In Haunted Castle Ravensburger have again produced a simple yet fun game for young children. In this game each player is given a master card, which depicts all 8 illustrations used in the game. To begin play the deck of 36 spook cards are shuffled and then 1 card is turned face up. Each card only has 7 of the 8 pictures found in the game - 1 is missing. The players are then in a race to identify which illustration is missing from the spook card and say its name out loud before the other players do. The first person to do so wins the card and play continues until 1 player has won a certain number of cards.

Haunted Castle is a simple game, but a winner for a number of reasons. Firstly the theme is very engaging for young children. The illustrations include ghosts, knights in armour, Halloween pumpkins, witches on broomsticks, a cat, a bat and an owl. The illustrations are also very vibrant making the game attractive and eye-catching. The second reason why it works is that the game really is a simple affair for the age level and I suggest that 3 and 4 year olds could play without any problem provided they had the speech skills and were told the names of the pictures. Haunted Castle is a useful resource to help children understand the importance of scanning as a skill and strategies can be quickly developed to narrow the required search time. Parents can even discuss with their children how they go about playing the game and may be quite amazed at the thinking children undertake. Having children verbalise there thinking is also a great way to help develop children's reasoning skills. The ability to reduce or increase the cards required for victory also allows parents to modify the length of play.