Funko Disney The Haunted Mansion – Call of The Spirits Board Game

I am a sort of connoisseur of board games; I collect them like an old woman collects porcelain figurines. I am also a big fan of the Haunted Mansion, having spent most of my career in the Magic Kingdom. This is not to say that this review is on their payroll, as I could say much in the way of the Jungle Cruise board game that the "Mouse" may not like. Regardless, I must say this particular game is a delight. With roughly 65 unique character artworks(On the non-repeating "Ghost Cards"), the game's accessories alone have more to offer than most board games, and show a wonderful attention to detail in relating to it's inspiring attraction. The gameplay itself is unique, easy to learn, and fun to play. I've played dozens of tabletop games in my day, and this is certainly a breath of fresh air in a world of tiresome rip-offs. There isn't anything I feel I can easily compare it to, and, while being different, it isn't at all complicated. I love a game where you can really make your opponents squirm, and there is plenty of opportunity to get ahead yourself, play it safe, or make things difficult for others. The game offers variety by changing the rules ever so slightly each round(as displayed on that rounds "Event Card", and offers balance by alternating the player that goes first in a round. The gameplay is far from predictable, and I can't imagine two games going precisely the same, making it difficult to get old. The game takes roughly 30 minutes to play, with about 2-6 minutes of setup, depending on how organized you are(I like to keep my cards in good condition, so I'm a very slow shuffler). A truly sufficient game takes 3-6 players, making it one of the better mid-size party games. It doesn't seem to drag, in fact, the last four rounds are a mystery as to which will end the game, making them a mad-dash for points. In addition, the more players, the less time it takes, and the more points become available on the game board. Overall, this is, no doubt, one of the best board games I've played in decades. For those fans of the Haunted Mansion who care a little too much; it should be noted that the fan-favorite "Hatbox Ghost" does not appear in this game. I myself despise the tacky California exclusive, so that's a plus in my book.

As Halloween approaches I’m always looking for something that carries a good spooky looking vibe. So when I saw the Haunted Mansion by Funko I thought I’d give it a try...afterall, I remember being terrified of this ride at Disney when I was younger, and my kids absolutely love the ride now! This was another quick Amazon purchase and arrived just a day after placing the order. We broke it out immediately and put it to the test with my 8 year old daughter. The rulebook is simple, well illustrated and was very easy to pickup on the go. We dove in after just a 2 minute review of the rules. The game features a board that illustrates the various rooms of the ride at Disney. The turn will start with an event card, then you will have two actions per turn to either navigate the rooms via the endless hallway; which connects to all the rooms, rotate the endless hallway, or challenge an opponent to get one of their ghost cards. The hurdle you have each turn is to avoid the Hitchhiking Ghosts...which give you a Curse Card (and if you have the most at the end of the game you’ll lose your highest scoring ghost collection!!!!) when they visit you! When visiting the rooms you will be collecting sets of ghost cards, (the game is very much like Sushi Go with the room visits replacing the drafting). Each Ghost Card has a different suit, and different scoring mechanisms based on the type of suit. If you decide to rotate the hallway, you’ll be shifting what rooms the players are in...this can be a great move to get you to a room you want while also moving an opponent to the Hitchhiking Ghosts or even out of a room to keep them from getting a ghost you need. The duals (which my family doesn’t really use) is a blind bid to gain an opponent's Ghost Card...and what bid is how many Curse Cards you are willing to take...so its a gamble...is that Ghost Card worth the curse? You’ll continue this cycle until you’ve reached the “Last Round” event card...then you’ll just total up your Ghost Card points. A simple game that anyone can grasp in minutes. More of a filler game than a feature game for game night in my opinion. The components are fantastic...card stock is nice, board is very nicely illustrated, and the Ghosts illustrations are plenty. I’d venture to guess that they are almost all different ghosts. A spooky game this is not, but it does a very nice job of bringing the Disney ride’s vibe home! At the current price I’d strongly recommend you put this one in the cart!

