We were recently sent another game by the creative Drumond Park people. Rattle Me Bones is one of those modern classics games which we used to love to play when we were younger. It is a simple but is great fun to play and also helps to improve fine motor skills for the younger players.
Rattle Me Bones is aimed at 5+ years and for 2-4 players. My youngest has just turned 4 and is more than capable of playing this game, he was confident and happy playing this and really enjoyed it. The game also requires 3x AA batteries. Being a household with two children we always have a stack of batteries in the drawer!
The aim of the game is to be the first player to 'steal' three items from Captain Boney. You also need to 'steal' his hat. But, it's not as simple as that though, if you aren't gentle enough and have shaky hands, then Captain Boney will jump up and shake his arms and legs, making him lose all his treasures!
There are also gold coins which Captain Boney guards in his treasure chest. The arrow on the spinner falls on the colour of the item you need to take. If there are no colours left then you have to take a gold coin (2 gold coins counts as 1 item out of your 3 items to collect). You have to be especially careful when taking a gold coin as I feel it is trickier to get a coin without Captain Boney jumping up! ......or maybe I just can't do it, the kids seemed fine doing it!
Once you have your three items, on the next turn you then need to try and take Captain Boney's hat without waking him. If you manage to do this you win the game, if not, you have to put your items back and the game continues.
To set up Captain Boney you need to place all the coloured treasures on his body. There is a guide to tell you where they need to go.
This bit was a little fiddly for little fingers, even my fingers sometimes. My 4 year old, couldn't do it. He could play it perfectly well, but setting up was a bit of an issue, but as it's a game for more than one player, his brother or I were the ones setting up whilst he waited patiently to start the game. Whilst waiting for us to put the items on Captain Boney he would put the gold coins in the treasure chest and then play with the spinner. He would hold onto the spinner tight as he knew he would need it first, youngest player first!
After a few fun goes, we soon realised there were slightly easier ones to remove than others. So we would try for those first, but you still needed to go for the harder ones when they ran out! As I mentioned, my youngest enjoyed the game, but so did my eldest (he's 6 years old). All of us would have to think about which piece we wanted to take off, so it's good to see the little one's thinking ahead.
I would highly recommend this game, it is really fun and the batteries last a long time, so will easily see you through the many games you play over the festive season.
Rattle Me Bones - £22.99 (but I'm sure there are discounts over the Christmas period!)
Giveaway: one lucky reader has the chance of winning a Rattle Me Bones game for themselves. To be in with a chance of winning simply complete the form below. Good luck!
Rattle Me Bones giveaway
Disclaimer: I was sent this product to review, but all opinions and views expressed are my own.
