Game: Frog Juice

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whoami — 2008-11-03T12:55:55+00:00

Thread: Re: Gather Ingredients, Cast Spells, Melt Witches and... Practice Your Math!

Denise — 2008-07-10T23:44:27+00:00

Great review! I agree wholeheartedly, I've given away half a dozen copies of this game, and it has great appeal to the younger end of the Harry Potter set.

Thread: Gather Ingredients, Cast Spells, Melt Witches and... Practice Your Math!

dagny21 — 2008-07-10T22:28:27+00:00

I'm always on the lookout for games that I think will appeal to my 7 year old son but also have some educational value and hopefully be enjoyable for the adults in the family as well. When I read about Frog Juice I thought it might be a good bet for us, so when it showed up on the shelves of the toy store where I work I snapped it up.

What You Get
44 Ingredient cards, each with a number on it.
15 Power cards with the "P" symbol in the corner
Rules

How to Play

Set Up
Shuffle the cards and deal 4 to each player. Then, turn the next 4 cards face up and lay them out in a row in the center of the playing area. Leave the remaining stack of cards face down within the reach of all players. This will be the draw stack.

Playing the Game
Each player's turn consists of 4 possible steps:

1-On your turn, you should always start with 4 cards. If you do not have 4 cards at the start of your turn, you must draw enough cards to have 4 in your hands.

2-Choose one of the following actions to take:
~ Capture cards from the center
~Play a black cat card
~Play a Witch Card
~Lay Down a Spell Card
~No action (pass).

3-Once you've taken your action, you can now try to complete any of the spells in front of you.

4-To end your turn, discard 1 card face up in the center of the table. This card is now a part of the selection of cards available to be captured by all players. You must discard a card at the end of your turn, unless you have no cards left in your hand.

Play now continues clockwise around the table.

How to Capture Cards
This is the math exercise part of the game. In order to capture an ingredient card from the center, you must match it mathematically. There are a few ways to do this. You can match 1 for 1 by taking a card from your hand that matches the number of 1 card you wish to capture from the center of the table. Another way is to take 1 card from your hand and match it with more than 1 card in the center of the table whose sum adds up to the number of the card from your hand. Finally, you may take multiple cards from your hand that add up to the number on just 1 of the cards in the center. Once a match is made, you take all of the involved cards (those in your hand and those captured from the center) and place them in a pile next to you, out play. All Ingredients go in one pile, all Power cards go in another.

Playing a Black Cat
There is only one black cat card in the deck. To play it, show it to one of your opponents. He must now give you one of the cards from his Power pile. Now, both the black cat and the swiped Power card go into your power pile where they will remain until the end of the game.

Playing a Witch Card
There are 4 Witch cards in the deck. To use a Witch card from your hand, sweep it over all of the cards in the center, as though the witch is flying over them. This entitles you to capture all of the cards currently face up in the center of the table. Once captured, sort the cards into your Ingredient and Power stacks.

To Play a Spell Card
Simply place a spell card in front of you from your hand.

Completing Spells
After the action portion of your turn you may now try to complete any spells you have in front of you. To do so, look at the spell card and determine what ingredients are required to complete it. If you have any of these ingredients in your hand, you may lay them on the card. If the spell is still not complete, look at the center of the table and take any of the cards you need to complete the spell. If still incomplete, ask each of your opponents in a clockwise direction for any of the cards you need. If they have them, they must give them to you. If at the end of this effort the spell is complete, you place the spell card in your Power pile and place all ingredients used in your ingredients pile.

Frog Juice Card
Another special card in the game is the Frog Juice Card. This card is captured as an ingredient card (because it has a number) and used to complete spells as an ingredient card, but because it also has a "P" on it it ultimately goes into your Power pile and is scored as a Power card.

