Customer Reviews

Rat-A-Tat-Cat

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rat-a-Tat Cat is our favorite game to play with our six year old. Your child will learn basic math skills (addition), gain an intuitive appreciation of probability and gaming, and have fun at the same time. Best of all, parents will enjoy playing this game with their children. Because it combines elements of chance and skill, anyone can win at any time.

Rat-a-tat Cat is a fast paced card game where the object is hold the minimum number of points. It has much in common with certain types of poker games and children's card games such as "go-fish". The fast paced nature of the game both decreases boredom (especially for parents) while giving children the maximum opportunity to try out their addition skills. My guess is that children between the ages of 5-7 will learn the most from this game, but it can be enjoyed by all ages.

Finally, Rat-a-Tat Cat is easily portable. It can be played anywhere you can play cards. This makes it great for airplanes, car backseats, or the kitchen table.

This is a favorite game in our family. Parents as well as a 13 yr. old boy and 9 yr. old girl love it and play it often. It's a game that anyone can win. I don't have to "let" the kids win, they usually beat me! We sometimes turn it around and try to be the one with the highest score. That adds more addition challenge. It's small and compact so it's great for traveling. Highly recommended!

Talk about good things coming in small packages - this is a really cool game. The rules are simple to grasp, and each round of play only takes about 3-4 minutes so you never have time to get bored. The cards themselves are lovely with quirky humorous pictures, and while you have to be quite focussed to remember what your own cards are, and how other people are reacting to their cards, there is enough of an element of chance that anyone, regardless of age, can win. Also the game has quite a "positive" emphasis - you are more focussed on how good your own hand is, rather than how badly everyone else is doing. My kids (13 and 6) used to rush home from school to play this, and we've taken it away on holiday with us, as it's small and light, and doesn't require lots of space to play. Love this game.

This is so far our favorite gamewright game for our family. It took a little while for our 5 year old to learn the game, but he can now play on his own and has been known to win, Really annoys our 13 year old. This is some strategy involved in this game. you can easily play two people or 6 people. We have 5 in our family. It is nice to have a game that we can all play at one time and it isn't as time consuming as monopoly.

Each player is dealt 4 cards face down.
You line up the cards in front of you face down.
you are allowed to look at the two cards on the end, but not the cards in the middle.
you take turns drawing a card from the pile in the middle(which is face down) or picking the card on the top of the discard pile(which is face up. You try to exchange your higher numbered cards for lower numbers. You try to get all four cards as low as possible (0 to 9) and then you shout out Rat a 'tat CAt. Everyone gets one more chance and then you add up the points. A score keeper records adds up the points for each player.

The object of the game is to get the lowest number of points by adding up all 4 cards at the end of the round. We ussually play to 50 or 100 points, as people get to 50 points they would be out of the game. Each time there is a round the dealer shuffles the entire deck and passes out 4 more cards per player. Each person gets a turn to deal.

There are peek cards, allowing you to peek at a card that you may not now.
There are draw 2 cards, giving you two chances to get a low number card, If you don't want the card you draw you just place it face up on the discard pile.
There are swap cards, allowing you to swap a card with another player, so paying attention is important.

All 4 cards are always kept face down. You can only look at the two end cards before play begins, and you can look at the card you draw just that one time. After that no peeking allowed, so you have to try to remember what is infront of you and sometimes you have to take a chance on the two middle cards, since you don't now what those cards are unless you get a peek card or you just risk it and discard the card.

It isn't as complicated as it sounds, but it did take a while for our 5 year old to beable to play without a partner.

Our kids beg to play this game with us.

Cards could be made better, they aren't very well laminated.

We were snowbound this winter break and only had tv and this game. To my surprise, despite 250 channels, the TV stayed off and this game won most of the time for six kids aged 14, 13, 12, 10, 7 and 5. Really a lot of fun. The nice thing is that there is no reading required, so the 5 year old could play, but the skill level and memory aspects made it fun for everyone.

This is definitely one of the best card games we've bought--including several from Gameright. It tests one's memory, strategies, a good poker face, and of course, above all one must have good luck with each round. My 4 year old son and my older daughter both play this game. Believe it or not, my husband and I also enjoy playing the game with them. The cards are made of durable material. It is worth every penny. Highly recommend it.

You know the family games that you regret buying, especially when you see your child coming at you with it on a rainy day, saying, "Will you play this with me?" Well, Rat-a-Tat-Cat is not one of these.

It's simple enough to learn, but there is enough challenge in it to keep even an adult guessing. Rat-a-Tat-Cat was a gift to our family, but when my youngest daughter (age 4 or 5 at the time) got the hang of it, it became her favourite and here's why: 1)Though she was just learning numbers, she could understand the game, 2)The guessing part of the game put her on equal par with adults, to her delight. 3)Even for a busy adult, it's easy enough to sit down and play this game and actually can be relaxing. 4) If a guest came over, my daughter was able to explain the game rules to the guest and soon she'd have even teenage guys sitting cross-legged on the floor trying to get rid of the rats. Good ice-breaker.

Simply put, rats are bad, cats are good. High points ~ you don't want them. The higher the number on the card, the more rat-power in the drawing. Zero is the best, with rats gone and a cat installed as a happy Statue of Liberty. The drawings are whimsical & clever.
The reason it's a success as a game for all ages is because though it appears simple, there is the element of not knowing what your cards are and even if you peek (with permission), opponents can take your best away from you. So, if you don't mind losing to a kid and making that kid's day, as well as having a laugh, go ahead and get this game. My daughter is older now and we still play it. She's also learned to be a good loser :-)

My five-year old and I happily passed time in a crowded airport with this game. We were the ones smiling and laughing. I didn't have much hope that my little three-year-old would get this game, but she did. The cat and rat images had enough information in them for even the barely-three-year-old to manage it. This game challenges kids for adding, for developing a good memory as hands change, and for developing strategy. Highly recommended.

This card game is awesome for kids learning values of numbers, probability, and love to just have fun. My son started playing it with me when he was 4 and he's now 5 and he still loves the game. We even bought one for his class at school for indoor recess. He now wants to buy it for friend birthdays. He is getting good at adding and without him knowing his probability skills are growing each time he plays.

Our daughter got this game at a birthday party she attended and it's the best party favor we've ever gotten. It's a great game for all ages - easy to understand game play and fun strategy elements. Our kids - 6 and 9 - love it and ask to play almost every night. It's clearly geared towards younger kids and would be a good starter card game for pre-schoolers. It's a nice family game because it doesn't have to take long to play so when the kids beg for a quick game before bed, we can oblige.