Shaky Manor Review

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Playing it right there in the store aisle... that is brilliant!

Is it a correct assumption that this is multiplayer solitaire?

It's not. You compete to be the first to accomplish a specific goal (like having your adventurer and all three treasures in a certain room). The first to, I think, five cards (five goals completed) win the game.

I played this recently with my 6 and 9 year olds and we all loved it. Also the balancing is super clever. Whenever you win a round, another player gets to choose a "monster" to put in your mansion. It might not seem clever, but that extra monster adds enough difficulty to help the others quite a bit. And since you choose, you can choose the ones that seem to cause the winner the most problems. I fucking hate those spiders, for instance.

Emily (7) and I play this all the time, she plays with her grandmother sometimes too. You're right to warn about the tears at an early age. Emily used to cry a lot when she'd lose at this, I think it's the stress of being so close and trying to race the other person. With young kids, game "A" is better than game "B" since the latter requires a little analysis so adults have a big advantage. Game "A" is just getting the adventurer (who Emily calls the Inspector) and 3 treasure chests in the room.

I bought this at the same time as two other kids games and this one had the flimsiest parts. The box is always really hard to open, there is no obvious place to place the card deck when storing the game. And the rooms don't exactly 'lock' into place with the walls and doors, so often it will lift up and pieces slide or get stuck underneath while playing.

I think the coolest thing is how different the monsters move around. Emily hates the eyeballs cuz they roll so much and are hard to control (I find them very easy for that reason to manipulate). I hate the snakes the most cuz they block doorways and add way too much volatility to the game (either the blocked doors help you or hurt you). The ghosts move the same way as the adventurer which makes them very annoying when they get in the same room as him since they move too similar. The most misunderstand and nightmare-ish monster are the spiders cuz they have rubber feet so, just like real spiders, they can stick to the floor and walls more than the others. Which means when you're tilting the mansion, those blasted spiders will stay in the room when everyone else pours out of it. Very clever.

I don't especially like the game, but i'm not the target market. Emily is ALWAYS asking for it (in fact she asked me 20 minutes ago to play), so it's a big hit. I think 4 stars is right on the money. I would dock it points for the flimsy parts. I have my two nephews coming next week and am curious how the game will handle boys.