As this review goes live, it’s American Thanksgiving. Or, as we call it in Canada, Thursday. (That joke never gets old, which is why American Thanksgiving is TheRatHole.ca’s birthday. So I can always make it.)
Thanksgiving means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some, it’s little more than an excuse to eat a fancy family meal, to others, it’s the start of the Holiday Season. Another symbol of starting the season, depending on how you celebrate, is the Christmas tree. So what better way to start this year’s holiday review series than with a game that plays on a Christmas tree? Get ready to Deck the Halls with baubles and cats in Boop The Halls. This review was supposed to happen last year, but due to postal shenanigans, it didn’t arrive until well into the new year. So here we are looking at my favourite sequel to one of my favourite games.
If there is anything cats love more than bouncing on a bed, it’s destroying Christmas trees. So naturally, a Christmas Boop has to be played on a three-dimensional Christmas tree board. If you’ve played Boop before (and if you haven’t, you’re missing out), you may be wondering how a 3D board impacts an otherwise 2D game. You may even be picturing the 3D chess set from the original Star Trek. It’s not that big or outrageous. The outer ring of square spaces is a set of four interconnected board pieces; this also represents the tree skirt under the tree. The next ring is a raised platform which sits on the first board. The next ring, and finally the centre space, sit similarly on top of that. What you end up with is what could be described as a short, squat, Minecraft tree. It’s not the prettiest Christmas tree in history, but functionally and thematically, it works.
For those poor few souls who have yet to play Boop, here’s the driveway version of the rules: Place a Kitten into an empty space on the board. Any Kittens in an adjacent space, in every direction, are “booped” one space further away from the new Kitten. If there is something in the space they would be booped into, they stay where they are. Once you manage to get three Kittens in a row, they graduate to full grown Cats. Set them aside and take three Cats to replace them in your supply. Cats work exactly like Kittens, except that Kittens are too small to boop full sized Cats. Once you get three Cats in a row, you win.
BUT that’s not the only way to win in Boop the Halls. There is a new thematic mechanic to contend with: Ornaments. Each player starts with three ornament tokens. At the start of your turn, if you do not have an ornament on the tree, you must place one on the second-highest tier of the tree (in a foolish and misguided attempt to keep them out of the reach of the Cats). Ornaments can be booped by Kittens or Cats, but only to the tier they are on or down onto a lower tier, never up. Gravity is a cruel mistress at Christmas. If you boop your opponent’s ornament off the tree, you capture and score it. (They will place a new ornament at the start of their next turn.) If you can score all three of your opponent’s ornaments, you win. If you boop your own ornament off the tree, nothing happens; you simply place a new ornament next turn. The ornaments add a whole new level of strategy to the game.
I would be doing the game a disservice if I only talked about the functional aspects of the game and did not talk about the Kittens and Cats. They are extra adorable for the season. The black and red Kittens are playing with ornaments, while the Cats have a cute cat-eared toque. (A “toque”, pronounced two-ck, is the proper Canadian name for a swollen cap or beanie.) The white and gold Kittens are popping out of a Christmas gift (please don’t wrap your cat, no matter how much they tell you they want it), while the Cats have a gold Santa hat on while playing with an ornament. This is the cutest version of an already cute game.
What? That’s not enough Christmas for you? What do you want? A Christmas Carol? Well, fine, allow me to introduce you to Jacob Meowly & the Ghosts of Boopmas, a lil’ Dickens of an expsnsion for Boop the Halls! That’s right, you’re getting a BONUS REVIEW!
The Ghosts of Boopness give players three strategic new ways to boop your opponent around. Whenever a player graduates one or more Kittens into Cats, their opponent takes control of the Ghost board and the three Ghosts on it. They then have the opportunity to play each Ghost once, in tandem with a Kitten or Cat.
The Ghost of Boopmas Psst… Psst is light yellow with a small flame in its paws. When playing this Ghost, the placed Kitten or Cat only boops the pieces that are diagonally adjacent. All other booping rules remain in place.
The Ghost of Boopmas Yet to Pounce is dressed in a Grim Reaper cloak. When playing this Ghost, the placed Kitten or Cat only boops the pieces that are orthogonally adjacent. All other booping rules remain in place.
Surprisingly, there is no Ghost of Boopmas Present, leaving an obvious pun out of the game. Instead, we get Jacob Meowly. Meowly wears a top hat and chains, and is arguably the most powerful Ghost. You see, Meowly only boops the piece in a single direction and can boop anything. That means a Kitten can boop a full grown Cat. As well, if a piece is blocked from being booped as normal, it instead jumps over any and all pieces blocking it.
One of the nice things about this expansion is that none of the Ghosts are overly Christmas-y. Yes, this is a Christmas expansion for the Christmas version of the game. But there is nothing so specific that you can’t also play it with regular Boop. In fact, the expansion is small enough to likely fit as a “stocking stuffer” gift for your favourite Boop player.
Whether you pick up Boop the Halls, Jacob Meowly & the Ghosts of Boopmas, or both, you are destined to have an amazing time. Being a two-player game, it’s a great opportunity to step away from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. But it’s also a great way to get into the holiday spirit. Or spirits, as the case may be.
