Hatchimals EGGventure Game
Overall Rating: 8/10
Age: 5+
GLAM Age Range: 4-7
Number of Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 20 min
Publisher: Spin Master
Complexity: Low
Available At: Amazon.com
Quick Take: Every 5 year old girl I know loves this game, it's my new go to birthday present for this age. As a memory matching game I would give it an 8/10, for a child obsessed with Hatchimals and for the opportunity to give them an item with a little more purpose than just being a cute little animal with sparkly wings I give this 20/10. There is a bit of strategy involved and I enjoy playing this with my daughter, which is good, because we play it on repeat. You can easily play with ages younger than 5 if they get a little assistance. The game comes with four little hatchimal figures, including one that you have to hatch out of an egg because some genius figured out that kids live for mysteries and surprises and cute mini figures. They're the same as all the other mini hatchimals out there so you can play with them independently from the game which is a nice little bonus.
How to Play: Your goal is to be the first player to match all five cards in your hand to tiles on the board. You start your hatchimal at the cloud on the top of the board and take turns rolling a pink die on your turn. There are a total of six different spaces you can land on, which is more variety than most of these types of games have, but everything is simple and easy to remember. When you land on a nest space you may draw one of the tokens of that type in the middle of the board. If it matches yours, you keep it, if not, put it back and try again the next time you get an opportunity. There's a reasonable mix of memory as you try to remember which token is what and some strategy as you decide which nest to fly to if you land on a wing space or which token to uncover if you land on one of the eggshell "wild" spots that allow you to uncover any token that you like. It may take multiple trips around the board to collect the five tokens that match your cards. Where you are on the board doesn't matter, you just play until someone has matched all five of their cards to tokens from the board.
Variations: It is way easier to win this game if you have to match cards on the first half of the game board. You can either deal out the cards to match randomly or pick them out strategically if you want a more equitable or easy game.
Similar Games To Check Out: Dinosaur Escape, Disney Princess Enchanted Cupcake Party, Hisss