Clue Junior

How to Play Clue Junior

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Playing the Board Game Clue Junior

Clue Junior is a board game aimed at a younger demographic than the target audience for the game of Clue. The original game is intended for children of ages 8 and up; Clue Junior is aimed at children between the ages of 5 and 8. Parker Brothers has released multiple editions and variations of Clue Junior in order to cater to that market.

Clue Jr.: Case of the Missing Pet

One of the first editions of Clue Junior was called Clue Jr: Case of the Missing Pet, and it was originally released in 1989. The players take on the roles of missing detectives searching for a missing pet. The goal is to find out which pet is missing, where the missing pet is, who took the missing pet in the first place.

Unlike most board games targeting the younger demographic, Clue Jr.: Case of the Missing Pet did not have a strong random element. Like its predecessor, the game is mostly a logic puzzle and a process of elimination. The game includes a "mystery wheel" playing board that moved before each case started. A red magnifying glass enables players to read the clues on the mystery wheel.

The board also features seven "trap doors" which include more clues. The suspects and pets were as follows:

Suspects

• Georgie Green
• Mortimer Mustard
• Peter Plum
• Polly Peacock
• Samantha Scarlet
• Wendy White

Pets

• Bird
• Cat
• Dog
• Goldfish
• Monkey
• Turtle

Clue Jr.: Case of the Missing Pet Rules - Instructions for How to Play

Learning how to play Clue Jr. : Case of the Missing Pet isn't hard, especially if you're already familiar with the original game. This section isn't meant to replace the Clue Jr. instructions; it just provides an overview of the rules.

When the game starts, players use the mystery wheel to choose a suspect, a pet, and a location. Those are put under the trap door in the police station. Those cards represent the solution to the puzzle. Players then move around the board by rolling a die and following the instructions on the board. When a player has deduced all three elements of the mystery, she's won the game.

Clue Junior: Case of the Missing Cake and Clue Junior: The Case of the Missing Prizes

A newer edition of Clue Junior updates the game so that the players are searching for a missing cake instead of a missing pet. That edition is called Clue Junior: Case of the Missing Cake. Someone has stolen and eaten a piece of cake, and it's up to these junior sleuths to figure out who.

Another edition of Clue Junior has two different titles, but it looks like it's the same game with the same theme:

• Clue Junior: Carnival
• Clue Junior: The Case of the Missing Prizes

Clue Jr. Pirate Hunt

Clue Jr. Pirate Hunt is another edition of Clue Junior. The theme of the game is obvious from the title. The players take the roles of various characters like Sailor Scarlet and Navigator Plum, with the goal of figuring out where to find the hidden treasure chest with the pirate's treasure in it. (The game features the names of some real pirates, like Blackbeard and Black Bart, among others.) This edition was published by USAopoly.

Clue the Card Game

Clue the Card Game isn't marketed under the Clue Jr. moniker, but it's appropriate for younger players. The game plays quickly and is easily understood by kids as young as five or six years old. I played this with my daughters a few times, and they LOVED it.

Clue Junior Reviews

Reviews of the Clue Junior board games are mixed. Many parents report that their kids love to play Clue Junior, but the game isn't compelling enough to hold the interest of an adult. That's a bummer for parents who want to play games with young children.

On the other hand, Clue Junior is a heckuva lot more compelling than Candyland, for example, which is mind-numbingly boring and pointless.

Much of your decisions about which board games you play with your children are going to be extremely personal. My daughter likes to play chess, and she had a knack for it at a young age. I was never fond of chess, personally, but since she likes to play, I'm learning how to play. She's even joined the chess club at school.

You might give one of the Clue Junior editions a try, see how your kid likes it, and maybe even get them started on the actual Clue board game a little early. You never know what your kid can handle until you try. I know that my daughters were both smart enough to play the adult version of Clue when they were six years old, even though the box suggests eight years old as the youngest age at which they can handle the game.