SNAP Review – boop the Halls!

Anitra, what do cats love even more than booping each other off of a bed?

Probably knocking ornaments off a Christmas tree!

I think you’re probably right.

This is a SNAP review for boop the Halls.

Game

Boop the Halls is a “thinky game for two festive felines” by Scott Brady, published by Smirk & Dagger Games. It’s a sequel to boop, which we reviewed back in spring of 2023.

Just like the original, it is for two players, ages 10 and up, and it plays in about 20 minutes.

Art

Let’s talk about the art in this game.

As expected, boop the Halls brings us more cute kittens and cats – now jumping into presents, playing with ornaments, and wearing cozy hats.

The board leans even more into the Christmas theme – it’s a decorated tree! There are four tiers, but it’s pretty quick to put together and tear down. The tiers come already built, so it’s quick even the first time you play.

Mechanics

OK, so what do we do with this tree-shaped game board and these very cute cats? Let’s dive into the mechanics of boop the Halls.

On your turn, start by checking if you currently have an ornament on the tree. If you don’t, you need to add one on the second tier from the top, like this.

Once you have an ornament, place a kitten from your supply anywhere on the tree. Like the original game, kittens will boop every piece they’re adjacent to – moving them one space away in a straight line.

If a piece can’t move in that line, it stays where it is. Kittens also can’t boop cats. (Kittens are too little!)

Ornaments can only move sideways or down on the tree – but kittens and cats can go in any direction, even getting booped up to the top of the tree!

And if you can make a line of three of your own kittens, they turn into cats! Remove the kittens from the board and your supply. Then, add that many cats to your supply. Any time you make a line with at least one kitten, do this again – removing the line of three from the board, and upgrading more kittens to cats.

What makes cats special? Well, cats can boop other cats. And cats can also “pounce” on an ornament, if they’d normally be booped into one, instead.

So that brings us to the two ways you can win this game:

You can win the “nice” way by making a line of three of your own cats, like the original game…

Or you can win the “naughty” way by knocking all three of your opponent’s ornaments off the tree, one at a time!

As you play through the game, you can also knock your own ornaments off the tree to return them to your supply and prevent your opponent from breaking them… this time.

Can you defend your ornaments and make sure to have a meowy Christmas?

Expectations

So, what did we expect with this game?

Well, we love boop. The rules are pretty simple but it makes me think.

I love it even though you beat me almost all of the time!

I saw the Christmas-tree board for boop the Halls and wondered if that was the only change, or if there was anything else that would make this game feel different than the original boop.

I was a little worried that it might lose some of its charm if they added a bunch more rules.

I really didn’t know. There are a couple of these themed boops, with bOOoop for Halloween and the upcoming beepboop with robots. So I knew the rule changes from bOOoop and I figured this one would be pretty similar.

Surprises

So, let’s talk about what surprised us.

My biggest surprise is was that there were a few more rules than the original boop, but they make the game even more tactical without really weighing it down. You need to keep track of your ornament on the tree, and try to protect it from your opponent’s kitties!

But! That four-layer board did trip me up a few times. It can be hard for me to mentally connect spaces that are diagonal when they’re not actually on the same level.

For me, the biggest surprise was just how hard it was to prevent the other player (usually you) from knocking ornaments off the tree. There’s just not a lot of room, and only one or two boops of an ornament will knock it off. So there’s a lot more defensive booping happening in this game. (Laughs – “defensive booping!”)

Recommended?

So Anitra, we recommend boop – do we also recommend boop the Halls?

We absolutely recommend it. I probably wouldn’t play this one with kids under 10, since it requires more spatial reasoning than the original.

It does help that you can completely remove the tree layers and play on a flat board, if the layering is hard for you to wrap your brain around like it is for me.

You should definitely consider adding this to your holiday games – or maybe even just play it all year round!

We give boop The Halls 4½ cute cats out of 5.

Find it on Amazon, direct from Smirk & Dagger, or ask for it at your local game store.

---

The Family Gamers received a copy of boop the Halls! from Smirk & Dagger for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

Music by Yevhen Onoychenko from Pixabay.