Hocus Pocus is probably the hardest cooperative game we’ve ever played. In fact, the only times we’ve won, it’s because we cheated! (We just had to get that endorphin rush from winning, you know what I mean?) However, if you like the movie, I definitely recommend the game.

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The box for Hocus Pocus is so cute; it looks like a book. However, the downside is that it can’t actually be securely closed, as the top is just a flap (like the top cover of a book). The board is quite small; this is one game you don’t need to worry about if your table is big enough. I assure you, it is. Up to six players can play, too!

The game is simple enough. Get the five cards in the center to match either in color or ingredient, or have all five colors of one ingredient. When you’re able to accomplish this, one of the witches is stunned, move the sun token one space toward sunrise, and the round is immediately over (start a new round). You win when the sun rises.

However, the only talking allowed is at the very beginning of your turn. You can ask one question about who has an ingredient, and everyone else answers whether or not they have it, but cannot offer any more information. You’re not allowed to speak otherwise. If, however, you play a card with Binx on it, move the Binx token to any player. They put their hand on the table, face-up, and play that way until Binx is moved.

Get all five cards of the same color and Sarah is stunned.

Cheating by allowing communication and always playing with all cards showing made it easier to win. Even easier was when we removed the spells Take Flight and Green Lightning from play. Take Flight removes the stun token from play, while Green Lightning has you discarding the top five cards from the ingredient deck.

Get all five colors represented with the same ingredient to stun Winifred.

If you run out of cards in the ingredient deck and need to draw another, you lose. This is why Green Lightning is such a powerful spell. Almost just as bad is Winifred’s other spell, Dance Until You Die, in which you discard the top ingredient from each pile, unless it shows Binx. So that could also have you discarding as many as five cards, but perhaps less.

Match the ingredients to stun Mary.

When you manage to stun one of the witches, the round is over. Collect all the cards from the discard pile and the ingredient piles, and separate out any that show either the spell book or Binx. The cards with the spell book or Binx are shuffled back into the draw pile, while the rest of the cards are removed from play. This means you have fewer and fewer cards to work with each round!

All of the ingredient cards. You have two of each card, five colors and five ingredients for a total of 50 cards in the ingredient deck.

When you play an ingredient that shows the spell book, you have to draw a spell. If the witch who casts it is stunned, you ignore the spell and don’t draw another. Otherwise, do what the spell says then discard it. Of course, if the spell deck runs out, just reshuffle the discard pile to create a new spell deck. (It’s always frustrating when the bad guys don’t have to run out of things, but the good guys do!)

If you are looking for a truly challenging cooperative game, and especially if you need a bit of extra silence in your life, Hocus Pocus could be just the thing for you. A bonus for me is that it’s not timed, so I can take as long to deliberate as I need. However, while winning the game is possible, we have to cheat to win. I still love it, though, and can’t wait to play it again!