Review: Max – Cooperative Family Boardgame

Max is a simple, cooperative boardgame where the players take on the role of three little animals (mouse, chipmunk, bird) attempting to get to their homes in a tree as Max (the cat) tries to catch them.  No reading is required.

After introducing myself to BGG, I ended up making a purchase from Funagain.com of three games to play with my children.  I was tired of Chutes & Ladders and Guess Who, so I ended up buying:

1) Max (cooperative boardgame)
2) The Secret Door (cooperative boardgame)
3) Rat-a-Tat Cat (card game)

These are what you might call "designer" kids games.  They are not your standard Milton/Bradley fare and you most likely won’t find them in any Toys R Us.  These are games that adults can enjoy playing with their kids and not feel like their brains are being dissolved by concentrated boredom.

My children are aged 2 and 4.  Of these three games, Max has turned out to be the big hit.  It’s also my favorite of the bunch.  After playing the game about 10 times since we bought it, I am amazed at how balanced it is.  With each playing, it seems that we have an equal chance of winning or losing.  Either way, it’s great fun!

The cooperative nature of Max (and The Secret Door) puts my kids at ease when we play.  We REALLY enjoy working together to win the game.  Though, I must point out that my 4-year old cried significantly when "his bird" was eaten by Max the first time.  In order to alleviate this problem I turned the game around for him and let him "be Max".  So now when Max appears to be winning, he pretends that he’s playing Max, which helps him always feel like he’s succeeding.

To me, the great thing about Max is the amazing balance of the game.  Sometimes it will seem like we (the critters) are waaaaay out ahead and there is no way that Max can catch up, and then suddenly, within 3 or 4 rolls of the dice, Max is right behind us.  Each animal is given one specific shortcut that they can use.  However, Max, being a cat, can track the animals and is allowed to use all of the shortcuts if he lands on them.  This is a fantastic bit of game engineering.

The players have to opportunity to call Max back to his starting position 4 times during the game.  The mechanics of doing this by using "cat treats" is a huge hit.  The kids absolutely LOVE calling him back by giving him a treat.

As other reviewers have expressed, the contents of the game box is somewhat underwhelming.  While the board itself is attractive, the game pieces are cheap cardboard punchouts, which are functional, but slightly disappointing.  Little plastic figures would have been a bit nicer.

I must also report that the game in general is MUCH smaller than I was expecting.  I was anticipating a box about the same size as a "standard" Milton-Bradley boardgame, but both Max and The Secret Door come in boxes that are about 1/4 that size.  After my initial surprise, I quickly viewed this as a good thing!  The small games are equally as playable as larger games, but much easier to store.

Overall I can’t recommend this game enough to families with young children.  See my review of The Secret Door for a different take on family cooperative gaming.