If you’re looking for a quick, easy game to play with the kids, you might be interested in one of the two games I’m reviewing today. Below you’ll find two mini-reviews of new games from Gamewright. Both are easy to learn, quick to play, and take up very little room, so they’re perfect for packing along on a trip or setting up on the table when you’re faced with a rainy day.

Pounce! is a cat-themed, fast-moving game of card collection. It works with 2-5 players, ages 6 and up.

At the start of the game, each player receives a set of 5 Cat cards, one card for each of five different rooms in a house (kitchen card, bathroom card, etc.). Then, five face-up stacks of Room cards are placed in the middle of the table. Each stack represents one room of the house and each stack consists of five cards. So there will be a stack of five kitchen cards, a stack of five bathroom cards, etc. — with the five stacks corresponding to the five cards that each player holds.

Finally, a Bruno the Bulldog card is given to the last person to pet a cat.

Each player keeps their cards hidden, and secretly chooses one Cat card to place face-down on the table — picking the card that matches the room they’re going for. When all players are ready, they flip their cards over simultaneously, shout “Pounce!,” and race to slap the Room stack that matches the card they chose. If a player successfully slaps his goal stack first, he may claim the top card of that stack and place it in front of him on the table.

The game continues, with players choosing cards to go for, slapping the stacks, and hoping to win additional Room cards. (Whoever holds Bruno the Bulldog can choose to block a stack on his turn, instead of going for a card, in an attempt to thwart another player’s plans.)

A player wins by collecting either four of the same Room cards, or four different Room cards. A game typically takes 15 minute or less, and kids seem to enjoy all the yelling and the card-slapping. When C. and I play, L. climbs up to the table and slaps the table along with us, shouting “Pounce!” as loudly as he can.

Go Nuts! is a crazy dice game that introduces kids to the concept of “push your luck.” It supports 2-4 players ages 8 and up. It’s part of Gamewright’s 12-Minute Game series and really does play that fast.

The game consists of a scorepad, pencil, and 9 custom dice.

At the beginning of the game, each player is given a “dog die” — a 6-sided die where 5 sides have houses and 1 side has a dog.

The remaining 5 dice are given to the starting player. These dice (the “squirrel dice”) are also standard 6-sided dice, with 2 sides showing acorns, 1 side showing a car, and the remaining 3 sides showing squirrels.

On your turn, begin by rolling all five squirrel dice. Any die that shows a car is immediately removed from play. Any die that lands on an acorn scores you 1 point. At this time, you may re-roll any dice that landed on acorns or squirrels. For every roll during your turn, you have two options:

1) Keep a running total of all acorns rolled so far on your turn and keeping rolling any dice that land on acorns or squirrels (placing cars off to the side); or

2) Stop rolling, taking as your score the total number of acorn points you’ve accumulated.

The push-your-luck aspect comes into play because if, at any time, you roll all cars, your turn ends immediately and you lose all accumulated points for that turn. The key is collecting as many acorn points as possible, while stopping before you roll all cars.

Now, what about those squirrels? So far, they’re just sitting there.

If you happen to roll all squirrels, you lose all points accumulated so far in that turn, but you immediately start a “Go Nuts round.” Shout “Go Nuts!” (we treat this as an optional response) and grab the squirrel dice you just rolled. Roll those dice over and over as fast as you can, adding up acorns as you go. Cars don’t matter — just keep going. Now…while you are rolling like crazy, all other players must roll their dog dice as quickly as possible, over and over, until they roll a dog. Once everyone has rolled a dog, you must stop rolling and record the total number of acorns rolled during the Go Nuts round as your score. It can get pretty loud and crazy!

Pass the dice to the next player. The game continues until one player reaches 50 points. Naturally, you can adjust this goal to make a shorter or longer game.

I thought Go Nuts! was a great way to introduce kids to the concept of pushing their luck. It’s not too stressful, since the crazy “Go Nuts! round” pops up regularly and almost guarantees points, but it really makes kids think about whether they should stop and keep their points safe or roll “just one more time.”

In summary:

Pounce! and Go Nuts!

Number of Players: 2-5 (Pounce!); 2-4 (Go Nuts!)
Time required: 12-15 minutes
Ages: 6+ (Pounce!); 8+ (Go Nuts!)
Where to buy: Pounce! and Go Nuts! are both available from AreYouGame.com
Callapidder recommends it: Anytime you’re looking for a quick, light (and sometimes noisy!) game with your kids.

Read more of Callapidder’s Game Reviews by clicking HERE.