Busters Bones - the most terrifying game EVER

January 06, 2016

Busters Bones - the most terrifying game EVER

It's not often I find myself screaming, but this Christmas I did quite a lot of screaming. The first two screams I did were unrelated to this blog post* and did not involve a plastic dog. But the rest of the screaming was directly the result of playing the popular children's game Buster's Bones.

I love family games. I like nothing more than us huddled around a game squealing with excitement. I like it because neither me or my husband are that competitive, so it's actually fun. Girly-pants loves it when she wins and it beats cleaning up after mammoth crafting sessions. So this Christmas Santa brought us lots of games.

Pig Pop is brilliant - you feed the pig hamburgers and his shirt busts open. It's good for number recognition and packs up nice and tidy. The fishing game is amazing. It's not as easy as you think and good for hand/eye coordination. Gooey Louie - disgusting but good fun. Pick his bogies and his brain pops out. But Busters Bones...

Buster is an angry dog, he sleeps and you have to pinch his bones using some tongs. If you wake him up he attacks you and you lose. He attacks you! He gets up and his mouth opens and he has massive teeth. While no contact is actually made, it is very scream-worthy. Even my cool eleven-year-old-make-up-wearing-niece flinched. My little girly and me screamed blue murder. It was fun though. But when I ask girly to play Busters Bones now, she says "no dank you". And pig pop comes out.

The other day I heard her shouting for me in terror. It was a scream no mother wants to hear, and it stopped me in my tracks and then had me running into her room imagining blood and guts. "AHHHHHH! MUMMY! He's ON mummy, HE'S ONNNNNNN!". She had picked up buster, turned the 'on' switch accidentally and he was barking at her with his teeth out. "Ahhhhhhhhh! MUMMY HE'S ON!" Terrifying.

I took photographs of Buster for this blog post, and jumped out of my skin twice when he 'attacked' me. He's a vicious little bugger, he really is. Honestly, you should get a buster and see for yourself. I would definitely recommend him for any parent who is reluctant to get their child a pet dog. One session with Buster and you'll be getting a goldfish in no time.

*The first two screams were my niece's fault. My brother and his girlfriend have just bought a house in Yorkshire which has a very big, very scary, very atmospheric cellar. All the Christmas booze was stored down in the cellar and it was my job to go down there to get the bottles (we did a lot of boozing, so I was down there quite a lot). I have a big imagination, that's all I'm saying, so when my niece hid down there and jumped out on me TWICE I nearly had a stroke. While everyone was laughing at my blood curdling scream, I was wondering why my legs had taken me half way up the staircase and why my heart was now relocated on my throat. While I was hyperventilating, Mr Husband said casually "you're very jumpy", and yes I am bloody jumpy. And so would he would be if the undead spirits he was imagining jumping out on him, actually did jump out on him! Later on there was an incident with an extremely loud bang, an open window and the baby monitor, but by then I was acclimatised to the undead, and when you have to explain what's happened three times to your in-denial-she-needs-a-hearing-aid mother it's all a bit passé.