School Days: R&R Games

SOOOOIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!! Ahem! Uh, yes, well, excuse me there. I just couldn't help myself. Why, you ask? Well, this month, I received the game Pig Pile from R&R Games, and I guess I just got caught up in the fun of it all :)

Now then, since you're here, why don't you pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, and hang out while I tell you a bit about it.

Proclaiming right on the box to be "The Hog Wild Card Game", you know it's gotta be fun. Opening up the box, I immediately came across an adorable little bag of tiny piglets, which naturally sent my little darlin's into "squeals" of delight. (Sorry, I really will try to control myself with the puns.) ANYWAY, after wresting the bag away from their happy hands, we got down to the business of playing!

I need to admit, that , at first, I was a teensy overwhelmed with the lengthy set of directions. But, doggone it!, I pressed on and got to work. So, let me begin with the directions - as I understand them - the cliff notes, if you will.

Okay, so, you have your baggie of piglets...they will stay in the box, and that will be their pigpen. You're having fun already, aren't you? Yeah, me too. Okay, so next, you have a deck of cards. Shuffle 'em real good! Everyone gets 3 cards that will stay face down. This is your "SLOP" pile. Don't touch these now, they're for later.Then, everyone gets 3 more cards that are placed on top of the SLOP cards, again, don't touch these for now. Now, everyone gets 7 more cards, and these will be your main playing hand. The rest of the cards get put in the middle as the "draw" pile.

The dealer is the first player and plays a card from her hand. The person on the dealer's left is the next player, and then has to play a card that is equal or greater to, the number of the card that was just played. If the player has more than one of the same card, they may be placed on the pile as well. Then the player takes a card from the draw pile, and the next person takes a turn. If the player has no cards that may be played, he has to take the pile of cards - the "pig pile", and a new pile will be started.

The object of the game is to be the first player to be rid of all the cards, and collect the most pigs. A variety of special cards keep the play fun and lively. There's the Hogwash card, that, when played, takes all of the pig pile cards out of play. Then there's the Ewe Turn card, which reverses the turns of the players. Then, there's the dreaded Hog Tied card, that causes the player to lose a turn.

Now, as I mentioned before, those are the very basic rules of play. You'll find more detailed information in the game's instructions. Pig Pile is meant to be played for 5 rounds, with the winner being the one to get the most piggies. We followed the rules for the most part, although we adjusted the amount of rounds that we played, to accommodate the 5 year old in our family, so she could play without stretching her attention span to its limit.

The family consensus for this game is 2 thumbs up. I was going to say 2 pigs up, but that doesn't make much sense. How about 5 pigs? You know, like 5 stars? Um, never mind, let's stick with the thumbs. Anyway, as I was saying, we really had fun with this game. Once we had a handle on the rules, the pace picked up, and everyone had a blast. The girls loves all of the pig references, and soon were happily, and loudly, truth be told, calling out "Hogwash!", as it occurred.

On a lesser note, I also like the compact size of this game. It's nice and small, easy to store, with only cards and the bag of pigs. Great for those of us with limited storage space.

As I come to the end here, I can say with confidence that if you add Pig Pile to your collection, not only will your family have fun, they'll, (to borrow from the game on last time,) go "Hog Wild". (Sorry, I really am done now.)

Also, for a limited time (until the end of the year), when you order Pig Pile, you can receive 20% off your purchase by using the coupon code: CREW20

Go check it out!

**Note - I received the game Pig Pile for free in exchange for my honest opinion, with no additional compensation.