| Our Recommended Age: | 3-7 |
| Recommended Age: | 3-5 |
| Cost: | $19.95 |
| Play Time: | 5-10 Minutes |
| Company Site: | usaopoly.com |
| Contents: | 30 Location Cards, 18 Clue Cards, and 12 Jungle Animal Cards Personal Explorer Scavenger Bag |
| Awards: | Creative Child Magazine Awards, Game of the Year Mom's Choice Award PAL Award Parent's Choice: Recommended Tillywig Toy Brain Child Award Winner |
Treasure Trax is a fun scavenger hunt type game by Usaopoly. It is a cute game of finding clues which keeps kids active, engaged, learning and of course having fun!
Treasure Trax is quickly becoming a family favorite and my son who is 6 is learning how to send his sister on a scavenger hunt which is a bonus for me! There are other ways to play that use the cards but not the hunting them down part which is neat and the game is completely educational!
One of my favorite features is the little bag…which is it’s “box”! It is this cute little purple canvas type bag with the logo and some footprints on it. The handles are perfect for little hands…and my hands which apparently are small. My husband just uses a few fingers to carry it since his hands are a bit bigger.
The bag has a velcro square for closing it but doesn’t actually close when all the cards are in there. The instructions say you can use the bag to collect the cards as you go or at the end for a treat. My kids didn’t really share the bag well so we left it holding the remaining cards. They both REALLY wanted to hold the bag…it got ugly.
The cards are that nice cardboard but isn’t material I should really learn the name of. Pretty sturdy but like always don’t TRY to bend it. They hold up well for younger hands and are easy enough to spot when searching. The animal cards have notches on each of the sides so you can easily identify them when selecting cards to start the search.
The rules are on paper and fit in with the cards and that is all there is to the storage and pieces of the game! Easiest clean up ever! Seriously this might be the cutest storage ever for a game. And now for the explaining how to play part! I will only go over the standard way to play though.
Objective:
To find all the clues and collect all the animals…unless you are playing a different way and then you want to match things or put things in order…more on that later.
Also, there is no winner unless you are doing two separate hunts and first person to find all their items wins! We don’t do that just yet as the Diva is a bit slower at figuring out clues on her own.
Setup:
A bit longer than most games but oh so worth it. Start by finding 10 cards that have locations on them like a Chair, Night Stand, or TV. These are the Location Cards and have Blue borders on the fronts of the cards.
Be selective and try to use items your kids will specifically know if they are younger. If you use Bed…you might want to add a Clue card so they know or can figure out Whose bed. Or not and let them search…that works too.
You will need 5 Clue Cards. These have a Red border and are things like Colors and Letters. You can use these separate (which we do…the Gentleman is really good at finding clues and things so we have to make it a bit harder if we can) or you can put one with a Location Clue. My daughter gets Shoes and a Y for my yellow shoes as an example.
Finally select 5 Animal Cards…or let the kids choose since they seem to not like the animals I choose. Who doesn’t like a Giraffe? Well my beloved children preferred the Alligator, Zebra, Snake, Hippo, and Kangaroo…thought they do pick other animals occasionally these seem to be their favorites.
Once you have all the cards selected and an idea of where kids will go in mind…make sure they are not peeking and set aside a Location Card for their first search. Once you have that card set aside go to it’s actual location and place the next clue card. You can place either an animal or a Search Clue Card with a Location Card or just the Location Card. Keep in mind you should scatter the Animal Cards.
Then go the THAT Location and leave the next set of cards or card. So if the first Clue they get is Sofa (Couch) then the next Cards will be on or near the Sofa (Couch)…if you have two just choose one. If that card is the Refrigerator then the NEXT clue would be at the Refrigerator and so on.
Keep setting clues up and leaving Animal Cards with the 5th one in the last place they have to look. Once you have set it all up you are ready to begin! Well you are ready for your kids to begin in which case you are ready for a few minutes of maybe not quiet time…but time to yourself.
Play:
The Location Card you set aside is now given to the kids and they can begin! They go to that first Location and look for another clue which will lead them to another Location and so on. They collect the Animal Cards along the way and when they have all 5 they “win”…which is awesome.
That is literally all there is to playing the game. Long set up…quick play. Honestly the Setup isn’t that long and older kids enjoy setting it up for their young siblings. Now if you want to adjust in either direction here are few things you can do per the instructions. I love when companies add extra ways to play! Before I tell you those check out the Geeklings doing on a scavenger hunt together!
Race: Set up 2 separate hunts with their own Location, Search and Animal Cards. You can have teams or just 1 vs 1 players for this but the first player or team to return to your starting point with all their cards wins! Remind them that if they remove the other team’s cards they lose….
Matching: You can get the Animal Cards and Search Cards out and have children match an animal to its color or to the letter it starts with. You can also use Locations and Letters for this as well.
Longer Hunt: Simply add in Location, Search and Animal Cards or make them harder to find by actually hiding them in or near locations…we do this for my son.
After the Hunt: When the kids have found all the cards have them put the animals in order from smallest to largest or make up a story.
We have my daughter do this and she loves it but my son said it was so easy…so I made him put the animals in ABC order….when he tells me that is easy I plan on making him put all the cards in ABC order…it’s educational and amuses me.
Going on an adventure is pretty much a daily occurrence and by adding this game to that adventure it is a bit more structured and a lot of fun for the kids. They pretend the animal cards are real animals and if we have stuffed versions of said animals…they are put with their cards.
No matter how you play your kids will love this game. They can set up a hunt themselves or you can take a few minutes and set one up for them but either way it will be an adventure (or several) that they won’t forget.
Show us your Adventurers! @MyGeeklings #TreasureTrax @USAopoly
