Pinata Blast and That’s Not a Hat Games Review

Get your party on with two new family party games from Ravensburger.

If you love the thrill of pinatas, then you’ll love the candy-grabbing game Pinata Blast. In this game, each player starts with seven cards. One player drops or rolls the seven dice, and then all players grab for dice that match the candy on their cards. To do this, you’re going to play your card face-up first and then grab the matching die to place on top of the card. Watch out for rotten candy on the green die. If you collect the candy shown, you have to discard the card. When all dice are claimed or no one can collect any of the remaining dice, players save their cards with dice on top as victory points and put them aside. If all players still have cards in their hands, play continues. But if a round ends and at least one player has no cards left in their hand, the game is over. Players count up the number of points on their saved cards, and the player with the most points wins. The game comes with 72 cards, seven dice, a pinata stick token, and instructions. You can play the game with three to six players ages 7 and up.

That’s Not a Hat makes more sense once you start playing. This card game requires memory skills and is a definite challenge. Each of the 110 cards is printed with an image, such as a safety cone, hat, trophy, or banana. Everybody has a card face-up in front of them. One player draws the top card from the center draw pile, shows the card to everyone, and places it face down in front of them above their original card. On the back of the card, there’s an arrow indicating which direction the card must be passed. Pass the gift and say, “I have a nice ___ for you.” The receiving player can either accept or refuse the gift. You would accept if you believe the giver correctly identified what’s on the card. Take the card and place it face down above your original card. You can’t re-gift what you just got, so now you have to give your old gift to another player. Flip it over (if it’s not already), pass it in the direction indicated, and see if your gift is accepted or refused. A player would refuse a gift if they think the card was not correctly identified. In that case, you’d say, “That’s not a ___.” Flip the card over to reveal it, and whichever player is wrong takes the card and a penalty point. That player has to draw a new card and pass it. The game ends when one player reaches three penalty points, and the player with the lowest points wins. You can play this game with three to eight players ages 8 and up.