| Recommended Age: | 6+ |
| Players: | 2-4 |
| Cost: | $29.99 |
| Company Site: | www.squashedgame.com |
| Contents: | 1 Squash Pad, 1 Squashed Cube, 1 King piece, 1 Die, 16 Pawns (4 in each color), 1 Instruction Book |
| Note: | Squashed was created by Chicago Toy & Game Fair (ChiTAG) Young Inventor Challenge winner, Nicholas Metzler when he was just 16 years old. |
How awesome is a game where you literally try to squash your opponents? Well their pieces anyway…you don’t actually squash people. My whole family gets a kick out of this game. Roll a die, move that many spaces and try to flip the cube shaped board so that the other players pawns get Squashed and you are the last one standing. Fun right?!
We actually ALL played this game together with only slight adjustments for my Diva. She is only 3 and a half right now but LOVES games and just HAD to play with us. She liked the part where she got to squash people LOL. I mean that was a really really fun part of the game. Don’t take my word for it though..watch this video and enjoy!
See? Looks fun right? The best part about Squashed, besides the squashing, is that the board is 3 dimensional and you can move it as you play. That’s right, you can move the board around while you decide which pawn you want to move, or who you want to squash next.
Also, the board is its own “box”! All you need to do is store the cube and you have the whole game inside it. There is a side on the cube with hinges that open up to store the pawns, the die, the Squash Pad and the rules inside. Convenient! I have said it before…I love games that are easy to store, travel well and are durable as well as fun of course.Squashed actually meets ALL four items on my list!
Now let me try to explain how to play. This game isn’t too hard to learn honestly so I shouldn’t be able to confuse you too much. I will just go over the standard way to play and let you know when and how I adjusted slightly for the Diva. My son can play normally but had a problem pulling the pawns out of the spots. I am sure after a few more games it will loosen up a bit and he had NO problem squashing people! Now onto the How To’s!
Objective:
Squash other Players around the board to be the last Player standing.
Setup:
Open the cube by finding the hinged side. There should be 2 small red dots on the side with the hinges. Set out the Squash pad and put the cube (now empty) on top. Set it up so that all sides with the color squares are on the sides and the top and bottom of the cube should have no color squares.
Put the King Piece on top of the cube in the very center and have all Players select their color pawns. In a 2 Player game each Player can choose 2 colors if they want. Now place the pawns in their proper color spots on the sides of the cube. You can either let youngest go first or roll the Die to see who goes first and get ready for the fun part!
Play:
On your turn roll the die and move that many spaces. You HAVE to move that many spaces but you can split up the moves between pawns…assuming you rolled a 2 or 3 of course. You can choose to move around the board any direction and even around corners! I love 3D boards! Yes that’s correct…you can move around the board. Literally. If you are near the edge and want to turn a corner you can!
Pawns can be moved Horizontal or Vertical but NOT Diagonal. Now for the fun part…Squashing! You can squash your opponents by landing on their space, by squashing them on your way to your chosen space, or by flipping the board on a side. When you roll a 2 or 3 you can move Squash another Player on one of those moves and still keep moving. So if you roll a 3 and another Player is 2 spaces away, you can squash that Player and still move the other space.
In order to flip the board on its side you have to make your way to the King piece.This piece is always at the top of the cube in the center of the 4 grayish squares. You have to land in one of those squares by the king in order to flip the cube on a side of your choosing.
Be careful though because if you land there you HAVE to flip the board. This is a great way to squash more than one Player at a time! Both of my kids liked this part and in fact each flipped the board at least once the first game. My son squashed ME and my daughter squashed her brother…their daddy won though.
A few things to remember about the King piece and flipping the board.
- You HAVE to flip the board if you land on a spot next to the King.
- The King gets moved to the top of the cube in the center once the board is flipped.
- If you are in 1 of the 4 spaces by the King space once the board is flipped you have to wait until the end of your turn to flip the cube too.
My kids both caught on to the game really quickly. They both, even the Diva at 3, knew to roll the Die and move their pawns. They did have trouble removing the pawns from the cube to move them and my Diva tried to cheat a lot but otherwise that part was easy. Teaching them strategy takes longer so we would have to give my daughter her options on what she could do on her turn. My son actually picked up on the strategy part pretty quickly too.
Neither kid had trouble Squashing anyone though. The Pawns seem to go IN the cube easier than coming out of it but I am thinking that will get easier the more we play. I honestly couldn’t believe that all four of us could play this game together without adjusting for each kid. Simply giving her the options available was the only adjustment we had to make. Well that and reminding her that she couldn’t move more spaces than the Die she rolled.
This game is so much for fun for adults and kids alike. Remember the Pawns are kind of small so make sure little ones are not into putting pieces into their mouth…or ears or nose. Otherwise this is a great game to start 3 year olds on. It can be as easy or as hard as you need to make it depending on the age level of the Players. When playing with adults it is a little more challenging but a lot of fun…even if I don’t win.
