Dice, Decks, and Boards: Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

We love board games in our house, especially cooperative games! We haven't been able to play a lot of games as a family lately but as our home life and homeschool shift, we will be playing more games together. Perhaps even instituting a family game night. 

Family Game Night Ideas 

Speaking of family game night... do you hold one with your family and friends? There are so many great ways you can get together for games and there are so many games! We enjoy everything from board and card games to roleplaying games to video games, and we have played all these different types of games together. Here are some ideas you can try with your family and friends. You can host:

• A game night featuring cooperative games only 
• A game night featuring competitive games 
• A game night with family and friends where everyone brings their favorite short game to play 
• A virtual game night where you play video games remotely with your family and friends 
• A game night for roleplaying - create pre-generated characters or start an epic dungeon campaign 

A Few Favorites 

In the past, I have shared many games that our family enjoys from one of our favorite video games to how we used roleplaying games to inspire a birthday party. Games provide a great form of entertainment that allows our family to not only spend time together but work together too. 

On my blog, you will find a variety of favorite types of games including: 

Tenzi Game and Tenzi Card Deck (a review courtesy of Timberdoodle): This is a fun dice game taken to a new level using the deck of cards which changes how the game is played.  

Roleplaying: Our family enjoys roleplaying games, so much so that we have hosted roleplaying birthday parties for our oldest son.

Cooperative Games: Our daughter loves games where we all work together to win the game. She loves games like Mermaid Island because we have a common goal and we either win or lose together as a family.

Video Games: As much as we enjoy board games, dice games, and card games, we also love playing video games together. Minecraft has become a family favorite because we can all play together in one world.  If your child is a fan of Minecraft, I have shared several posts over the years including crafts featuring the letters of the alphabet or pixel art and a Minecraft-themed birthday party.

Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters 

While searching for unique Christmas gifts, my husband found Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters on a recommended list of cooperative games. As we like to purchase at least one game for Christmas each year, this seemed like the perfect game to purchase. Each game playthrough is different as you and your teammates draw cards, place ghosts, collect treasures, and make decisions. So, it has immense replay value. And the fact that we work together cooperatively also meant that our daughter would be more willing to join in our first play-through attempt. 

What exactly is Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters? 

From the back of the box: "In a dark and dreary house, every sound sends a cold chill through your bones. A door opens - is someone there? You hear whispers, but no one answers when you call. Your eyes and ears may deceive you, but the hair on your neck tells you what you already know: there are ghosts here." 

You and your teammates are on a quest to discover the 8 treasure jewels that are scattered throughout the haunted house. As you draw cards, you will either advance without adding any more ghosts or haunts, or you will add ghosts to the different rooms in the house. By adding ghosts into the house, you will be increasing the haunt level. If the house is fully haunted before you get all the treasure out, you will lose the game.

What Comes with the Game? 

With your game come all the necessary components to play Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters, including a set of instructions that provides you with the information to play the basic game and the advanced game. The advanced game adds in a few extra cards which will advance the haunting of the house as well as lock doors to the different rooms. 

Also included is the following: 

• 1 Game Board
• 4 Treasure Hunter Movers 
• 19 Cards 
• 24 Ghost Movers 
• 6 Haunting Figures
• 1 Movement Die
• 2 Fighting Die
• 8 Treasure Jewels 

What Do I Think? 

Due to the cooperative nature of Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters, this is a big win for our family. I love the fact that winning the game requires players to talk to each other and strategize. During one game session, we talked about who would team up with whom in order to defeat ghosts, to be able to escape rooms with jewels. (If there are two Treasure Hunters in one room with a ghost, you can roll two battle dice, giving you a better chance to succeed.) 

I am impressed with the quality of the pieces and the cards. If one plans on playing a game multiple times with children, it is nice to find all the pieces are well-made and have a sturdy box for storage. Each item goes in its own spot in the box which makes cleaning up rather easy, too. 

I would recommend Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters to families who enjoy playing games together. If you enjoy cooperative games, then this is a good challenging game for you and your family. In the half-dozen or more times our family has played the game, we have only won once. While it is difficult to beat the game, it is not difficult to learn how to play. No one was so disappointed in our previous losses that they didn't want to play the game again. I think this speaks volumes about the re-playability of a game.

It's not a scary game, only takes about 30 minutes, and is perfect for two to four players. I think you will enjoy playing Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters, too.