While shopping for [Maggie->]’s birthday, I stumbled across a copy of Loot, a pirate-themed card game I remembered having read good things about. Noticing the various award stickers plastered across its box, I decided it was worth dropping a few bucks to try it out.

After I spent a couple minutes scanning the rules, [Liam->], [Abigail->] and I played through one round with our hands down on the table in front of us to help learn the game, and then another the proper way with our cards hidden. The play is fairly straightforward and easy to pick up — no trouble for our 8 year old, and I think our 6 year old could have kept up with a little coaching — but the strategy becomes moderately deep once you don’t know what resources your opponents have at your disposal.

Some other reviewers suggest putting in chocolate treasure coins and having everyone talk like pirates for the duration to enhance the fun, but we really enjoyed it even without the additional pirate trappings and in spite of (or because of) the fact that the kids walloped me both times. Good, approachable fun. I give it a 2.5 on a scale of -7 to π.