All-Purpose Witch Wash Card
There is only one of these Power cards in the deck. It can be played at any time in the game, even if it is not your turn. It can be played to capture a witch card in the center of the table, or it can be played in response to a player attempting to Sweep With a Witch, called "Melting a Witch" (a la Wizard of Oz). When played in response to another player, the player with the Witch Wash card gets to add all cards from the center, the opponent's Witch, and his Witch Wash card to his ingredients and Power piles, as appropriate. Finally, you can play a Witch Wash card on your Own Witch at the same time as you play a Witch card. This ensures that you get to add the Witch Wash card to your Power pile, without having to wait for another player to use a Witch.

Scoring
The game is over when all cards have been drawn from the draw deck, and every player has played every playable card. At this time, each player counts up their Power pile and scores 1 point for every Power card in that pile. Then, each player counts up their Ingredient cards and the player with the most Ingredient cards gets a bonus of 2 points. If there is a tie, all tied players get 2 points. No other players receive points for their Ingredient cards.

Cards left in your hand, cards in the center, and incomplete spells and their ingredients are not scored.

The player with the most points wins.

What We Like

Speed of Play
The box says this game should take 25 minutes. It takes us nowhere near that time to complete a game. This usually takes us about 15 minutes to play. You see, there are only 59 cards and once you've gone through them all that's it. Thus you can play this game a few times in every setting or just once for something quick and fun to do before bed.

Artwork
The artwork on these cards is just great. It's very colorful and there's a bit of humor as well. There are some subtle references to Wizard of Oz, as well as a some fairy tales. The artwork alone makes me want to dig the game out of the closet and play it every so often.

Theme
Although theme isn't everything, it's really important to me. I've also found it very valuable to have a good theme when trying to get my son to play with me. A fairy tale theme with a bit of humor thrown in is just the ticket for many children.

Educational Value
While playing this game, some simple math skills do get a work out. This definitely falls under the category of edutainment. Kids will be practicing their simple addition skills and hardly know they're doing it.

What We Don't Like

Boring for Adults
Before sitting down to play this game with our son, my husband and I played it ourselves a few time. It was all right, but we both pronounced it pretty "blah" even though we agreed that the kid would probably enjoy it.

Who Can Play?
The box says this game is for 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up. It's a decent 2 player game, but better with 3. We have not tried it with 4. The mechanics of the game are simple enough for 6 and 7 year olds. The real thing to think about is the math skills of your child. The Ingredients cards have numbers from 1 to 12, and your child should be able to figure out something like 3+8+1 = 12 in order to play this game well.

Price
The price on this game is about $8 to $10, depending on where you purchase it. It seems about fair for the educational value, fun artwork, and originality of the game.

Final Thoughts
If you have kids at just the right age who will enjoy the theme and could benefit from the math drill practice the game provides, you should get this game. Your kids will enjoy it, and although the adults my be underwhelmed, it's not too painful for them either.

Thread: Re: Rules

BugLaden — 2008-01-03T18:36:38+00:00

Great game to play with kids. My girls love it.

http://www.gamewright.com/gamewright/pdfs/Rules/FrogJuice-RU...

Thread: Rules

bnorton916 — 2008-01-03T18:19:56+00:00

Anyone know where a copy of the rules might be found?

Thread: Re: Like Cassino?

Karlsen — 2007-05-05T01:30:13+00:00

I find the witch cards to be just a tad too chaotic really.

Thread: Re: Like Cassino?

Windopaene — 2007-05-04T18:40:40+00:00

Yes, it's quite a bit like Casino. Though it allows combinations in both directions 3+4->7 and 7->3 & 4, and has some random "witch" cards that let you do stuff.

Thread: Like Cassino?

chessduffer — 2007-05-04T18:05:36+00:00

After looking at reviews and reading the rules, this game seems like a kids variant of the card game Cassino, am I correct?

Thread: Frog Juice - A Light Review

Neil Thomson — 2007-01-03T15:00:25+00:00

All of my reviews aim to offer a brief overview that allows people to get a good feel for what the game may offer them. I feel that other reviews can be sought if detailed game mechanics is what you are after.

