If a detective series for kids were to premiere based on the board game, Outfoxed!, it could easily be called “CSI: Chicken Pot Pie”. This is a co-operative game published by Gamewright for 2-4 players that makes one feel like a detective squad solving pastry-related crimes. It was recommended by the Kinderspiel des Jahres in 2017 which immediately attracted my attention when looking for games to play with my then 3-year-old daughter. We have since (over the period of just over a year), played the game around 25-30 times, and she still finds it fun.
A Crime Most Delicious
The premise is simple, yet dramatic. Mrs. Plumpert has baked a pie… and then, tragedy strikes! A fox has stolen it. Not a crumb remains, nor does a note of apology. Your job as a group of chicken detectives is to track down the criminal mastermind before he or she escapes town. The last person to have eaten pie, is the first to go. A fun way to kick off play.
Outfoxed! gives you a lineup of 16 foxes on cards, each with different clothing items (e.g. monocles, top hats, scarves etc.) which distinguish them from each other. It is like a woodland fashion show of suspects. You spend the game ruling out foxes as the potential thief based on their accessories, which does add an element of hilarity to the game. If the fox manages to make his way across the board to the man-hole cover at the end of the track before his identity is revealed, then the players all lose.
What makes the game so accessible to pre-school children is the simplicity in the gameplay loop. Your action per turn is comprised of either revealing new suspects (2 at a time) or moving around the gameboard and gathering clues in different locations.
The Clue Decoder
The item that stands out head and shoulders in Outfoxed! is the clue decoder. The more clues that are obtained the easier it becomes to eliminate newly revealed suspects. It seems that the vulpine fiend is devilishly clumsy as he leaves clues lying around at different locations scattered throughout the countryside. You slide obtained clues into the device, and it reveals whether the actual thief is wearing a given item. I will never tire with the excitement that this action evokes in young children, and my daughter would always demand to be the “chief decoder”.
For kids, this is pure magic. For me as an adult, it is still weirdly satisfying. You will pretend you are in a crime lab. You will take it too seriously. You will accuse your family members of tampering with the evidence. During gameplay we would often make illogical deductions based on the card images portraying the suspects and make bets on which individual would turn out to be the ultimate culprit.
Clever as crumbs
Due to its co-operative nature, the only true enemy at the end of Outfoxed! is the pastry-thieving vulpid. This means that as players you all win or lose together, collectively blame the dice together, nobody cries about losing and everyone contributes to the outcome.
Underneath the cartoonish fox chaos, this game is sneakily educational. With the die rolling a mechanism common in many board games as well as spatial navigation and the importance of maximizing movement. My daughter started playing this game shortly before she turned 4, and within the first couple of games was already able to figure out, based on the decoder outcomes, which foxes to eliminate as suspects. And there is satisfaction to be had when the final suspect is eventually revealed to be the pot-pie burglar.
Short but sweet
A typical game of Outfoxed! lasts about 15-20 minutes, making it long enough to feel like a real game but also short enough to avoid losing interest. This means that one can also easily play multiple rounds, something which our daughter insisted that we did for at least the first few weeks of us owning this game.
The game does have a mechanic which allows one to increase its difficulty. At first, on easy difficulty, the fox is allowed to move 3 spaces for each failed dice roll. This can be increased to 4 or 5 spaces making it harder to win the game, something that almost never happens on easy difficulty. I let my daughter decide in her own time when she wanted to increase the difficulty level herself, as she is not a big fan of losing. It was a nice touch which does help to increase the replayability of the game itself.
If the fox is close to the hole, you are allowed to take a stab and then verify your prediction by pulling out the thief card in the contraption. If you have one suspect left, you should automatically win.
Final verdict
Ultimately, Outfoxed!is a children’s game and therefore needs to be judged as such. As an adult this game is way too easy. The dice rolls are also random which can lead to the fox escaping through no real fault of the detectives.
This is perfect for children between the ages of 4 and 7 and so I think the recommendation of the publisher (5+) is largely accurate. This makes the game ideal for families who want cooperative fun, especially those that love pies, hmmm.
The game is charming, silly and yet surprisingly clever. Is it deep? Not really. Is it hilarious, engaging and weirdly satisfying? Absolutely. In my books a must-have for parents of young children.
