Baby Toys

Fun Take on the Classic Game for Younger Children, January 6, 2010

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goonius (a room in a house on a street in a city just like any other.) – See all my reviews

  

= Durability:  = Fun:  = Educational: 

We put this in my 4 year old daughter’s stocking this year for Christmas, and we’ve gotten a great deal of play out of it since. It’s a great deal of fun to play because, with only minimal assistance and suggestions, my daughter can rely on luck, which puts the two of us on a level playing field. I don’t have to ‘dumb down’ my playing to give her a fighting chance, which makes it more fun for me too!

The game plays pretty much like the classic game of Yahtzee. There’s a pad of paper with a similar layout to the Yahtzee scoring system, only replaced with animals, and symbolic shapes to signify the ‘full house’ and other scoring combinations. We actually play without the second half of the sheet, only playing the top half of the sheet because it overwhelms my four year old. The scoring is a little different also, with the bottom half of the sheet being mostly lower-scoring combinations versus that being the big payday in original Yahtzee.

There are five dice with six animals; a puma, an elephant, a camel, a snake, a baboon, and a parrot. Each is color-coded for ease of recognition, and matching with the scoring sheet.

Even my not-quite two year old can get in on the fun with this one, which is nice because she so often gets excluded from games to a great extent. All of our card games are too old for her, Animal upon Animal requires too much skill, and Sochen Zochen is just beyond her capabilities. But with this one she can get her turn rolling the dice and feel like she’s a ‘part of the game’ even if she isn’t really aware of scoring or the actual gameplay. She really likes the baboons on the dice 🙂

The tin makes nice storage, and is used for rolling the dice in as well, and it does come with four small pencils, which seemed to mark up the dice terribly. They need their own separate bag, as the dice needed a really good cleaning first time we opened the game.

All told, this is a great game, in a perfect, durable small package (great for taking on vacation!), with playing possibilities for a large range of ages. I highly recommend it.

Also, if you are concerned with country of origin, the game and its pieces are made in Germany.

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Great little game, February 11, 2009

= Durability:  = Fun:  = Educational: 

Yes, this game is very small. All of the pieces fit inside the tin, which is used as the cup for the dice, which is a brilliant idea. My three girls 3,5, and 11 all enjoy this game. My younger two don’t understand the scoring aspect, but still enjoy this game; while my 11 year old is able to understand the scoring and pick the best use of her rolls. We are a gaming family, and play a game before bedtime every night. We play this game probably once every other week, it’s not an absolute favorite but still well liked. However, my youngest is fairly sensitive to sound, this game is pretty loud (shaking wooden dice in a tin can!) Otherwise, we would probably play it more often.

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Great for young kids, March 8, 2007

This is a fun game for pre-math children, but anyone of any age can enjoy it. Plays just like Yahtzee but with animals on the dice instead of numbers.

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