Game Like a Mother

Quick Take: Cute camp themed memory game. Catch the Wendigo before he takes out too many campers! It's more fun to play as the Wendigo and try to take people out than it is to search for him. I've read reviews calling this game difficult but my 3 (almost 4) year old can play it reasonably well as the Wendigo with no assistance. And as long as you employ some very basic strategy and just memorize a pattern or two (this section of 5 campers have purple scarves, this section of four campers have big eyes, etc) it's remarkably easy to catch the Wendigo within the 5 moves set by the game rules. This is a great party game for kids although we mostly play it with two or three players at our house. Older kids like it too, we played it with some family friends who have older, middle school age boys and everyone enjoyed themselves. This game is an excellent pick, particularly if you have a cub scout or girl scout in your life. However, if you let them read anything on the Internet about the real legend this is based on, do so at your own peril. The Wendigo is "A Terrifying Beast of Native American Legend with an Insatiable Hunger to Devour Mankind." And now it's a game for children! Enjoy!

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How to Play: Catch the Wendigo before he takes out 5 campers. You lay out the 32 camper tiles and whoever is playing as the Wendigo gets to replace one of them with an identical Wendigo tile while everyone else has their eyes shut. There is one exact replica Wendigo tile for each of the regular camper tiles so any tile can be replaced. After placing the Wendigo on the board, the camper team gets to open their eyes and has 45 seconds on the timer to memorize the board to the best of their abilities. Then it's night and they must close their eyes while the Wendigo player moves the Wendigo tile into the place of another camper tile, which they remove from the board. Then it is day time and the camper players have 45 seconds to look at the board and guess which tile is the Wendigo. If they guess correctly, they win the game! If they do not guess correctly, they have the remainder of the timer to try to memorize the board again until it becomes night once more and they must close their eyes while the Wendigo strikes again. Day comes and they get to guess again. This pattern repeats and the camper team gets a total of 5 guesses to figure out who the Wendigo is. If they do this in time they win!

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Variations: The rules just have a variation to make the game easier, which is to take out 6 camper tiles to bring the total down to 26. However, I don't ever work too hard at the memory aspect of this game, I just look for patterns, and I've never lost this game in the many times my children have demanded I play it with them (they are always the Wendigo, it's way more fun to be the Wendigo.) If you want the game to be more challenging you can make the camper team locate the Wendigo with fewer than five guesses. 

Similar Games To Check Out: One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Shadows in the Forest, Camp, The Magic Labyrinth, Exploding Kittens

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