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- Verified Buyer
Our 7 and 11 year old love this game. It is a longer play than what we normally do. If you like games like Clue and Uno, you’d like this one.So this is supposed to be a family friendly game, but the wild cards have a word on them most parents wouldn't want their kids to say. I got this for my nieces and nephews and had to throw the wild cards away, but the game was still playable without them. It took elements from the board game Clue. Cute for kids, not much fun for adults.Edit: so when I said the game wasn't much fun for adults, I was playing a 2 player game with my nephew. I then played it with more players and it was so much more fun. So, the family friendly version is fun for adults, I just reccommend you play with more than 2 players. Also, the word "ass" which I would think most parents wouldn't want in their kids vocabulary, is also on one of the cat cards in the description at the bottom, and in the instructions as well. My nephew found these extra occurrences of it. We blacked out the word in the instructions and on the cat card and threw the wild cards away. I am glad the seller has now provided an alternative on their website, which we will print on cardstock. Thank you.Easy to learn, lots of family funI love this game. It’s cute and teaches strategy. We had a great time playing it. I would definitely buy it again.Recently I heard someone talking about this new game called 'Shady Pets' while I was on a cruise last week... They were saying "if we get stuck on this ship, we'll have a fun game to play". So I decided to look into it and ordered it! Now that I am home, I can see why they were talking about it. It's a riot! What a fun wholesome game for the family. How many wholesome games that are not boring do you find any more? If you love pets, you'll love this game! And, if I get stuck somewhere due to this stupid Virus going around, I wont be near as bored as I'll have this new game.. I plan to come back down the road once I figure out how to master being sneaky, I'll update my review.. my 1st impression = SOLID!The game is fun. A little confusing and the directions are very vague. I think it is longer then 20-30 min of game time. I wish there was something about showing or placing an animal card down with the color of a category that has all ready been guessed but I guess that makes it a littler harder for someone to win easy. Or now that I'm thinking of it I guess I could just make that my own rule. I also wish the octopus was included and not a separate purchase. Anyway still a fun game!We're a family that likes games such as Uno, Sushi Go, Love Letters and Exploding Kittens. Unfortunately, I don't think that Shady Pets will be making it to our favorite games shelf. The kids (12 and 8) quickly got bored and the rules of the game are not very straight forward. It's a lot of cards to hold at one time when you count the pet cards and the action cards. And to mark the pets on the little grid without anyone else seeing? Nearly impossible while holding all of these cards! We also bought the octopus, which is cute but only a gimmick that wears off after the first game. We did without for the 2nd game.I really wanted to like this game but unfortunately it missed the mark. Maybe there is some strategic game play that I am missing. Hoping that we are just not playing the game correctly.Santa brought this on Christmas day as a family gift and we haven't put it away since!! So much fun!This game is a mix between the old school classic, Clue, and the newly popular Exploding Kittens (or Unstable Unicorns). Although our family did enjoy this our first night playing, it definitely has it's weaknesses.1. Like all of these new "card only" games, this one will get repetitive real fast. There are 10 action cards that get recycled over and over as you exhaust the deck. They have a few super powerful cards, such as peeking at what a shady pet might be, and of course those super annoying "nope" (if you play exploding kittens), or "neigh" (if you play unstable unicorns) cards. This doesn't leave much strategy, but more of people continuously stopping any attempts a player makes to use actions cards. This can be frustrating. -1 star for repetitiveness2. The use of consumable items. The box comes with small notepads to keep track of what pets you have identified. Once this pad is exhausted (51 pieces), you'll have to start making your own charts. At this price, some erasable boards and pens would have been much nicer. -1 star for lack of use after 51 turns3. The value is just not there. Imagine going to your local "dollar" store and paying 20-30 times the price for a pack of playing cards. This is essentially what we are doing when we purchase these card games. At this price, a game board (or even a game mat like Bears VS Babies) , reusable pads (as mentioned above), or the octopus plush they advertise on the box should be included. As is, I'd say this game is worth between $12 - $15. -1 star for value.If you want a game that plays like Exploding Kittens or Unstable Unicorns, but has that guessing aspect like Clue, try this out. Just realize you won't be getting too much for your money, and you might have to play it intermittently so that it doesn't get too repetitive.My kids are aged 15-8 and we all loved playing it. **fair warning: one of the cards has a naked turtle bum and another says “wild a&@” with a picture of a donkey** other than that It’s similar to clue but with cards only and have some action cards in there similar to exploding kittens or unstable unicorns. The score cards are a little bit small, but the company’s website offers a PDF file you can download to print your own when you run out so that’s a great option. Overall very happy with the game!I was rather disappointed when I didn’t receive the octopus.... the game was supposed to include it!We are missing 2 of the pet cards... we can play without, but it makes it easier to guess. Especially because they are for the same pet type. A little more attention to detail when packing the game would have been nice.I gave it to my son at a Kid's Christmas party. Its kind of hard to explain how the elfs messed it up.Bought this based on good reviews and that it said that it was a bit like a mix of Clue and Uno...both great games. Unfortunately we didn’t find it to be fun at all. Also, there is no board or pieces, it’s just cards, so $30 is quite steep for what you get. Probably will never reach for this game again.
