Have Fun with Magnets, UFOs, and Puzzles in Invasion of the Cow Snatchers

You fly your UFO to the farm and target the cows. Will you be able to capture them all and make off with them?

Invasion of the Cow Snatchers is a solo puzzle game in which each game presents you with a different setup for the farm. You must figure out which order to capture the cows in order to make it out and avoid all the obstacles.

Gameplay

The game comes with sixty different challenge cards in five different difficulty levels, from easy to genius. Each card shows the setup for the farm on one side, and the solution on the other. The farm is represented by a four by four grid in a green plastic tray. You place the four cows and the bull magnet on the squares indicated on the card, slide any wall pieces listed into the slots between the squares, and if the silo piece is used, place it on the indicated square. You then place a clear plastic cover over the tray and start the UFO magnet over the starting square as shown on the card.

Your goal is to go around and steal all the cows. When your UFO flies over a cow magnet, the cow will latch onto it through the plastic cover. After collecting all four cows, you must get the bull last of all and then slide the UFO over to the edge of the plastic cover and off (the cows will slide with you, attaching directly to the UFO).

When moving the UFO, you may move horizontally or vertically but never diagonally. You may not lift the UFO off of the cover, and may never fly over the silo. There are four different types of walls that the challenges can use. Some of the walls the UFO can only fly over if it is not carrying any cows, some it can fly over with only one cow, and others with only two or three cows.

In the genius level of difficulty, you also place crop circle tokens around the farm. Each challenge requires you to end the game with the cows stacked under your UFO in a specific order. In order to do this, you may drop off one or more cows at each crop circle by lifting up the UFO until the cow magnets detach, and you then return the UFO to an adjacent space. You will have to return and pick the cows back up again later in order to complete the challenge.

Review

Invasion of the Cow Snatchers is fun, bright, and colorful. The tray and plastic covering is a great set piece, the theme is a silly, good time, and works well with the mechanics. There’s almost a toy element in the components and gameplay, and the concept and rules are easy to learn.

The first four levels of difficulty are a little simple for adults, though there is still some fun to be had in winding your way around the board, snapping up cows. The genius level puzzles, however, are much trickier, with some of their solutions requiring sixty or more steps.

ThinkFun has released a number of these solo puzzle games, and there’s always a range of how exclusively a solo experience they really are. With Invasion of the Cow Snatchers, while only one player will be moving the UFO at a time, you spend much of the game studying the board and considering your moves before taking them, so multiple players could definitely put their heads together and work through each puzzle as a team.

Setup is quick and easy, with the walls slotting into place nicely and the setup instructions easy to read. The game is a bit noisy (particularly when the first magnet attaches), and you need to play on a flat surface, making it a little less travel friendly than some of the previous ThinkFun puzzles. There’s also nothing inside the box to keep the pieces from being shaken about.

Overall, Invasion of the Cow Snatchers is an enjoyable brain teaser that is very kid-friendly but also offers some challenging puzzles for adults at the highest difficulty level. Due to the simple setup, it’s easy to keep saying ‘just one more’ and find yourself still chasing those cose many challenge cards later. Plus, it uses magnets, which are just plain fun to play with.

Pros: Easy setup, genius-level puzzles are challenging, could be played as a team, magnets are enjoyable

Cons: Not travel friendly, most of the puzzles are on the easy side

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.