The Happy Puzzle Company Observation Review

Reviewed by Helen O

Having a son who doesn’t miss a thing, even the things you wish he’d not notice, I was very excited to be allocated The Happy Puzzle Company Observation Game to review, as I thought it would be right up his street and I wasn’t wrong. He couldn’t wait to have a game.

The Observation game arrived within a couple of days and was well packaged (with all outer packaging being recyclable), the product arrived in pristine condition. The game itself was packaged in an attractively designed cardboard box, which definitely appealed to my son, with the cartoon animals and robot design. It looked high quality and was made of good quality cardboard, so is made to last. When I opened it, I found the following contents:
1 bell
21 detective badges
110 character cards
A set of rules.

I had a read of the rules and found them relatively easy to follow, although there was quite a lot to remember! I liked the fact that the rules were separated into setting up the game, playing the game and winning the game. There were also some demonstration pictures of what a winning hand looks like and what to avoid. In addition to this, there were some ‘additional rules’, which I found to be top tips. There was also a picture of all the characters in their categories, to ensure that there was no confusion as to which category the character fell under. I had to read the playing the games section a few times to my son, both before and during our first game, to get him to understand what he was meant to be doing, but to be fair he isn’t quite 6 yet, so that was to be expected, as Observation is marketed at age 6+.

The premise of the game is that cats, dogs, robots, wild animals and aliens have invaded the police station and are running wild. Players simultaneously turn over the character cards and have to be the first to spot 4 characters from the same category and be the first to ring the bell. There is a twist to the game, however, as there are also some penguin ‘wild cards’ which count as a part of every category, so you need to be careful, not to miscount the characters and ding the bell, otherwise you’ll lose a detective badge and potentially lose the whole game!

We sat down to play a round of the game, I gave each of us a detective badge, then shuffled the character cards, with the penguin cards and dealt them all, face down, into 2 piles. The set up was really quick and easy, which is a bonus. As the rules suggest, I was in charge of saying “one, two, three flip” and we turned the cards away from us, so neither of us got a sneak peak. I was surprised how many cards we initially had to turn to get a winning hand and ring the bell. However, once we got going, it seemed to speed up.

I would imagine that with another couple of players, the game would be much more ‘fast and furious’ as it is marketed as. The box suggests that the game is aimed at 2 to 6 players, but I can’t help thinking that with upwards of 4 players, it would turn rather chaotic, trying to all be able to see and keep track of the characters on 5 or 6 cards, simultaneously and I wonder how easy it would be to actually win a game, with that number of cards in play, as you only have to identify 4 characters from a category – any more or any less should be ignored. However, I only played the game with 2 players prior to review, so that’s just what I would imagine.

The game is great for visual perception, concentration and brain speed. I would suggest that the younger you are, the better your reactions are likely to be! My son and I really enjoyed playing this game and I think it would be great for games nights and family fun. I would say the age range it’s marketed as, is just right.

The game retails at £16.99 and given that the quality of the product is high, I think is a reasonable price and comparable to other games of this nature. I would definitely recommend it and think it would make a perfect gift for children for any occasion and would be perfect as a holiday activity, particularly for those rainy days when you’re looking to entertain the children.

Rating: 4 out of 5

RRP – £16.99

Buy here: https://www.happypuzzle.co.uk/family-puzzles-and-games/family-puzzles-games/observation