Needing some fun outdoor toys to take to the beach last weekend, we browsed our local beach shop looking for a few cheap buys we could take. One such purchase was the Mookie Catcherball game which is a fun slant on our family favourite of catch and throw. I had played this game as a child and thoroughly enjoyed it then, therefore I decided it was time for me to own my own set.

**The Game**

This game consists of two catchers (or pads as I like to call them) which are about the same size as a dinner plate and a ball that is the same size as a tennis ball. The pads have a handle on the back of them enabling them to be held and manoeuvred easily. Both the pads and ball are coated with velcro enabling them to stick together when caught. As we know, velcro is made of two surfaces, a soft and fuzzy surface and a hard and abrasive surface and the pads are the latter of the two enabling the ball to be gentle to your hands. This game is very brightly coloured with the ball and pads being a bright pink and green combination meaning that it won't get lost outdoors by blending into the background.

**Rules**

This game can only be played between two players and is very simple to play, thus appealing to a large audience in my opinion. You are quite simply required to throw the ball at your opponent who should then aim to catch the ball with his/ her pad. The difficulty of this game can be varied by how hard you throw the ball or how far, and I always find it fun to throw the ball quite far and watch my opponent duck and dive on the sand to try and catch it.

**Price and Availability**

This game can be bought from a number of toy stores and you can expect to pay around £3 - £5 for it, however it can also be bought from online retailers such as Amazon for a similar price. We paid £3.99 for our game which I consider a bargain given the amount of fun we have had with it.

**My Opinion**

This has in our household been a great game which has provided lots of fun at the beach. We love varying the type of throw and catch we play, and any male players will usually try and throw the ball as hard as they can at their opponent. However, in my experience the velcro cannot withstand a really hard throw as this makes it bounce off the pads. This game has been popular with the children in our family and they take easily to throwing and catching the ball whilst it can also be played with the older members as it does not necessarily require a lot of movement to throw and catch the ball. The pads and ball themselves are very durable in construction and with their pink and green colouring they are certainly hard to miss. In addition this game is easy to store and transport as you simply sandwich the ball between the two pads and carry.

I would recommend this game to anyone who simply wants to vary their outdoor games without spending a small fortune doing so.

This game scores an excellent five stars from me.

Thanks for reading! x

This review is also posted on Ciao under the same user name.