Review: Baffled by Cheatwell Games [AD]

We’ve been testing out another new board game, kindly sent to us courtesy of Playtime PR, and we really love it so wanted to share it with you!

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The game is called ‘Baffled’, and is produced by Cheatwell Games (isn’t that just a brilliant name for a board games company!) It’s aimed at ages 8+ but at just short of 7.5 years old, Oskar was able to play it too. There are a few ways you can adjust it, to play it with people of different ages, but I’ll come to that in a moment.

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So, what’s in the box? Besides the board, there are 4 playing counters, 12 symbol tiles with matching covers, 28 double sided ‘life’ cards, and one die. The object of the game, is to remember the positions of the symbols, but this gets increasingly more difficult as the covered up tiles move around. If you get it wrong, you lose a life. The winner is the last player with any remaining lives.

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To set up the game, you place the board in the middle and deal out the life cards to each player, up to seven cards each. You can decide how many cards to deal out, e.g. they suggest seven for a longer game and five for a shorter one. But you can also vary the number of cards according to ability. We were playing with three adults and one child, and gave the adults 3 lives each and Oskar got 5 lives. Though in the end, Oskar was the winner with only two lives lost, so he would have won either way even if he had also only had three lives! But it’s great to have the option to adjust the number of lives according to age and ability, as necessary.

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Players place their life cards with the green side up in front of them, and place their playing counters on one of the four start squares. Then the symbol tiles are shuffled, and spread around the board in the spaces marked A to L. There are three sets: numbers, animals, and fruits, each with a symbol in red, blue, yellow and green. Players have 60 seconds to memorise the position of the symbols, then they get covered up!

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To play the game, you roll the die and move around the board, then follow the directions of the squares you land on. Some squares just ask you to correctly locate one of the symbols (e.g. “lemon” or “frog”), others ask you e.g. to name the symbols at two specific locations (e.g. “Name G and I”), to find three animals, numbers or fruits, or to find all three symbols of the same colour. The rules state that a player must name the relevant symbol before revealing it, but we let Oskar reveal them in any order, e.g. any three fruits, so that’s another way you can adapt the game when playing it with different players of different ages and abilities. If you guess wrong, you lose a life and have to turn over a card, so that the red side is facing up. If you guess correctly, you can win back lives you have lost in previous rounds.

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To make the game for challenging, some of the squares you land on require you to swap two of the covered up symbols around (e.g. “Swap E and L”). The more often players land on these squares, the more difficult it gets to remember where everything is. It’s like playing a good old game of memory cards, but levelled up! There is also a square where you can ask one of the other players to either find a specific symbol, or say what is hidden at a specific position – but choose carefully, because if they get it right, YOU lose a life!

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We played this game with three generations, and we all really enjoyed it. Oskar took a couple of rounds to get to grips with it, but it’s a lot simpler that it may look at first glance and now he’s the family ‘Baffled’ champion. It’s a great game for training your memory and observational skills, and it’s heaps of fun too! ‘Baffled’ is available to buy from various toy retailers or from Amazon (affiliate link).


Disclosure: We received an edition of ‘Baffled’ by Cheatwell Games free of charge, courtesy of Playtime PR, in return for an honest review. However, all photographs, words and opinions are our own. Please note, if you buy a game via the Amazon affiliate link, I receive a small percentage of the sale – at no extra cost to you! – which helps to keep this blog running. Thank you.

Comments: 10

  • reply
    6 March 2018

    It looks like a very cool, colourful game! We are getting back into playing games again (we go through fits and starts) so need to add this to our list :) Sim x

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    6 March 2018

    It sounds like a fun game. I love a good board game with the kids on a rainy day. Mandi

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    6 March 2018

    Oh this sounds like fun! We love to play games together as family and haven’t seen this one before!

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    6 March 2018

    Aww I love discovering new board games and the fact that this can be enjoyed by three generations is so appealing :)

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    Jenny

    6 March 2018

    Looks like a fun game to get my kids when they’re a tad older!

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    6 March 2018

    This looks like a great game. We love board games.

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    7 March 2018

    Sounds like a great game and a good one to add to the collection. I come from a family that loves a good board game! X #bloggerclubuk

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    7 March 2018

    That sounds like a really fun game. Our son is too young for it yet but I think our friends and us would love it. I could foresee some freyed tempers in our group when the game gets more difficult haha!

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    8 March 2018

    I was never good at board games outside of monopoly and snakes/ladders but I wouldn’t mind giving this one a spin. Looks colourful and love the name

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    8 March 2018

    I really love the sound of this! We are obsessed with games in our house and have drawers and drawers of them. I’ll definitely be getting this one when my daughter is older. I love that 3 generations enjoyed it too. We always love finding games that we can all play together on family gatherings and at times like Christmas.

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