I've now played perhaps a dozen games of this, and my thoughts and opinions have begun to gel. Despite the Disney name, and despite being fairly easy to teach to kids or non-gamers, this game actually borders on being a so-called "gamer's game." Make no mistake -- this is still a light game. But it's on what I would consider the upper end of the "light game" category, meaning it could actually work quite well as a filler for gamers' game nights. There are some interesting decisions to be made, but nothing too taxing that should lead to analysis paralysis. There are also a fair number of strategies to try, with multiple paths to victory. Games move along quickly and typically end leaving the players wishing that it went on just a bit longer (a good thing, in my opinion, as far too many games wear out their welcome). The game works well with all player counters from 2-4, though I found 3 to be the sweet spot. With two, at times it feels like there aren't quite enough card decisions on the board, while play with four players might make the wait time between turns a bit long for younger players (like my 8-year-old). The theme is actually a very good match for the gameplay mechanisms, and for me it was a plus, as I love the Haunted Mansion. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised and would probably rate the game an 8.5 or 9 out of 10 when compared to other light games, including your typical Euros. My kids love it and ask to play it, and I'd much rather see them playing something like this, with some actually strategies involved, than the types of games you typically see for sale in your average Target or Walmart. Given that I picked it up for $12-$13 in an Amazon sale, I'd say this is definitely a keeper that should continue to hit the table from time to time for years to come.

This is now our MOST requested game for game night! Our first time with four players we opened it, read the rules, and immediately started to play. We didn't need any video to figure it out. Since then we've had people request it and we play multiple times in a row. Even with 2 players it is still fun without any rule modifications required. "But the Other Reviews Say-": The rules can seem confusing to people who are not used to the newer style of board games, especially card drafting ones. I suggest trying a game like Trash Pandas or Sushi Go first to get that game mechanic under your belt. Your goal is to collect "sets" of ghosts to gain the most points and win. However, the hitchhiking ghosts are in your way. If they travel through the room you are in, you get a haunt card with points on it, or if you try to take ghosts from a room the hitch hiking ghosts are in. If you have the most "haunt points" at the end of the game, you lose your set of ghosts that would have given you the most points. This is the most nerve-wracking part of the game - trying to keep your haunt points down! You can get them discarded, so it's a constant battle to keep the score down. You'll want to keep the rulebook out so you can reference the ghost sets, but by the third game my partner and I weren't using it anymore. The cards are very clear pictographs about how the sets work. Replay Value: High! Very High if you're Disney fans like us. We've played it back to back many times - there's SO many ghost cards that each game is unique - you don't get through half the stack in one game. You can't plan the same point gathering strategy each time because you don't know what ghosts will appear. Also, the special conditions for each round changes and are randomly chosen, so it keeps everyone on their toes! Disney Value: FANTASTICALLY HIGH. All family friendly ghosts here! The art is very cartoony and goofy while still recognizable. It's fun to play "Oh I know that one!" with the ghosts from the ride (like the drunk ghost under the feast table) If you know the ride there is nothing surprising in the game. And with most of the cards being pictographs, kids can play too if they understand how to collect card sets.

This game faces two challenges: to be accessible to non-gamer Disney fans who are attracted by the theme, while still providing enough depth and replayability to satisfy experienced gamers (keeping in mind that it's a lightweight game). I'd say it mostly succeeds on the second count; I'd probably give it a 3-3.5 star rating overall (rounding up to counter the low reviews from non-gamers who bought the game for theme without understanding what they were getting themselves into). The one warning I'd issue for experienced gamers is this: this is NOT side-by-side solitaire, with no player interaction. It can get surprisingly aggressive for such an innocent appearing little game. If you or other members of your gaming group dislike this kind of interaction or tend to get hurt feelings, consider this before playing. When my husband and I play 2-player games (thanks, COVID), we always play cutthroat. This means that in this particular game we are interacting a lot: repeatedly swiping cards via duels, or forcing each other to take haunt (penalty) cards in order to keep the ghosts we've already earned. But also we've weaponized the Tea Party Ghost cards to good effect, because when you select a Tea Party Ghost card you move the Hitchhiking Ghosts, and in doing so can often force your opponent to take haunt (penalty) cards. Given that the player with most haunt cards loses a ton of points at the end of the game, in a 2-P game this can feel pretty punishing. Other thoughts: The rule book is clearly written (despite what you've read to the contrary). The gameplay is fast and fun. There is nice artwork with gorgeous saturated colors and exquisite detailing on the miniatures, but the cards are flimsy. We bent one of our event cards the first game out, and now we always know when that particular event is coming up. Also, the central spinning disk has only a single thumb notch, and if you want to rotate it and the notch is turned 180 degrees away, you may need an assist. Not a huge deal, but it would have been easy for the designers to have added a second notch. Others have noted that the crypt room is too small for cards once they start to pile up. Nonetheless, it's probably a must have for anyone who's able and willing to master a few simple game mechanics (that experienced gamers have probably already seen elsewhere).

