Overview
Ghosts, treasure hunters, and a haunted mansion are all at play in the 2014 Kinderspiel de Jahres winner Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters (originally Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister!). Designed and developed by Jason Yu, this cooperative game is now available in English from Mattel.
Two to four players work together to collect eight gems in the haunted house before ghosts overrun the house. We found the game to be surprisingly challenging and it wasn’t always a guarantee that we would collect all the gems and escape the house before we were surrounded by ghosts.
Gameplay — The Details
The game board is the layout of a house. Players can move around the rooms, enter the rooms, or move between rooms where doors are present.
To move throughout the house, players roll a special die with numbers 1-6 and move the corresponding number of spaces. Watch out, though! Rolls of 1-5, indicated with a ghost on the die, require players to flip a card. Each card shows one of the rooms in the house and players must add a ghost to that room. Three ghosts in a room turn into a haunting.
The goal is to pick up the gems throughout the house. If a player enters a room with a ghost, they can pick up the gem, but if a player is in a room when ghosts become a haunting or enters a room with a haunting, they must first partner up with another player to try and eliminate the haunting. Two treasure hunters always have to battle a haunting, which can make things interesting when you’re trying to remove multiple hauntings and still pick up gems.
Players can battle ghosts and hauntings by rolling the fight die. If two treasure hunters are in the same room, they can team up to battle the ghosts and hauntings by each rolling a fight die.
The game ends when all of the treasure hunters have exited the house with all eight gems or when six rooms become haunted.
Review
First impressions upon opening the Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters box is that this is a cute game. The little ghost figurines are downright adorable, and I love how the gems fit into the backpacks of the treasure hunter figurines for easy travel across the board. It’s thoughtful and fun at the same time.
Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters surprised me in a few ways!
There is a basic and an advanced version that adds two elements to the gameplay. Additional cards are added to the deck, including cards that lock the doors to the rooms and cards that require you draw again for the possibility of more ghosts. You also have to grab the gems in numerical order.
We decided to dive right in and play the advanced version but found that the house quickly became overrun with ghosts. Playing the easy version was a little too easy for four adults, so we ended up playing a hybrid version that we cobbled together. I wish the game included a variation between the two as it seemed like there was a considerable jump in difficulty between the basic and advanced modes.
My favorite part about this cooperative game is the level of strategy and communication between players that is necessary to succeed. You can’t make a move without working together to develop a plan or rethink your strategy. As much as I enjoy competitive games, I love a game where everyone has to work together and everyone wins, or everyone loses.
Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters is the rare game where you’re excited to play again as soon as you finish the first round. In fact, we played this game two weeks in a row during game night, with several rounds each night. It’s a game that can be surprisingly challenging and always fun and one that requires the right combination of strategy and luck.
I can’t wait to play Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters with my son as he gets older. This is a game that is as fun for kids as it is for adults, which isn’t easy to do.
Conclusion
Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters is a game that we have reached for again and again since we added it to our collection and I highly recommend it, whether you have kids or not! It requires a lot of cooperation, strategy, and luck to win, and features charming pieces and illustrations, too.
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