Boop the Halls

I know a lot of people recommend Boop and the Halloween version (Boooooop) has been reviewed on here so I ordered Boop the Halls as a Christmas gift to myself and daughter.

In preparation, I learned regular Boop and taught it to my daughter (6) and mother-in-law using Board Game Arena. So by Christmas we had the basics down and were ready for a twist.

For anyone not familiar, in classic boop you’re trying to get three cats in a row BUT each time you place a cat or kitten it boops adjacent creatures away one space (except kittens can’t boop cats). You start the game with only kittens and have to get them in rows of three to earn cats. You can also win by getting all 8 cats on the ‘board’ at once. I really enjoy this as a huge improvement on noughts and crosses or connect4. Plus the cats are cute 

Boop the halls changes the shape of the board from a simple 6×6 square grid to a Christmas tree with different levels (see photo). You still boop the same and can win the same ways. However there’s an additional way to win. If you collect your opponent’s three ornaments by booping them off the tree! There’s one ornament for each player on the tree at a time. This adds another thing to be keeping track of in addition to setting yourself up for rows of three and stopping the other person from doing the same.

I liked the theming and the cats are still cute. I also like the additional challenge but think if it’s too much for your kids you could play without the ornaments. I’m now weighing up buying original boop too vs sewing myself a little quilt board and using our Christmas cats 

Definitely recommend, especially for playing with non gamers, extended family etc. Also highly recommend learning through BGA!

My husband judges me for buying a Christmas version of something but since my daughter wears elf pj’s all year round…I think it’ll get played plenty.