Jr. Ranger Games Poop Tracks, Grumpy Old Bear, Slug Bug State-cation, and Dino Tracks Review

Explore the great outdoors without having to go there with new Jr. Ranger games from MasterPieces. In both Dino Tracks and Poop Tracks, kids have to follow the tracks and spot the dinosaur or animal. The goal is to complete scenes of three cards, featuring the animal or dinosaur in their habitat with the correct tracks. The difference between the games is that the dinosaurs have eggs in their habitats, while the animals have poop. Each player gets a certain number of cards, depending on how many players you have, and all players must place their cards face-up in front of them. Take turns spinning the spinner and doing the action you land on. For instance, draw one card, draw two card, draw a card and spin again, steal a card from another player, trade cards with another player, or skip a turn. Once you’ve completed a set of three cards, those can no longer be swiped or traded. When the last card is drawn from the draw pile, the game ends, and the player with the most completed scenes wins. These games also have a Study Guide in the back of the instructions with more information about the animals and dinosaurs from the games.

Grumpy Old Bear is an Old Maid-style card game. The object is to get rid of your cards by making pairs, but don’t end up with the Grumpy Bear card. Players take turns offering their hand of cards, face-down, to the person on their left. That player then selects a card from the offered hand without looking and adds it to their own hand. If the card drawn creates a pair, then the pair is discarded face-up. If you end the game with the Grumpy Bear card, you lose.

Slug Bug State-cation takes players on a road trip across the United States. All the cards are dealt out to all players face-down. Then, players take turns placing cards on the middle stack and flipping them over. If a Slug Bug card appears, be the first to slap it. You then get to take the whole pile. If you accidentally slap a card that isn’t a Slug Bug, you lose one of your cards. There are two ways to win the game: being the player with the most cards or lining up your state cards to see who has the longest road trip. Use the map to see which of your states share borders and, therefore, can be lined up. Use Hop-a-Flight cards to connect groups of states that don’t touch to extend your road trip and score more points.