| Suitable for: | 3 and above |
| No. of Players: | 2 - 4 |
| Length of average gameplay | 20 minutes |
| Best features: | Co-operative element, strategic thinking, game aesthetics |
| Worst features: | Repetitive gameplay, possibility for alpha player to dominate |
| Price: | $$$ |
| Overall Rating: | 7 / 10 |
Are your kids always fighting? Can they never agree on the smallest thing? This cooperative board game by Peacable Kingdom aims to get players to work together to bring all the owls back to the nest. Leave no owl behind!
The publisher recommends this for age 4 and above, but as the main criteria to play this game is colour identification, I tried it out with younger children and they had no difficulties catching on.
To play this game, your child will need to:
- be able to identify colours
- possess the fine motor skills to move game pieces (the smallest sun card is about the size of a twenty cent coin)
- articulate their thoughts; and engage with others to decide the next move
The game illustrations are really cute, bright and colourful. As is the norm when playing with younger kids, allow them time to freely touch and discover the game elements - I gave the younger kids ample time to notice how the colours repeated across the game board, so that they wouldn’t be too distracted during gameplay.
The cards drawn by each player determine what colour their chosen owl can fly to, or if the sun inches closer to dawn. Anyone can move any owl; and everyone loses together if the sun rises before all owls return to the nest.
This game is scalable in difficulty (by adding more owls), but for it to truly be co-operative, parents will find themselves playing mediator most of the time and exercising patience. Our average gameplay was typically longer than the publisher’s estimated 15 minutes, as we tried to let our children be in charge, while engaging them to consider the various possibilities.
Less patient older siblings may try to dominate the game by ordering the younger players to do what they want, without explanation, which defeats the purpose. There’s a “hack” to the game; and once our daughter realised it, she would not accept any other possibilities (reasonably so, it was the fastest way to win). This created some tension when new, younger players joined us, so the longevity of this game was more limited than I would like.
Overall, our first few experiences with this game was really fun and enjoyable, so I would still recommend it.