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Posted April 1, 2015 by Amy in Family Fiends
 
 

Snipe Hunt Review

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With Easter just around the corner, many parents are scrambling for just the right thing to tuck in kids’ baskets. For those looking for something a little different this year, check out Snipe Hunt. It’s a little bit hide and seek, a little bit capture the flag, and it’s a whole lot of fun for the whole family.

 

Snipe Hunt is really easy to pick up on, because it’s a very simple concept. The game includes two cute little animals, the legendary “Snipe”. The look a little bit like a cross between a bunny and a kangaroo, and they rest inside a green plastic nest of sorts – their home base. Each of them has an “on” switch on the bottom, and a little protrusion in the base turns them off when they are settled in properly.

 

You can play the game a couple of different ways. There are two teams (and they can be of any size, from one to one hundred). Each team hides their snipe in some hopefully difficult to find location. When you say “go”, both teams scramble to be the first to find the other teams snipe and return it to the goal. The first to do so wins the match.

 

No worries if you are playing with young kids (or grown-ups who aren’t good at finding things). If no one finds the snipe, it has a few little tricks up its sleeve. After a few minutes, it starts to chirp at intervals, giving subtle hints to location without just screaming “Here I am!”. If that doesn’t do it, a few minutes later the eyes will flash red – pretty helpful in the dark, but not so much for an afternoon game. Either way, the hints add a little flavor to the game, and they keep it from being too hard for the younger players.

 

For older players (or anyone who likes a good challenge), you can spice things up in endless ways. We found that having the teams hide their own snipes made it a little difficult to keep those locations secret, so having a third party be the hider for both (while the hunters stay out of sight) worked really well. You can also use the hints to make things more difficult – trying to find the snipe before it started chirping adds time pressure (if you like that sort of thing).

 

Snipe Hunt is one of those rare games that keeps things interesting for every age. There aren’t tons of little pieces to lose, it’s simple to learn yet easy to modify to keep things interesting, and the snipes are just adorable (my kindergartner was carrying them around in their little nest as soon as she saw them. The possibilities are endless, from a kids versus adults match to some heated one on one action. It’s a great addition to your family game cupboard, and it’s loads of fun both indoors and out.


Amy

 
U.S. Senior Editor & Deputy EIC, @averyzoe on Twitter, mother of 5, gamer, reader, wife to @macanthony, and all-around bad-ass (no, not really)