I’ve said in the past that Toy Story 3 + Anything = Awesome. This week, I put the Milton Bradley game, Buckaroo, to the test. To help me, I enlisted my trusty examiners, also known as my wife, my eight year old daughter and six year old son. On Sunday night, we pealed off the shrink wrap and started evaluating the game based on the fiercely loyal character, Bullseye.
Setup
The setup for Buckaroo is super easy. It took less than two minutes to assemble all of the pieces. My eight year old daughter could have easily assembled it if I wasn’t in such a rush to start the game.
Bullseye simply clips into a base and then stirrups and a saddle are added to his back. The instructions are very straight forward and easy to follow. It helps that the object of the game is simple too.
Game Play
The game has a Jenga feel, but you get eliminated if you mess up, you don’t end the game for everyone else. As with most games geared towards kids, the youngest person goes first. Each player takes a turn placing one of many Wild West type pieces onto Bullseye. The pieces include a cactus, sheriff badge, boot, cowboy hat, horse shoe, guitar, etc. If Bullseye bucks while it’s your turn, you’re out of the game. If you’re the last player standing, you win. If more than one player makes it to the end, the last player to successfully place a piece on Bullseye claims the bragging rights for that round.
There is also a setting that lets you adjust the sensitivity of Bullseye’s buck. We found that the lowest level was best for my six year old, but might have been a tad bit too easy for my eight. There are three total sensitivity levels.
How It Went Over
The game playing was exciting. You find that not only are you focusing on your turn, but on everyone else’s turn as well. There is suspense each time a player places a piece on Bullseye. Then when Bullseye bucks, everybody jumps. Sometimes it really catches you off guard and gives you a little scare.
It is also quite funny how each player places their chosen piece on Bullseye. There were a few times when it looked like a tornado had come and randomly placed all these pieces on Bullseye.
With the sensitivity setting set so low, I took a personal challenge to place the pieces in the most difficult and precarious situations. I wanted to make it a little harder for myself.
We all had a great time. We stopped playing only because it was dinner time. In fact, after dinner, my six year old son played a couple of rounds by himself. This will definitely bring a new option to the summer activities. It runs about $20 from amazon.com. It’s a simplistic and lovable game, just like the character. 
The author of this post was provided with a complimentary review copy of Buckaroo, but the opinions expressed are his own.
Anhtuan Doventry is a dorky dad to four of the greatest kids and a silly husband to the most wonderful wife. He lives in Kingwood, TX, and does IT management work for his day job. Otherwise, he spends his time reading, writing, and coaching as many sports as he can. He also spends a little bit of time researching and reading about tech items (although I think others in the family would argue that it’s a tad bit more than a “little bit of time”).
Anhtuan is excited about contributing to The Father Life. To find out more about Anhtuan, go to http://www.aquickremark.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/aquickremark.