DISNEY PIXAR RATATOUILLE KITCHEN QUAKE GAME
From Mattel

It's a thrilling daredevil race around a wacky contraption made out of kitchen utensils. But don't let Chef Skinner spot you. He'll drop his cleaver and set off a wild and funny chain reaction that could knock you flying. Be the first to get your special ingredients into the soup and you win.
Amazon Sales Rank: #81866 in Toys & Games Brand: Mattel Model: L3322 Released on: 2007-04-16 Dimensions: 3.27" h x 15.75" w x 10.43" l, 3.22 pounds
Remy¿ Kitchen Quake Game. It's a thrilling daredevil race around a wacky contraption made out of kitchen utensils. But don't let Chef Skinner¿ spot you! He'll drop his cleaver and set off a wild and funny chain reaction that could knock you flying. Be the first to get your special ingredients into the soup and you win!
Mattel built a better Mousetrap This is a variant of the Mousetrap game (Mousetrap or mousetrap) with a Ratatouille movie theme -- and with the game portion modified to make it much more fun to play as a game than classic Mousetrap! While I've enjoyed the Rube Goldberg contraption aspect of Mousetrap since I was a kid, and my kids enjoy it too, we almost never bother to actually play the Mousetrap game -- we merely build the contraption and then trigger it. But with the Ratatouille game, the actual game play is fun as well. For Ratatouille, the contraption assembly is part of setup, so the game starts out with it already assembled and ready to be triggered (which as far as I'm concerned accords with the reality that that's how my kids always wanted to play with Mousetrap anyhow -- they want to start setting it off as soon as possible). So instead of constructing the contraption during the game, the Remy-the-rat pawn pieces are, at times, actually interacting with the contraption: two positions of the movement track are on top of the fly-apart-bread-loaf, and another two positions are on top of the yanked-by-the-spoon-napkin. Plus various other board positions are, by design, in danger of getting whacked by moving parts once the contraption is triggered -- which can happen at numerous times during the game. So when the contraption gets triggered, players' Remy pawns may get sent flying (and then have to move back to the nearest "penalty" space). Also, the Remy pawns actually carry each ingredient token collected -- the token fits between the upraised paws and rests on the head of the token. (This is a cute touch and getting the tokens in place didn't give my little girls any trouble.) And at the launching loop stage of the game, the player takes that same ingredient token from their Remy pawn and puts it into the final spoon from where (if all goes well) the contraption, once triggered, will fling it into the soup pot. Note: For those with extra large hands or limited manual dexterity, the way that the movement track snakes through, and even over and under, the contraption might be awkward to manage, as might putting the ingredient token into the Remy pawn's paws (though that could be skipped by those that wished). There's also a minor "memory game" aspect: players have to collect their two "ingredients" from any of four "plate" locations where the ingredients tokens are face-down -- if a player turns over an ingredient token that isn't his own, it gets replaced face-down in the same location, so players need to pay attention to what other players have turned over and replaced. Also, recall how the Mousetrap contraption would be cantankerous: sometimes working, sometimes not? Well, that's handled better, in my opinion, in Ratatouille: the frustration level is lowered, while still retaining a certain iffiness of effect. The Ratatouille contraption has fewer pieces, most of which are anchored in plastic anchors in the game board, so it's overall a bit more reliable. Then there are two trigger buttons to start it, one which works almost all the time (used for actual ingredient launching), and a second that intentionally only works sometimes (used when Chef Skinner squares are passed, or Chef Skinner tokens are turned up). I can't comment very meaningfully on durability, as we haven't had it long enough. But as with Mousetrap, you wouldn't want to lose or break a piece of the contraption. Also, I rather suspect that the upraised paws of the Remy pawns, used to hold the ingredient tokens, will sooner or later be a breakage point -- which will be a shame esthetically, but not interfere with playing. Mouse Trap for the Year 2007 Anybody out there remember the game Mouse Trap? This is showing my age just a bit, heck, it may even be available as an old school classic at Toys R Us. Anyway, in that game, your mouse raced around the game board amongst a crazy contraption which tried to "trap" your mouse. Ratatouille is basically a revamped version of that game, with the movie characters stepping up to the plate. You play as Remy, the main mouse in the movie. As you travel around the game board, you weave in and out of Chef Skinner's crazy kitchen set-up. Skinner is trying to take you down, and his kitchen trap includes a cleaver, a stack of plates with spinning knives, coffee cups, etc. Remy tries to collect 2 soup ingredients and have them tossed into the soup bowl. Whichever player is able to do this first is the winner. This is a cool game right out of the box, for the simple fact that it is easy to set-up...even though there are several pieces. The kids will love the cool kitchen traps, which seem well-built. Lots of eye catching colorful pieces and designs. My only complaint on this game is that because there are so many towering, connected kitchen pieces, the game board is far too cramped. It is tough, especially with excited children, too navigate the board without knocking pieces over or out of place. As the game goes on this aspect becomes more and more frustrating. Overall, this is a fun game that kids will enjoy, adults too. Only buy if you like seeing your kids giggle My 6 yr old and 11 yr old love this, the 3 year old likes to try and knock it over and ruin their fun, LOL. Its fun though, the kids loved the movie and love the game too.