Board game review: Chameleon Crunch (Mattel Games)

Chameleon Crunch (Mattel Games)

Game: Chameleon Crunch

Publisher/manufacturer: Mattel Games

RRP: £19.99

Recommended age: 4 years up

Publisher’s Blurb

A Great Learning Game for pre-schoolers

This adorable, bright-blue chameleon can walk, talk and “eat” bugs — and he sure is hungry. But he’s very picky about the insects he eats. pre-schoolers will love playing Chameleon Crunch, a delightfully wacky game that lets them toss tasty bugs into the chomping reptile’s mouth and satisfy his appetite. While having fun with the lovable lizard character, kids will also learn about colours, counting, and matching.

Start the Frenzied Feeding Fun.

Place the 16 included bugs in a large circle — with a diameter of about five feet. Once players are ready, place the chameleon inside the circle and press the button on his back. He starts walking along the edge of the circle, and players wait for his mouth to open, indicating it’s feeding time. When he does, race to collect the colour or type of bug you need and toss it in his mouth before it closes again. But be careful — just when you think you’ve got the most bugs in, he’ll open his mouth, and they’ll fly back out. When he’s full, the chameleon stops walking, and whoever has the most bugs in his mouth wins the game.

Two Exciting Ways to Play

Kids can choose two different ways to play the game — Bug Crunch or Colour Crunch. For Bug Crunch, each player selects an insect type to feed the chameleon, and for Colour Crunch, each player selects a particular colour of bug. The 16 bugs include four types of insects (grasshoppers, ladybugs, dragonflies, and butterflies) in four different colours (blue, green, red, and yellow). When kids are done playing, all the bugs fit in the chameleon’s mouth for easy storage.

What we thought

You need a really big space to play this in, which we don’t have. The chameleon kept bumping into the sofas. It sounds, theoretically like it should be a lot of fun, but we didn’t really enjoy it and the girls (3 and 6 years old) got bored of it very quickly. It may well be, though, that it would be more fun with enough space. (You need a diameter of about 5 feet.)

Would we recommend it?

I couldn’t recommend it unless you definitely a 5 feet diameter space available and, since we weren’t able to play it properly I can’t personally recommend it, though it sounds like it should be quite fun. I think the £19.99 RRP definitely sounds high, but Argos have it for £11.99 at the moment, which seems reasonable.

Disclosure: We were sent a free copy of this game by the publishers, but the opinions are our own.