Bryant Garrigus
United States
Belmont
Massachusetts
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Moose in the House is another fun kids game from Gamewright, full of furry antlered beasts in funny domestic locations.
The goal of the game is simple: Keep the moose out of your house! There are several different types of cards: Front Door moose cards, Empty Room cards, Moose in the Room cards, Doors, and Moose Traps.
The art on the cards is excellent, each blank room card showing a well detailed room in a quaint country home, including a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen, each with a color theme to make differentiation easy. The Moose in the Room cards show the same room, except there is a moose humorously placed in the room. In the bedroom, the moose is tucked into the bed, in the kitchen, he is rummaging in the refrigerator, and so on.
Gameplay begins with everyone being dealt 4 cards. Each turn, players pick a card and play a card, usually on other players. To build a "house", a player must have a Front Door Moose card, which is simply a picture of a moose coming in the front door. Once a player has one of these cards in front of them, additional empty rooms can be played on their "house", creating a vacant space for any wandering moose that other players may have. Rooms can be closed by playing Door cards, which prevent any moose from entering that empty room. Additionally, when a moose occupies a room, the player who is getting played on may play a moose trap card to prevent this from happening. If no cards can be played, the player must discard one card, and lose that turn. The game ends when all cards have been played or discarded. The player with the fewest moose in their house wins.
There are very few tactics in this game, but that is somewhat to be expected in a game for young kids. My four year old nephew plays it with no problem, as it requires no reading. However, it is still enjoyable for adults, as a "get your opponents" type of quick game. The rules suggest acting out the moose entering a room, or a door slamming shut to close a room, and that type of hamming it up does make the game more enjoyable. I have very few gripes about the game, other than the seemingly high density of Front Door cards, a total of 10 in a deck of less than 60 cards. A few of these could have been converted to Door cards, and play would be a little better.
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