As this is a game based on educational principles I am also able to draw on my experience as a primary school teacher (Australia) when reviewing them. I hope you find this insight useful.

Frog Juice is another game from Gamewright that is fun to play. The game consists of 59 cards that depict all manner of kooky stuff that kids love such as bats, toads, spells, witches, newts, toadstools and unicorn horns. Most of the cards are ingredients and each of these has a number value. The other 15 are Power cards and these are very important. The aim of the game is to collect the most points by games end. One point is awarded for every Power card that is captured and 2 points is awarded for the player who collects the most ingredients. So how does it play?

Each player is dealt 4 cards and a further 4 cards are dealt face-up on the table. Each turn a player can choose a single action. The options include capturing cards from the table or your own hand, playing a black cat, sweeping with a witch card or playing a spell. Capturing cards is one great way of collecting ingredients. To capture an ingredient a player must play a number of cards that will exactly match the value of the ingredient desired. For example to capture a Fair Maid from the table a total of 12 points must be played. This could be achieved by playing an 11-point Deadly Nightshade and a 1-point Shrinking Brew. All captured cards including the ones played from the hand are added to the player’s ingredients pile.

Of course capturing Power Cards from the table is not so easy. This can only be achieved by playing a Witch Card and using it to ‘sweep’ the table. Sweeping the table allows a player to take all cards that are face-up. The Black Cat allows a player to steal any one ingredient or power card from another players score piles and the All Purpose Witch Wash can be used to stop another players Witch from sweeping the table.

Spells are probably the most fun cards in the game as they have neat names like the ‘Uglifying Spell’ or ‘Anti-Gravity Spell’. Each spell lists the three ingredients needed to complete it. Players play the Spell Card in front of them and on their turn they can add the desired ingredients either from their hand or from those face-up on the table.

If they end their turn and the spell is incomplete they can ask each player for one of the ingredients and they must be handed over if they possess them. Completing a spell gives the player more power so the card is added to their Power score pile. Players draw a new card to end their turn and the game is over when the draw deck is exhausted and no further cards remain on the table. The highest score will determine the winner.

The Final Word

Frog Juice has all the elements that make for a great quality game. The players are offered a range of choices each turn to keep them interested. Each player’s turn is relatively short, which means that no one player is out of the action for long (very important for children). The game has heaps of theme, which makes the experience more enjoyable for the players. The cards are of a high quality, with engaging artwork and a card thickness that will withstand many plays. Finally the game is great to help children develop their counting and number skills. Need I say more? Frog Juice is a winner.

Thread: Re: What am I missing?

Great Dane — 2006-08-26T11:02:58+00:00

davebo wrote:
I play a lot of kid games. I am pretty skilled at finding the fun in the game.

What am I missing here? Where's the fun in this game? I'm honestly asking, because I can't find any.

You are not missing anything - but you have actually gained the knowledge that not all games are for everybody.

It was one of my puchases in 1995 that put me off taking chances with American games and made me look for Germany instead. So the game was actually good for something, I guess...

Thread: Re: What am I missing?

qzhdad — 2006-08-26T01:28:11+00:00

We used to play this a lot. (And I mean adults, my kids weren't impressed with it.) It hasn't been out lately, but I remember it being a pretty good filler/closer. Some strategy, a lot of luck, cute pictures and deadly nightshade, what more could one want in a game.

IIRC, it went over pretty well with most players, but there were a few that just didn't like it. I don't think it's a game that one can learn to enjoy with more plays. If you don't enjoy it now, you probably won't later.

Thread: What am I missing?

davebo — 2006-08-26T01:01:35+00:00

I play a lot of kid games. I am pretty skilled at finding the fun in the game.

What am I missing here? Where's the fun in this game? I'm honestly asking, because I can't find any.

