Mattel GamesGhost Fightin' Treasure Hunters

Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters is amazing! My family are noobs to the world of modern board games. Before purchasing this we were mostly playing the classic board games or their Junior branded counterpart. My 6 & 7 year old can play this with very little help and no reading necessary. I just have to give them a few suggestions here and there. My 3 year old loves trying to play too, but he has a habit of picking up the little ghosts and playing with them so I have to remember where they were on the board.There are a lot of things that make Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters great. It is a simple concept with a great theme, the cards and board art are pretty to look at, the little miniatures are detailed and feel like quality pieces, it is a cooperative play style, and everyone gets to fight ghosts together. As a parent it is awesome to see my kids working together instead of teasing or snickering that someone is doing better than the other. Best of all, we all win or lose together and no one gets upset about it!!We play with the basic rules for now, but we've had about a 50% win/lose rate out of 6 games with 3 to 4 players. We average around 25-40 minutes per game depending mostly on how often we get the shuffle card, and the luck of the ghost dice. Some games the die is against us and we lose a turn or two trying to take out a ghost in a room with multiple ghosts. I can't recommend this game enough, it is fun for everyone playing including Mom and Dad who might even be helping a younger player. After the first game or two, the rules are easy to remember for almost everyone.The only real negative I have is that the game is limited to 4 players.Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters is currently my favorite family board game that can be enjoyed even with young players.Update-10 months later and it's still brought out twice a month or more. We have moved up to playing with all the cards which does increase the difficulty. Players do dread the draw 2 or draw 3 more cards card, but I think the reshuffle is the most evil of all because it never fails to appear right after you draw 3 cards. I'd say on average we win about half the games we play if I can convince the kids to cut through rooms, but the other half almost always come right down to the wire and then the 6th red ghost/haunting/oogie boogie hits the board and we all lose.Still a fun game for the kids even a year later.Update 2-4 years later, we still keep coming back to this one. We added the Creepy Cellar expansion to the game about a year ago and it's added a lot of fun to Ghost Fightin Treasure Hunters. Still a great game after all these years.

What a surprise! This game is great! Let me tell you why. First, it is simply beautiful. I don’t think the picture here does it justice. The components are nice. The ghost and player figures are flexible plastic and durable. The red haunted pieces are hard plastic, but are very sturdy. The cards, dice and tokens are just fine. The basic level requires cooperative play and the rules are very simple, but the game itself is very challenging. It does require some strategy! My mother and I played it twice and lost both times because we tried desperately to get all the gem tokens out of the house before six rooms became haunted but should have spent a little extra time working at removing some haunted pieces from the rooms. (It wasn’t clear if you could leave the room if a ghost popped up in it before it was your turn, so we played you had to clear the room before leaving as well.) So, when we play again, we realize there has to be some give and take or we will fail again. We have only played the basic game and have not made it to the more challenging versions, so I’m excited to see what happens. Final thoughts: I thought that I was buying a child’s game, but to my surprise, adults will enjoy this game too!

I wasn't sure what to think of this game at first as it looks like a simple kids game but this game is not as simple as it seems. The game is very simple to set up which is a plus as I can easily get it to and from the table making it good for an impromptu family game night. This game offers both a basic and advanced rules set. While on the surface the basic rules seem simple this game is nothing but. I have found that playing with two has been easier but I have only won this with two a handful of times and have not been close to winning with three players. I have not played with four but with three it can be difficult keeping up with the ghosts coming out on the board making it hard to keep rooms from being haunted.While the game is challenging it is fun and it is a game my 7 year old wants to play and my 4 year old, while needing some help, can keep his attention long enough to finish a game. I would highly recommend this as a good family weight game which can entertain adults and kids alike. My only criticisms of this game is the component quality is okay and the roll and move aspect can be extremely frustrating if you are like me and trying to get the last treasure out of the mansion and keep rolling a 1 on the dice and the mansion becomes haunted before you can get out.Considering the components, the cards are a little flimsy and will likely show wear quickly and the printing on the dice is just okay as the symbols seem to be wearing off the dice a little as they are not as crisp at this point. I bought a dice tray to hopefully keep the dice in better shape and the tray has a bonus as it helps with younger kids to not have to constantly pick dice up off the floor. The miniatures and board are good and the token quality is decent. It would be nicer if the treasures fit tighter in the backpacks on the player pieces as my kids tend to constantly knock them out when they are moving but it is a minor issue.