Zooreka Game By Cranium

This is my son's favorite game. Grandma had it and brought it to Hawaii for him, and I played with him for the first time last night.

It's freaking COMPLICATED. You have to collect one shelter card, two animal cards, and four food cards to get one habitat. To win, you have to get four habitats.

To collect cards, you roll two dice. One has numbers, the other has a food, shelter, or animal pic on it. There are markers with which you guess (before every player's turn) which thing it will land on. If you guessed right, you get that card.

You land on blue skies cards (good), stormy weather (bad, you give up cards and such), Lucky Day (you get two icon guesses for two turns) or Trading Posts (you can trade cards or trade them in for a habitat).

Phew.

Anyway, my son didn't know you are supposed to make a wager on what the players are going to roll. He got super mad at me for explaining, even after I explained that this was GOOD, that he would end up with more cards (and the game wouldn't take 10 hours). So he got over it, eventually, and we played.

I won anyway, but he was a good sport. He probably secretly thinks I made up the rule and cheated. LOL.

My kids always recieve a few games for Christmas and this one arrived last year. The idea of the game is to build your four "Habitat" areas for your animals before the other players. When the dice is rolled you recieve cards based on what you think will be rolled that turn. These cards are then traded at the trading post and when you have the right card combinations you can purchase a Habitat. Whoever gets all 4 first wins the game.

My kids of 12, 8 and 6 have loved this game and that is really the important thing. I would recommend it based on the hours of enjoyment they have had.