This is the latest educational game by Orchard Toys launched in August 2012. Monster Catcher emphasises on collecting and losing monsters in this fun, colour matching game. How many monsters can you catch?
It contains:
- 20 Monster head cards
- 20 Monster feet cards
- 6 Full net cards
- 4 Empty net cards
- 6 Monster catcher scene cards
- and 1 instruction leaflet.
It is suitable for age 3+ for 2 – 4 players. It comes in a small, easy open box. It is perfect to take out on a road trip, camping or picnic. Recently, we even took it out on a train trip to London and played on the train. The cards are made from thick recycled cupboard, easy to hold, have smooth edges and are bright and colourful. Best of all it was made in Britain!
The objective of this game is to collect the most complete monster before the monster catcher scene is completed. Before you start the game, each player has to pick two monster feet cards (same or different colours are fine) and places in front of them. The remaining cards are shuffled and placed in the face-down pile in the middle of the table.
The game starts by asking the youngest player to taking a card from the pile.
- If they pick up a monster head card and it is the same colour as their monster feet card, they keep the card to make a complete monster. If the card does not match, then they place the card, face-up, on the discard pile next to the main draw pile. The next player could either pick up a card from the face-down pile or the main pile. They can not pick up full nets cards or empty net cards from the discard pile.
Both of my children, but especially Ms C, are very keen to say the colour of the monster and trying to count the eyes. Oh dear! She keeps counting until she loses count while playing.
- If they pick up a monster feet card, they place the card in front of them, alongside their other cards.
- Pick a full net card and if the player has at least one complete monster in front of them, then one complete monster is placed in the middle of the table. The full net card is then placed on the discard pile.
- If they pick up the empty net card, then they can collect any complete monsters that have been placed in the middle of the table to add to their own collection. The empty net card is placed on the discard pile.
- If they pick up the one of the scene cards, they place it face up on the table. The game ends when the picture is complete, as shown below:
Ms C is not good at doing puzzles. She is having trouble to identify and place the scene card in the correct way. I had to show her a couple of times before we get it right. So it was a good chance to let her learn to do puzzles at the same time.
It sounds more complicated that it is. Once you start playing in fact, it was a lot of fun!
This is our short review video we made: https://youtu.be/z1B52D7BPZE
Disclosure: We received this game from Orchards Toys through Izziwizzi Kids to do an honest review.