This game is for ages 4 and up for 2-4 players. We have been playing it at our house since my son was 3 and have played it with other 3 year olds, but please be careful as some of the pieces are small and can be swallowed by accident so always be there while playing games with young ones like this.
The game roughly takes about 15-20 minutes although we have had much shorter and longer games as well.
Game Play
Set up is simple, make a three by four grid with the wooden penguins and hide one coloured egg under each penguin. Set up the icebergs around them, one for each player. First person to get six penguins wins.
Playing is actually more complicated then it looks. On your turn you roll two dice with the colours on them. You state which colour you are going to find first, for example red, and then you lift a penguin to either find a red egg, in which case you can take that penguin and egg and place it on your iceberg. If you can't find the colour you claimed then you have to place the penguin back over the egg and leave it in the grid. For little children I let them look under any two penguins and they don't have to claim colours first as that can be harder for them. However by the age of 4.5 my son could easily understand and do this so we play it properly now.The other aspect of this game that I love is that you can steal penguins. If you can remember that someone has a blue penguin (see lower picture) on their iceberg and where it is you can choose to lift that penguin INSTEAD of lifting a penguin in the centre. This is occasionally hard for the youngest players as they think its snatching, but as they get older you can add this in and honestly in a four player game it is the only way to win as it is really hard to get six penguins without this game mechanic. I love this part of is as we have had some kids come over who aren't great at remembering the grid but they are very good at remembering what others have taken so basically it is an alternative way of winning for them!
Review
If you can't tell I really like this game, well I do. I like that is is a memory game with more mechanics involved then just matching and memory. I like that I am introducing the general game mechanic of messing with others in a game but hopefully, in a friendly way so that everyone understands that it is just a game. There are a lot of older games that we own where you can really mess with other players so I don't want my son sheltered from this and then surprised when later on he is affected by others.
Other things I love about this game - it is entirely wooden and all the pieces feel nice and sturdy. We have yet to break a nose off any penguins and that isn't for lack of trying. Some of the paint has rubbed off but I feel that is just normal wear. Sometimes my son just plays with the pieces in a winter penguin play sort of way and this is one of the only games where I am not worried that cards might get wrecked or ripped etc.
Where to find it
As always you can usually find it online but also I know our Friendly Local Games Store (FLGs) usually has it in stock as well. Alternatively you can buy it directly from the supplier here at Coiledspring Games. It retails for around £25 and considering the wooden pieces I think that is worth it, but definitely you can find it cheaper some places.
No comments:
Post a Comment