Chameleon Crunch is the second of two items we received from Mattel to review this holiday season.  Chameleon Crunch is a game for preschoolers.  Players race to feed the chameleon the most bugs – either by type or by color – but have to watch out because if they’re not quick, he might open his mouth and let the bugs all “f ly” back out.  The kids like the game okay, but it has some detail issues that could use some ironing out.

First of all, it doesn’t store well.  There are a total of 16 bugs – four types of bug, each with one in each of four colors.  So you can play by color (one person is all reds while one is all yellows…) or by bug type (one player gets all the bees, one gets all the flies…).  But this is a game for preschoolers and there is nowhere to store the bugs, so it’s very difficult to not end up with some of them lost.  It really should come with more bugs than you think you need, because preschoolers will lose them.

The other major problem is space.  My daughters played this on our living room floor.  Now, we don’t have an enormous house – but neither do we have a tiny cottage.  They say that the chameleon walked in large enough circles that they ran out of room.  Obviously, if our entire living room floor wasn’t enough space, there’s no way the game could be played on a table.  And many homes would be ruled out altogether.

Still, if you can manage to keep all the pieces, and have the space to play, it’s a unique twist on matching games, and even our 10-year-old didn’t get too bored with it.  (I think she’s a bit old to have chosen it for herself, but she doesn’t mind playing it with her little sister.)

retail $21.99

Back to the Gift Guide

Disclosure: Mattel provided us with the Chameleon Crunch to facilitate our review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own (and those of my family).