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Players: 2-4 (ages 8+)
Playing Time: 10-15 minutes
Now that the weather’s warming up again, it’s time to head to the backyard or the neighborhood park and enjoy some outdoor games—like Boochie.
Loosely based on the classic Italian game, bocce, Boochie is a wacky family game that will have your whole family throwing, bowling, kicking, and spinning in the yard.
Before the game begins, each player selects a color and receives three color-coded items: a ball, a hoop, and a wrist tracker—which acts as both score-keeper and game guide. To start the game, one player tosses the 12-sided Boochie ball. Players then take turns tossing their balls and hoops at the Boochie ball. The players whose items land the closest and the second closest to the ball earn points at the end of the round. Players then tally their points on their wrist trackers and begin the next round. Play continues until one player reaches 11 points and wins the game.
But hold on—there’s a catch. With each turn of your wrist tracker, there are new rules. If, for instance, you’re using the red tracker and you have four points, you have toss your items at the Boochie ball while facing backwards. Or maybe you’ll have to toss while sitting on the ground…or with one hand touching the ground…or while spinning around. It’s an added little twist that makes the game more challenging—and a whole lot sillier.
Boochie is another one of those games that are easy to play—but not so easy to play well. Throwing the ball might be easy, but throwing the hoop definitely isn’t. You can try to aim all you want, but the hoop has a mind of its own. And when you throw in the added challenge of throwing a hoop from between your legs, well…it’s pretty much anybody’s game. And the more players you have, the harder it is to win—because you could easily end up stuck on the same challenge while everyone else earns points.
While some of the challenges are a bit frustrating (my husband still hasn’t figured out how he’s supposed to throw stuff while lying on his stomach), they do make the game interesting. And they’re sure to keep the kids giggling.
Although Boochie isn’t quite as much fun for grown-ups as some other outdoor games (my favorite is still Top Toss), kids will love it—and that’s what really matters. Boochie even comes with its own carrying case, which makes it a perfectly packable game that’s just the thing to bring on family camping trips.
