Pounce

Last week I had an entry on my visit to one of the city's Australian Geographic stores. On that occasion I bought a Flygun. I'd also noticed they had Pounce on a 50% off sale. Well, I just had to go back and buy it for AU$12.50.

The cat-shaped storage container

Pounce, produced by ParlorGamez in 2004, is a dexterity game for 2-7 players aged 5 to adult. It contains 1 Cat cup (which is the top part of the storage container), 6 mice, 2 dice and 1 storage lid.

Play starts with the mice being placed in a circle with noses touching. The cat is held a short distance above the mice by the first player. The cat player calls out two numbers and rolls the dice. If either of the numbers called is rolled, the mice players yank the tails of their mice and try to scatter before they are caught. The cat pounces on the circle of mice, when the dust clears, the mice that escaped are returned to play. Those caught are eliminated from play until there is a new cat. The cat continues to call numbers and pounce until there is only one mouse remaining. The quickest mouse becomes the cat and everyone returns to play.

The winner is the first player to be the cat a certain number of times. There are other versions of this game with slightly different rules and components. One version has the cat player using a small rubber bathroom plunger to try and capture the mice. I think that would be a little more table-friendly than the hard plastic cup used in this version. Pounce sure looks like a fun game to play with kids and adults.