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belial1134 — 2006-02-18T03:57:53+00:00

1997 Edition

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beezwax — 2005-11-10T22:01:09+00:00

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belial1134 — 2005-10-16T15:10:01+00:00

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fee_weasel — 2005-08-22T15:05:00+00:00

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fee_weasel — 2005-08-22T15:05:00+00:00

An alternate version of the back of the box.

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fee_weasel — 2005-08-22T15:05:00+00:00

The front of yet another box design, there is no insert for the cards.

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drakezeus — 2005-08-21T02:29:18+00:00

Frog Juice 1995 Gamewright

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EJKemp — 2005-03-23T20:55:14+00:00

Thread: User Review

Greybear — 2005-02-20T15:40:54+00:00

Frog Juice is a simple card game of collecting ingredients (like Unicorn Horn, Bats, or Mice) for 2-4 players, ages eight to adult.

Ingredient cards are used to complete spells and capture other cards. Power cards have special powers.

Each person begins the game with four cards and the dealer places the next four cards from the deck face up in a row in the center of the table. Players always start their turn with four cards.

Each turn, a player can do one of the following four actions:

1. Capture cards

A. Capture from the center by matching a card from your hand (e.g, capture a toad with a toad).

B. Capture one or more cards from the center that have a numerical value of one card from your hand. For example, the value of a Deadly Nightshade from your hand can capture Toadstools, Toads, and a Shrinking Brew.

C. The reverse of B. If you have Toadstools, Toads, and a Shrinking Brew in your hand, you can capture a Deadly Nightshade.

Captured cards are placed in Ingredient and Power discard piles in front of each player.

2. Play the Black Cat card which allows you to take a power card from your opponent.

3. Sweep with a Witch Card and take all the cards in the center.

4. Play a spell card. After playing a spell card, you can place ingredients under the spell from your hand, from the center, or request cards from other players. Once the spell is completed, put the Ingredients in one discard pile and the Power Cards for the spell and the spell itself in the Power Card discard pile.

5. Pass and discard.

After taking an action, you can add cards to any incomplete spells you have on the table from previous turns.

Continue playing until there are no cards left in the draw pile and players have no playable cards in their hands.

Get one point for each Power Card in your discard pile. Whoever has the most Ingredient Cards in their discard pile receives two points. Add the scores for both piles. High score wins.
Avoid having your cards taken by someone else's witch card by having the "Witch Wash" ready to play.

The cards are sturdy with large and colorful images. Other than the use of Witch cards to take cards from one’s opponent, there is no direct conflict between players. That makes Frog Juice a "low impact" game with just a touch of conflict spiced by the challenge of simple strategy and decision making.

Thread: User Review

jadzianess — 2005-02-14T17:48:55+00:00

I purchased this game to play with a 9 and 11 year old. It is for 2-4 players and I thought it played fine with 2 and 3 players. The cards are a nice quality with colorful, simplistic artwork.
The object of the game is to get the most potions cards (those marked with a P), and if possible to have the largest ingredient pile (those cards are marked with numbers 1-12). Each player is dealt 4 cards, and at the start of each turn draws from the draw pile to keep that four card level. After you have 4 cards in your hand, your turn consists of trying to pick up common cards that are displayed in the center for all to see. There are 4 of those cards to start with, but with players picking from them, and then discarding into the center, the number constantly changes. If you have a 10 value card in your hand, you can pick up two 5's, or a 7 and a 3 from the center. And vice versa, if you have a 7 and 3 in your hand you can pick up the 10 card. Those cards then are put next to you in a pile and count towards your ingredient cards, so it is best to use as many cards as possible to pick up one card. You also must discard one card at the end of your turn. The game ends when there are no more cards to pick from the draw pile. To mix it up a little there are witch, spell and a black cat card.
This is another one of those games that when you read the instructions you say Huh??? But when you deal out the cards and do a run through game, it all comes together and makes sense. The kids picked it up easily and quickly. Requires a bit of math skills to add up card values, so kids need to know a 6 and 3 card can pick up the 9 card. There is luck in getting the Potion cards, but also strategy in knowing when to play these Potion/witch cards. This game is a keeper, quick and light and not at all confusing.

