Character Options Scooby Doo Escape the Phantom Race Game

After receiving really good reports from school, I decided that I would get my children a gift to treat them, but wanted something that could be used together, a board game perhaps?

The game I will now review is - “Scooby Doo - escape the phantom race game”.

I initially purchased this game due the characters on the board itself, with both of my children being Scooby Doo fans, an also the price, with this being bought for around the £10.00 mark, not a ad price to get the family together for a game!

The set comprises of a fold up board, complete with a cut out “groove”, characters pieces, dice and a 2 piece motorised phantom.

Before setting up the game, you have to assemble the phantom, which in fairness was a feat in itself!

The phantom has a small battery pack on the base part, which holds a single AAA battery. Once inserted the idea is to click the top half of the phantoms body to the base to create a single unit, a thing that up until this day I have never been able to achieve!

Once this is done, you just roll the dice and follow the instructions around the board, roll again, miss a turn, two steps forwards, you get the idea, whilst at the same time the phantom (that has now been switched on, and its wheels have been placed into the groove cut out on the board), is now travelling (albeit quite slowly!) round the board, where the line of the phantom occasionally cuts through the line the players have to take, so the aim is to avoid the phantom pushing your character piece off the board, the phantom is a constantly moving piece, that will catch you up if you don’t roll the dice and move at double quick speed, hence all the random throwing of the dice, off the table and under the settee!

If indeed this does happen you simply start your game all over again, with the winner being the first to get around the board, (getting pushed off the board, not the retrieving of the dice, though you will find it impedes the game a little!).

The reality….well, if you hadn’t gathered yet this game is in effect, crap!

The only game I have played that is similar is snakes and ladders, with there being so much forwards and backwards action, I have to be truthful I was praying for the damn phantom to come and end the misery!

The board is of course quite cheaply made, though the decoration can only be commended with there being plenty of designs on it.

The phantom itself is cheap and nasty, with this being the second one I have had, taking the first back because it didn’t fit together, with this one I just gave up, and we now play with the base of it!

There a quite a few small pieces in the set so this would not be a game I would let a small child play with, which is a shame as it is uncomplicated enough for a younger child to cope with, but for my kids this is just too easy and not thrilling enough to hold their attentions for too long!

For more information visit - www.amazon.co.uk

Thanks for reading x