This is my new favorite table-top game. I'm not just saying that as a Haunted Mansion fanatic, I'm saying that because my other favorite games are Clue and Guillotine...and this game is very much like both of those games combined. The initial instructions were a bit hard to understand because it explains how the Hitchhiking Ghost movement will affect players without explaining that the Hitchhiking Ghost movement from the INITIAL "Event" won't have any effect on any of the players because they aren't on the board yet. This is where we got hung up, but once we realized that "Events" are more about setting up each round, we were able to get through it. The instructions themselves beyond that point should be used for reference only at that point. This game is best learned as you go as each card has its own instruction. I feel confident that I can play without reference to the instructions after playing just 2 full games of The Haunted Mansion. The one critique I have besides the instructions being a little confusing (just watch the video they point you to in the instructions), the Ghost cards are a little bigger than I'd like them to be. They completely crowd the two smaller rooms; HOWEVER, I'm pretty sure this is by design in order to give the players a feeling of being crowded by ghosts. So it's not really even a bad critique if that's the case. Otherwise, the game seems relatively sturdy and should hold up as long as you're careful with the character pieces and the paper on the board itself. It's already started peeling up a bit around the center of the board where it folds in half. I'm sure we will get years of fun out of this one.

Very fun game! Maybe slightly hard to play for younger kids. The artwork and board are super. If you collect Disney or Haunted Mansion it is a must have. May be slightly complex for some adults.

The directions are more complex than a typical board game like, say ... Monopoly, but most modern games have more intricate play and rules now. If you read the directions carefully and walk yourself slowly through sample gameplay along the way (instead of being in a mad rush), it's NOT hard to grasp at all. There's even a gameplay demo video link that the reviewer with the "Harvard" degree didn't notice when reading the instruction booklet. The artwork is really cool, and the ghosts depicted on the Ghost cards are the ones depicted in the Mansion in paintings or Audio-Animatronics (they even have my favorite Sinister 11 portrait: The Witch of Walpurgis!). In this game, the Hitchhiking Ghosts (Phineas, Ezra, and Gus) are the villains. Cross paths with them, and you have to draw a "Haunt" card (each has a point value: 1, 2, or 3). Rack up too many Haunt points, and you might become the 1000th resident! Anyway, this has become my new top favorite board game in my collection.

The art is impressive. The game board and cards are beautiful and feel well made. With a little care, this game can last years and years. I read the reviews and a lot of people said the gameplay was complicated. I took a chance and bought it anyway because I bought this as a Christmas gift for my wife who is a huge Disney fan and Haunted Mansion is her favourite ride at Magic Kingdom. We were not disappointed. This made a great gift. The game is easy to learn. We played it with two tweens and after one turn where everyone had a chance to do a ‘test run’ of the actions they would take during a real game - we all had the hang of it. We’ve played a it a bunch of times since Christmas Day. Even if you aren’t a Disney fan, it’s a fun game and if you’re a Halloween person - this game hits all the marks for a themed game night. I highly recommend this game and have already told others about it. This will definitely be in the games night rotation once the pandemic is over.

Me ha gustado mucho, la verdad es que es imprescindible para fans de phantom manor

Es sumamente divertido y fácil de aprender. El juego es simple, atrapar a cuántos fantasmas sea posible en poco tiempo. Todas las piezas son de buena calidad, la caja y el envío fueron excelentes. Si hay algo que debería reclamar es que a veces, dependiendo la suerte, el juego podría acabar en uno o dos turnos. Aunque claro, eso lo hace muy emocionante a veces... De ahí en más en muy entretenido, además de que la Mansión Embrujada es una de mis atracciones favoritas de los parques.

Gostei da aparência do jogo. As peças são lindas! Entretanto, ainda não li as regras.

Es un juego muy bonito de colección de sets el cuál tiene un arte muy bonito y elegante, además es muy divertido y entretenido, la calidad de los componentes también es muy buena, lo recomiendo mucho en vez del sushi go party es una muy buena alternativa.