Customer Reviews

Pounce

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

 

 

The previous reviewer misunderstood the rules, which is probably part of why she doesn't enjoy the game. You're collecting not one of each card, but a whole set of either four cards the same, or four cards all different (so there's a little more strategy there). Also, players take turns "blocking" one room from being collectable, which, again, adds a bit more strategy.

However, this is not a game that's good with only two or three players - you need four or five to have any challenge. And it's also not a game that's good with older players. I think the 6+ age rating is well off, a better age rating would probably be from age 4 - 6, with maybe some seven year olds who were unfamiliar with card games, or as a filler game played once in a while rather than very often. (Indeed, my two nieces ask for it often, but they're aged 3 and 5!)

There's nothing wrong with that, it's good to have games for younger children, but if you're buying this game for a kid in the second or third grade, you need to pick something else that'll hold their interest better. Try Sleeping Queens or Rat-a-tat-cat instead. Or, if you like the "slapping cards" mechanism, go for a a game like Bugs, Beans, and Birds.

I've rated this at 5 stars *for the correct age group*.

Since this game was recommended for ages 6+, I purchased this game for my 6 year old who is familiar with card games. We played "War" and Go Fish when she was in the 4 to 5 year old range. And then moved onto Spot It and Sleeping Queens when she was in the 5 to 6 year old age range. Spot It is supposedly for ages 7+, but can easily be played by kids as young as 5 or 6 (maybe even younger, depending on the child). Sleeping Queens is supposed to be for ages 8+, but I also think that most kids that are a few years younger could play it. My kiddo is crazy for cats, so when I saw Pounce, I thought it would be another good card game option for us to have. We took it out of the box to play and I had to read the instructions about 4x because I could not believe how simplistic this game was. But "they" said it was for kids 6+, so I figured I must have missed something. We were about 2 cards into the game when my daughter looked up and said, "This game is boring and it's for babies. Can we play something else?" And that was it. The game is now in the pile of stuff accumulating to take to Goodwill.

Pounce is about reaction time and perception and perceptiveness, with a wee bit of strategy and a lot of funny fun. There are five kinds of room cards, and five sets of cat cards. Each set of cat cards contains one cat that kind of matches each one of the rooms shown in the room cards. Kind of - because the cat cards don't look exactly like the rooms - they match in color, but they show the rooms from the cats' perspective. So, the room card that has the bird in a cage matches the cat card that has the bird's eye view of the cat. And the room card that has the gold fish bowl matches the fish-eye view. And the room card that shows the bubble bath matches the bubble-covered cat. So just a tad of extra thinking is necessary for successful match-making. Just the right tad.

Players (there are enough cards for 5 players) all pick a cat card from their hand, place it face down on the table, and, when everyone is finished, all, simultaneously yell "pounce", turn their cat card over, and put their paws on the room that matches their chosen cat. The first player to successfully identify the correct room gets that room card.

There's also one card showing Bruno the Dog. The player who holds that card (a different player gets it each round) can, once all cat cards are placed, put Bruno on any room, taking that room out of play for that round. Once a room card is won, it is placed, face-up in front of the winning player. The first to collect four of the same room card, or four different room cards, wins.

Designed by Roberto Fraga for Gamewright, this simple game is surprisingly deep for a kids' game. Easy to learn. Fun to play. But to win, you have to do a lot of second-guessing - basing your strategies on what room cards each player has already collected and which cards are easiest for that player to reach. This second-guessing strategy is especially true for the holder of the Bruno card, but at every play it definitely helps to try for the room card that the other players are least likely to go after. Speed, however, generally trumps strategy. Nevertheless, the older the children are who play the game, the more likely they are to play strategically. The presence of this modicum of strategic depth keeps the game interesting and eminently playworthy.

The art by Dave Clegg is the perfect complement to the game play, adding whimsy and reinforcing the fantasy, cleverly cartoonish without being too childish. Major FUN.

We are a family with a 7 year old and love card games because they are easy to store and take with us traveling. I bought Pounce because it looked fun and had beautiful artwork.

The game concept is horrible:
-Each player gets a set of 5 Cat cards, each that correspond to a room card.
-all the room card piles are placed in the middle of the table
-each player picks one of there Cat Cards to place face down.
-You all at the same time turn over your card to reveal which cat you picked, and whoever slaps the pile of the corresponding room wins the hand.
-the player that gets all 5 room cards wins.

Pretty disappointing.

We made up a totally different game to use with the cards. Not worth the money - too bad because the cards themselves are vivid and beautiful.