Mattel Games Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters Anniversary Edition Cooperative Board Game with 2 Ways to Play Including a One vs. All Mode for 2 to 5 Players

Bought this game on a bit of a whim. Was pleasantly surprised by it, as it actually contains several different ways to play it. It's for 2-5 players, and has three modes: basic, advanced and head haunter. Basic mode is pretty much for a younger target audience or those who are in effect non-gamers; you pick up your treasures one after the other without ordering or sequence needed and movements are 100% unimpeded so long as you're not stuck in a room with a haunt. Advanced mode introduces the need to collect your treasures in sequential order and introduces locked doors that impede movements. And head haunter mode has a player take control of all of the ghosts and pits this player to play against all of the other players. Different play modes will definitely allow you to calibrate gameplay to suit player abilities, age range, mood, etc.Dice rolls from special game-specific dice pretty much determines gameplay. This makes for shorter, more concise games (around 30 minutes). There's some decisions to be made, but overall they're pretty light. No analysis paralysis to contend with beyond simple challenges -- this teammate has a treasure in tote but they're stuck in a room with a haunt, do I help them combat it to get free or do I search nearby rooms for other treasure first and come back later to help? Or there's five haunts in the manor presently and it takes six present to lose the game... how do I work with my teammates to get the treasures out before that happens? That sort of thinking, just to give a couple examples.Overall, I'd say it appears "kidsy" on the surface but there's a larger age range this game can appeal to. It's recommended for ages 8+ but I'm fairly confident younger children can figure out most of the game and thoroughly enjoy playing it. And if there's no children at all and you're an all-adults gaming crew? Advanced mode and head haunter will add enough depth to make it fun for everyone. Definitely recommend adding this one to your collection if you want something easy to learn, flexible in player counts and can be played by gamers and non-gamers (possibly in the same group on game night).

I have waited years for this game to reprint!! Our family loves tabletop games. I bought the game for our niece when she was 6 years ago. We lost our very first game together and she looked at me and said “can we play again?!!” “ABSOLUTELY!” I told her, in utter shock - this was the first kids game I played that was actually fun.I went to order this game a few years ago for my oldest child only to find it out of print. I asked my niece’s mom if I could have her copy (she’s 13, now) and her mom said “she still plays it and uses is to teach her friends who are new to tabletop games.”I’m so happy the game was reprinted! As a family we played with our 4 and 6 year old children. The rules were easy to grasp for the basic game. Both kids have asked daily to play again and declared this game their favorite game ever. We look forward to playing a few more rounds of the basic game to prepare the kids for the advanced variant (cooperative) and head haunter (1 vs everyone else) versions.Size: the board is small enough to fit on the coffee table. We used a dice tower to keep dice from knocking over game pieces when rolling. The small size is nice, but it was a little difficult for our 4 year old to maneuver her piece without bowling over other pawns.Art quality: very cute! I love the ghost cards depiction of the ghosts in a way that reflects the room they’re in. The board is big and colorful. The doors between rooms weren’t immediately obvious because the board is very busy, but they are easy to see once you recognize they are thereReplayability: every game can feel different due to the random nature of the cards. Even the basic game can be a challenge, especially if you let your kids explore less than optimal solutions. By being a coop game the emotional stakes are lower - the ability to lose together gives the kids a safer environment to test out their ideas.

The media could not be loaded. Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters is a big hit in our house — my three kids, ages 6 to 11, all love it! The rules are straightforward, and the game includes three levels of play, so it’s easy to start with the basic rules and advance as my kids get older. The cooperative gameplay encourages teamwork (yay!), and my kids can play the basic version on their own.

The media could not be loaded. We're having fun with the anniversary edition of this game. Compared to the older version, the board, spaces, and rooms are just much smaller (see pictures for size comparison). So little room in fact the cards even hang off the board now. Gotta cut those corners somewhere I guess. The ghosts are sort of a weird design choice too, very unstable, falling over at the slightest bump of the table. There are two boy characters and two girl characters compared to the three boys and one girl from the older edition. This is nice, I guess, makes sense. Our game arrived in English in the United States. Not a hard game to learn and the new "one vs many" mode is probably our favorite. Again, this is for the new anniversary edition, don't get suckered into paying the scalper prices for the older edition when this new version is such a great value.

Our whole family loves playing this game. The pieces are high quality and the direction are through.