Halloween with Asmodee – The Ghosts of Castle Turnwall

My wife and I have found it fairly difficult to find kids games that can be somewhat fun for adults to play as well. While we both don’t expect to be overjoyed when it comes to a kids game, there is only so much Candy Land, Snakes and Ladders, and other such kids games that we can take, week in and week out. Luckily, kids games from other game developers have become better and better over the past few years, and The Ghosts of Castle Turnwall is one of those titles.

In Ghosts of Castle Turnwall, players will move their pawn using three actions on their turn to move their ghost around the castle looking for body parts. Each person needs to obtain a hat, face, body, legs, and a single arm. All of these body parts are extenuated by a funny, hilarious piece of clothing or accessory.

Once a player moves onto a space with a body part they need, they then pick one of 4 piles, search the pile for that item, and either place it in front of them if it is there, or return the pile to the table with nothing if it is not. On their turn, 4 actions are available to players:

1. Move their piece on spot adjacent to their start position. Ghosts can not move through walls.
2. Rotate the board 90 degrees.
3. Move one of the conveyors one click to the left or the right; and
4. Move a conveyor from one slot without a ghost to another slot without a ghost.

I guarantee you that a few of those movement rules makes aboslutely no sense, and that is because I’ve failed to share one key mechanic of this game. See, players are moving around a cardboard play area that sits on top of a plastic base. Inside the plastic base are 5 slots, and in 3 of those slots are long conveyors that have a number of ‘spots’ equal to the spaces on the board in that row. Some of the spots on these conveyors have magnets in them that will interact with the magnets on the bottom of the ghost pieces.

This means that from time to time, when you spin the board or move a conveyor, there is a chance your ghost pawn will move along with the board via the magnetic force. It is a really neat mechanic that is lots of fun for kids, and still interesting for parents.

Once a player has collected all 5 body pieces they need to finish their ghost, the game is over and that player instantly wins.

We really enjoyed our time playing The Ghosts of Castle Turnwall, and for good reason. It’s earily similar to another game our kids love, Labyrinth. While in that game you just push tiles in and out of rows, effectively moving the rows, the magnetic force in Ghosts is a unique feature we’ve never seen before in a game, and makes things VERY interesting turn to turn. Use your 3 turns in a bad way, and your character might not move at all!

Overall, if you are looking for a fun game to play with kids this Halloween, and anytime throughout the year really, we highly recommend The Ghosts of Castle Turnwall!