Ever in search of games that our five year old can stick with till the end, and that our eleven year old will maintain interest in while said five year old prolongs the action, we have finally met our match in Pusheen The Cat Purrfect Pick Card Game. This new game from Ravensburger has some skill, some luck, and a whole lot of cuteness. Enough to keep us all interested and coming back for more.
I have never taken much interest in the Everyday Cute character, choosing the Moomins for my cute quotient of preference. But ever since playing this game, my whole family has become a little bit obsessed, mostly with Cheek and his, well, cheeks. Created in 2010 by Claire Belton and Andrew Duff, Pusheen quickly had her own Tumblr account and became one of the most famous cats on a cat obsessed internet.
Components
75 Essentials Cards
37 Snapshot Cards
Double-sided Pusheen’s house Game Board
1 Pusheen Figure
The components are all high quality. The Pusheen figure has a hard time staying in the box, as all of my children want to steal her, and I doubt it will be long before we are seeking out other characters of this same type. The Essentials cards are as ridiculously cute as you would expect, and I don’t think I have ever come across a more adorable wild card. They are of the standard you would expect of Ravensburger, both the cards and the board will hold up to much play, even by tiny, sticky fingers. Ours has already been wiped clean of Iced Tea and Goldfish crumbs. Everything fits precisely into its well designed and sturdy box, and the footprint makes it so that this can be stored absolutely anywhere you keep your games.
Game Setup
The Game Board is double sided, with one side being the inside of Pusheen’s house and the other being her garden. Both are exceptionally cute and the rules do not change depending on which side you play. My love of cute mushrooms lends me to prefer the outside version of the game, but I am often outvoted. The Essentials deck should be shuffled and placed within reaching distance of all players, one Essentials card is placed in each designated card spot on the board, there are 12 spaces. Four Snapshot cards should be drawn and placed face up underneath the board. The Pusheen figure goes to the person who most recently fed a cat, they will be the first player.
How Do You Win Pusheen The Cat Purrfect Pick Card Game?
Before you get into how to play the game, you need to understand what your goal is. Each round will see you gathering Essentials cards from Pusheen’s house and using them to take fun snapshots of your weekend. Each snapshot is worth a certain number of stars, and once you have collected ten stars you win.
How Do You Play Pusheen The Cat Purrfect Pick Card Game?
In each round the same steps are followed. The person with the Pusheen figure places it on one of the paw prints on the game board. Each paw print is surrounded by four Essentials cards at the start of the round. Starting with the player who placed Pusheen, each person will choose an Essentials card, this can be random from the deck or one of the four cards that is adjacent to the Pusheen figure. If an Action card is drawn then the action must be performed immediately and discarded. If the drawing of the card allows a player to achieve one of the snapshots then they may take the Snapshots card and discard the required Essentials cards from their hand. When every player has taken their turn in this round, you will check to see if anyone has ten or more stars.
If no one has ten stars then you draw and replace Essentials cards on the now vacant spaces on the Game Board. If someone has taken a Snapshot card or more, you likewise replace the Snapshots until there are four available again. You are ready to start the next round.
Once a player has ten stars and the round is complete, the game ends. The player with the most stars win, and in the case of a tie, all tied players win.
Special Cards
There are three different Essentials cards at play in Pusheen The Cat Purrfect Pick Card Game: Friends, Items, and Actions. Friends and Items are kept in your hand to help you achieve a Snapshot, while Action cards are played immediately. There is no hand limit, once the deck runs out, you simply re-shuffle the discard pile.
There are two kinds of Snapshots cards. Basic Snapshots just require you to get the Friends and Items pictured in order to take the shot, then you get the stars. Special Snapshot cards provide a special effect in addition to the stars. These effects can either be immediate or provide a special ability that remains with that player for the rest of the game.
Should You Buy Pusheen The Cat Purrfect Pick Card Game?
If you have anyone in your family under the age of ten then this is a no brainer, and a must have for your board game library. This is a really simple but absolutely wonderful game to play. The mechanics are easy, it can be picked up in the first play through. It is rated for ages eight and up, but our five year old had it mastered as quickly as the rest of us. Our dynamic is ages five to forty, and we all thoroughly enjoyed this game. It works as a quick game to play if you have lingered too long over dinner, or as a palate cleanser between more complicated games. Pusheen The Cat Purrfect Pick Card Game has the feel of other favorites of ours. It has the same simplicity and collection goals that we love about Go Nuts for Donuts, and the cuteness of Furry Foodies and our catalog of Haba games. The mechanics of it also bear a basic resemblance to the mechanics of Tiny Towns, and so if that is a game you want to introduce to your younger offspring, or your game deprived parents, then this is a great game to get them into that mindset.
This has quickly become a must play for us on game night, and is on my list of great birthday presents to give friends. I look forward to future expansions of this game; we need more Pusheen and friends figures.
GeekMom received a copy of this game for review purposes.