Thread: User Review

StewartTame — 2005-02-04T16:44:17+00:00

Frog Juice is a fantasy-themed card game for 2 to 4 players. Players attempt to assemble scoring combinations of cards while preventing their opponents from doing the same.

The game has a witchcraft theme, and the deck of 59 cards is divided into two basic types: 42 Concoction cards and 17 Power cards. These are shuffled together before the game begins, but score differently at the end of the game so players will be seperating them as the game progresses. At the end of the game, captured Power cards are worth 1 point each, and the player with the most captured Concoction cards is awarded 2 points (if there is a tie for the most, all tying players receive the 2 point bonus.)

Most cards have face values printed on them, ranging from 1 to 12. At the beginning of the game each player is dealt 4 cards, with 4 more cards being placed face up in the center of the table. On each players' turn they draw cards, if necessary, to bring their hand back up to 4, and do one of the following: 1) Capture cards from the center, 2) Play the Black Cat card, 3) Play a Spell card, 4) Sweep with a Witch card, 5) or Pass. At the end of your turn, even if you pass, you must discard one card face up to the center of the table.

Capturing cards from the center of the table is the basic game mechanic. Cards are captured by matching face values. For instance, the Princess card (value of 12) may be exchanged for a Prince (also 12). Alternately, the Princess may be exchanged for 12 points worth of other cards, say Frog Juice (6), Mice (5), and Shrinking Brew (1). Or two or more cards may be exchanged for a single card of greater value, Frog Juice, Mice, and Shrinking Brew exchanged for the Prince, for instance. In any such transaction, a single card must be either traded for or traded away--trading multiple cards for multiple other cards is not allowed. Also, the numbers in such transactions must balance. Exchanging a Princess for Deadly Nightshade (11) is not allowed because there would be one point worth of buying power unused. All cards gained in such transactions are placed in the player's Power pile or Concoction pile depending on card type.

The Black Cat card (only 1 in the game) can be used to steal a Power card from another player's scoring pile. Both the Black Cat and the stolen card are then placed in one's own Power pile.

Spell Cards are lists of indgredients--no more than three items at the most, though most have only two. To successfully use the Spell Card all of the ingredients listed on it must be collected. The Spell card is played face up in front of you. If you have any of the ingredients in your hand you may play them next to it. Then you may take any needed ingredients from the face up center cards. If the Spell is still not complete, then you may ask the other players, starting with the one on your left and going clockwise. Anyone who has one or more of the ingredients must surrender them if specifically asked (you may only ask for one at a time.) If, after all of this, the Spell is still not complete, it is left on the table. On your next turn you may go through the above steps again, but it does *not* constitute your action for the turn on any subsequent turns. Once the Spell is complete the card and the ingredients are dispersed to the appropriate scoring piles.

Finally, there are the Witch cards. On your turn you may use a Witch card to sweep up all of the face-up cards from the center of the table and add them (and the Witch) to your scoring piles. There is one special card (the All Purpose Witch Wash) which can be played to usurp this. The player playing the Wash then gets the swept cards and the Witch to add to *their* scoring piles (as well as the Witch Wash).

The game ends when the draw deck is used up and the playes have no more playable cards in their hands. Face up cards in the center and incomplete Spell cards are set aside and not scored. The player with the most points wins.

Overall it's not a bad little game. The artwork is engaging and fits well with the theme. It would have been nice if there were more of a visible difference between Power cards and Concoction cards--for the most part they're easy to distinguish, but there are two (Red Newt and Red Toadstool) that differ from their Power card counterparts only in color. All in all, Frog Juice is not a bad little game. It's perhaps a bit more complex than it needs to be, but it's still fairl light and plays fairly quickly.

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Gialmere — 2005-02-03T20:31:18+00:00