you move to shows a chick atop the animal (in this instance, a chick atop a cow), you get to add one extra chick to the coop. If you land on the fox, you take a chick out of the coop and place it back on the board. If you get all the chicks in the coop before you reach the end, you win! If you don’t, better luck next time.

Bobble got a dog for the first spin, so he added 6 chicks to the coop because the first dog square was 6 spaces from the start.

The great thing about this game is that there is no singled out player, and you can use the set up to teach lessons about nature. I like that you can add story to it if you want to give a reason why the chicks should be in the coop. Maybe your kids are learning about predators, so you could pretend there was a hawk spotted. Maybe it is feeding time and the chicks need to get back, or it’s getting near dark and they need to roost. If you don’t want to, then you just have a fun game that helps children learn to count. No reading is required for this game (provided someone can explain the instructions the first time to the children).

Count Your Chickens! is for children ages 3+, for up to 4 players, and takes around 15 minutes to play start to finish. You can find Count Your Chickens! at select retail stores (Target carries Peaceable Kingdoms games) or online at Amazon.com for approximately $16.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. Count Your Chickens! was purchased by me and all opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Trouble (game review)

This week we’re going to take a peek at the game of Trouble. Trouble is a game I remember playing (and loving) as a child, and it is on that Bobble is currently a huge fan of. The game has changed since I was a child through both board style and board additions.

The basic premise of Trouble is to get your 4 pegs into your home. Fairly simple. Youngest person goes first. You can get out when someone else “rolls” a 1, or you can get out on a 6. If you get a 6, you get to go again. If your move makes you land atop another player, they are sent back to their start. You do not have to have the exact number to get into home to win (so if you rolled a 6 and you only needed to move 3 spaces to win, you still win).

I have to admit, though simple, this game is really frustrating for me. The board is much flimsier than it used to be, and is really only a piece of cardboard for the game board, and only held down by a bit of plastic overlay in a few spots. The pegs used to sit into a groove, now they rest over a nub. This is frustrating because if you push the popper, sometimes the pegs all pop off and you have to put your pieces back on. The popper also doesn’t pop all of the time.

As far as game play goes, it’s great for teaching strategy and counting (up to 6). What isn’t so fun is the addition of warps and XX squares (which are “go again” spaces). In theory, it’s really not so bad. Realistically, though, you have a really good chance of getting most of the way across the board. Every three or four spaces there is the ability to either “warp” to the other side of the board, or a chance to go again. Add in the fact that you might even get a 6 (so you can go again) some of those times, and turns can be never ending.

My husband gets frustrated easily with this game because it can be difficult to get out, so he’ll just sit in start while Bobble is out with a 6, pops another 6 (so he warps across the board, then goes again), gets a 4 (which landed him on a XX space from the warp space), and then anything over a 3 puts him in home. It happens a lot more than you’d expect.

If you’re considering the game of Trouble, I would highly recommend trying to find the original version. It was a lot sturdier, and a lot less annoying. Otherwise, I wish you infinite patience, and lots of other kids to play the game with your child so you don’t have to. It is still a good game for strategy and counting, it’s just more annoying than it needs to be.

No reading is necessary to play this game.

Trouble can be purchased at any major retail store for approximately $10. 

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. All products mentioned were purchased by me, and all opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.