My sister, brother-in-law and the children came to our house on Christmas Day 2011 for the first time since my eldest nephew was a baby! They arrived at our house late morning, in time for Christmas Dinner. My parents and I decided to keep some of the presents we bought for the children, at our house so we could give them some gifts on Christmas afternoon. Santa also left a sack of presents for everyone while we were having Christmas dinner and this Hello Kitty Memory game was one of the gifts my 6-year-old niece received from this sack.

Once all the presents were opened, Toni decided she would like to play this game, so my mam and I played it with her. We could see it was a pair's game so we launched straight in without reading the instructions. We spread out the 72 Hello Kitty cards, face down on the floor and Toni took her first turn.

~~ How to Play ~~

* Choose a number of pairs (start with a few and as you get more familiar with the pictures and the game you can increase the number of cards used)
* Place the chosen cards face down where all the players can see them
* The first player chooses two cards to turn over and see if they are a pair. All players must have time to see the cards. If the cards are not a pair then they are turned back face down (in the same place)
* Each player takes their turn, if a pair is found they can take another turn until the two cards they turn over do not match.
* The winner is the player with the most pairs at the end (the instructions suggest each player can pile their cards up and the winner is the person with the tallest pile. I think it's just as easy to count the pairs - and encourages your child to count. Depending on the age of the child you might need to help them, particularly if they count each card rather than each pair.)


~~ The Game ~~

The box comes with 72 square cards (36 pairs) with various, colourful Hello Kitty designs. The cards are approximately 2 inches square and are sturdy. There is a plastic tray inside the box with four compartments for keeping the cards in when you are not playing.

~~ Our Experience ~~

Toni was much better at remembering where the pairs were than my mam and I, and she quickly had a pile of matching pairs. The game was taking a long time, as there were three of us playing and we were turning over just two cards at a time. Toni decided we should just say she had won and pack up. I like to see things through to the end though and suggested that we continue playing but turn over 4 cards instead of 2. Toni agreed and we played like this for another 5 minutes. My 12-year-old nephew (Dominick) then decided he wanted to join in, so we continued to play turning 4 cards over. The game finally ended about 15 minutes later, after a total game play of over half an hour. I think this was too long for this particular game as it was getting boring when no one was getting pairs for several turns. However, the length of time it takes to play greatly depends on how good everyone's memory is and the number of pairs you decide play with.

Later that evening Toni and Dominick played Memory together, this time starting with fewer cards. They both enjoyed this and they managed to sit and play together for 10 minutes without arguing (makes a change!)

~~ My Opinion ~~

I quite like this game and Toni loves it. The instructions suggest that you don't play the first game with all 72 cards, so if we'd read them the first game would have been considerably shorter and more enjoyable. That said, I still enjoyed playing it, and I enjoyed seeing Toni's face when she remembered how to find a pair! (I must admit, I rather enjoyed finding the pairs myself! But I wasn't as good as Toni!)

The pictures on the cards, are colourful and show Hello Kitty in a number of different situations or with different coloured backgrounds e.g. dancing or in the garden etc.

The cards are a good size for turning over and most of the cards are different enough that it's easy to spot a pair (although my mam found this more difficult than Toni and me: she blamed it on her age!)

You could play variations on this game. For example, put a number of cards face up e.g. 4 or 6. Ask your child to look at them for a minute, ask them to close their eyes, take a card away and see if they can tell you the missing card.

~~ Advantages ~~

* Good for memory, concentration and attention
* Colourful and sturdy
* Cards are a good size
* Lots of different Hello Kitty pictures (which really appealed to my niece)

~~ Disadvantages ~~

* Game takes too long if you play with all of the cards
* Some of the cards are really 'busy' with colour and this may be distracting for younger children

~~ Other ~~

My mam paid £7.99 for this game on the high street. It is available online from £5.25 (currently on amazon) and is made by Ravensburger. It is suitable for 2-4 players and children aged 4 years and up.

~~ Overall ~~

I would recommend this game for Hello Kitty fans, as long as you are sensible about the number of cards you choose to play with and increase these with experience of the game (and familiarity of the pictures) rather than launching in and playing with all 72 cards straight away (like we did!)

Toni really likes this game, and as the principle is just pairs, even my nephew will play it with her, and it keeps them both entertained. Toni has asked us to play this game with her a number of times, and I think it's something she'll keep coming back to for a while yet.


Thanks for reading!