Tiny Park

Tiny Park

Tiny Park is another in my long list of lovely games by HABA. It is for 2-4 players and says ages 5 and up but definitely you can play this with a 4 year old and possibly even a 3 year old (though if you are playing with a 3 year old I would recommend the slightly easier dice games of either Space Planets or Petit Renard).  As always please play with your kids as there are small parts in games and part of the enjoyment of playing a game can be time with your kids!

Tiny Park is a gentle dice game where you try to fill your park the fastest with the tetris style block pieces and basic matching. 


Game Play

Game play, as with most HABA games, is very straightforward. On your turn you roll the five dice provided.  You are allowed to roll some or all of these dice a total of three times. Your end goal is to fill your park area (see boards below) with park tiles (see right hand image).  The images on the dice match those on the tiles.  If you get all your dice to match the images on any particular tile then you are allowed to take that tile.  You are only allowed to take one tile per turn.

For example, in the image on the right of all the tiles, the square tile has two circus tent squares and two octopus ride squares, so you would need (our of your 5 dice and 3 rolls) to get those four dice face up. Each time you roll your dice you decide if you want to "keep" any the way they are and either stop rolling and take a tile, or re-roll those that might help you get a tile you want.  If you initially rolled a circus tent then re-rolled it that wouldn't count.


The tiles are in stacks by size and each one in the stack is different so each turn is different as people select tiles. There are no rules about placing tiles (i.e. not like domino) but I think you could definitely add them in for more challenge for older kids/adults. 

First person to fill their park area without overfilling (as no tiles are allowed to overlap the edge of the park) wins.  See simple. Just dice rolling and decision making.


Game Review

I love the choices my child has to make in this game.  If he rolls the dice and he gets one image that he wants, but there is only one tile with that image, does he re-roll everything in the hopes of getting images that are more usefully spread across the tiles or does he go for the one tile he wants.  For example in the image above with all the tiles, does my son try to get one tile that has three candy machines or does he re-roll in an attempt to get circus tents as there are more tiles with circus tents on them so he is more likely to at least get A tile even if he can't get THE tile he wants.

We have been playing this game since we got it as a gift at Christmas and I really like the way my son's choices change as he has learned how to play.  He often goes for the tile he wants, but other times I can see him making choices and going for tiles that are easier to get, more available, or even allow a larger area of his park to be covered.  When he first played he would often go for the one square tile or the three square tile, now it is very different and he is making good choices.

As always I love the quality and art style in the game which is classic HABA and I enjoy the game at all the different player numbers. It is definitely harder to win at 4 players, but at least it is a dice game so it ends quickly.

As always you can try to find this online, through a HABA retailer (some ethical toy companies sell HABA games) or through your Friendly Local Game Store.  Happy Gaming!