Pusheen is a fat, comic kitty cat that has a somewhat large following online. I’ll admit to actually knowing nothing about Pusheen, but according to my 30-second Google search, Pusheen is “a cartoon cat who is the subject of comic strips, plush toys, vinyl figures, sticker sets, and more, on Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, iMessage, YouTube, and other social media platforms.”
There, you are now ready to play the Pusheen: The Stacking Game!, published by Alley Cat Games. To be fair, you actually don’t need to know anything about Pusheen to enjoy this dexterity game, well, except maybe how to stack stuff.
Gameplay Overview:
Pusheen: The Stacking Game is simple to learn. The game comes with 6 polynomial-shaped pieces (8 of each) and they are all dumped into a pile in the middle of the table. Then a card is flipped and players have to race to build the matching structure on the card. If they can be the first to build it exactly, then they claim the card as a point. The first player to win 3 cards is the stacking champion!
Game Experience:
Pusheen: The Stacking Game is a light game aimed at those looking for a quick-playing filler game. And on that front, it works well. The rules are easy to learn (draw a card, stack stuff), and the bits are quite cute. I was able to play with my 6-year-olds and they picked it up in seconds. However, I think my son enjoyed knocking over his structure more than building it. Boys, amirite?
But the art is cute, the gameplay is fun, and it works well as a filler game. If that were the end of the story, I’d recommend this as a cheap way to kill 10 minutes here and there. Unfortunately, there are a couple of issues with the game that may make the choice a little harder as the game suffers from a few production issues.
The first is that the cards show the pieces isometrically, which is great when you are looking at it from the correct side. But if someone is sitting on the other side of the table, they have to build their structure backward. If you have good spatial awareness, it’s not a problem. But for little ones or others, it can be challenging to have to mirror your actions.
The other issue is that the rules say the structure has to exactly match the card. However, the art on pink(ish) tall piece (I have no idea what the art actually is) is printed on the piece backward. So there is no way to get it to match the cards. In a game where the facing of your piece is important, this kind of breaks things. For us, we just let that one slide when we played, but it’s something that should have been caught before production.
Final Thoughts:
For a $15 price tag, Pusheen: The Stacking Game is a solid filler game where you are getting about what you expect. The rules are easy to learn, the art is super cute, and it plays quickly. If you can deal with potentially viewing the cards upside-down and misprinted art issues, then this is a solid addition for fans of the Pusheen comic. If you don’t really care about the cutesy cat art, then there are probably other games in the genre you might enjoy more.
Final Score: 2.5 Stars – A quick-playing and cute-looking stacking game with a couple of production issues.
Hits:
• Easy to learn
• Cute art
• Plays quickly
Misses:
• Printing error on one of the components
• Ideally need everyone sitting on the same side of the table
