Review of Wonder Forge games – great holiday gifts for families!
Wonder Forge sent LouFamFun writers these games for review.
“Yo, ho! Let’s go!” If you and your family are familiar with
this phrase like our family, a game like Shipwreck Beach Treasure Hunt maybe the next game you will want to check out.
This game is based off of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Itis a fun and active game with new twists to the classic memory and hide and
seek games. The person with the most matched doubloons wins. The game starts by
hiding the ‘treasures’ around the house together so everyone knows. Then the
memory game starts by trying to match the doubloons. Once a doubloon is
matched, the person goes as fast as he can to the hidden treasure and brings it
back using the foam sword before the time runs out. Another twist to the game
is that some doubloons are secret and require using the spyglass. Viewing these
doubloons was a bit difficult. My 3 year old was not able to see the image,
but my 5 year old eventually was able to decipher the picture out.
players. It is sold at many retailers and Amazon: Jake & The Neverland Pirates Treasure Hunt Game
. The game is stored in a bag that is
also the game board so it makes an easy travel game for the upcoming holiday
season.
My family gave this game 2 thumbs up all around. What can be
more fun than hunting treasure and carrying it back with a foam sword as fast
as you can?
I received the Doc McStuffins All Better Game and Axis of Villains Strategy Game. Both of the games are really fun for different reasons. They are great additions to our family game collection.
From the mom perspective, I love that the Doc McStuffins Game comes with a little bag to seal up the pieces. It will really travel nicely with us to hotels, trips to grandparents or event to a restaurant. It doesn’t have too many pieces and it took about 1 minute to read the instructions and start playing. Very nice! Basically, you take turns spinning the spinner. If you land on a bandage, you place a bandage (slap bracelet) on some one’s wrist and on the back of that bandage there is a doctor’s tool that will fix the boo-boo. Everyone gets to see that. You keep spinning and have to remember what’s on the back of every one’s bandage because if you land on a doctor’s tool, you have to guess who is wearing the bandage that matches. If you guess correctly, you get a little game piece. The game ends when the game pieces are all used and the player with the most game pieces wins. My kids are 5 and 6 and both enjoyed playing this game and we played it 4 times in a row, perfect for preschoolers and early elementary school aged kids. It’s available at many retailers including Amazon: Doc McStuffins All Better Game
The Axis of Villains game was more complex and therefore recommended for slightly older children (8+) and can be found at Target. We played with our children, who are younger, so that we could help them. My 6 year old quickly caught on and I continued to assist my 5 year old. It is a game in which you work as a team (the Justice League) to defend their satellite from villains who are trying to destroy it. There are dice, cards, figures and many layers which leads to strategic decisions to work together and the players all win or they are all defeated by the villains. My son had to count and add a lot in this game, we liked that! Overall, it was a really fun game and we have played it multiple times. We are always pleased with Wonder Forge games.
Stephanie
My family recently got to play Wonder Forge’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Flying Attack (recommended for kids 5+) for family
game night. The game can be played two ways: either knock down Shredder’s foot soldiers or race to
the top of the tower. Since I have one beginning reader and one preschooler we opted for the simpler
version of the game. It took a long time to set the game up, so I recommend setting
it up ahead of time or there will be much whining from the anxious children. But once we got going, my boys really enjoyed
launching their players toward the tower in an attempt to knock off the most foot soldiers. I ended
up winning the game, just because the one time I was able to make contact I happened to knock off
five foot soldiers at once. This is a great game for non-readers because it is a fairly simple concept.
However, we prefer the simplicity of a board game you can just get out of the box and start playing. A plus for my rowdy, busy boys though is that the game is over fairly quickly and it’s
pretty easy to set it up for a second game. It is available at a lot of retailers including Amazon: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Flying Attack Board Game
By guest contributor:
Maggie
major Sophia fans so they were thrilled to have a tea party like Sophia. It was definitely more suited for my five
year old, but my three year old was able to play along with us. Despite a few things that didn’t work as
intended, it was a great game for the Sophia fans in our house.
inside) and a place setting for the tea party.
The goal of the game is to collect the most tea party treats for your
plate. There is a treat tray that
players select various very yummy looking treats (playing cards) from to
determine what to do during their turn.
There are three headmistress plates- blue, pink and green. If the card you select has blue, pink or
green on it you place the treat on the matching head mistresses plate. If the card you select has a tea cup you blow
on your tea cup (which spins the color wheel) and you are able to take any
treats from the headmistress plate that matches the color of your tea cup. If your treat card has a teapot then you are
to pour tea for everyone using the air puffer tea pot. The teapot air blast is supposed to spin the
color wheel in each player’s cup as you “pour” and then whatever color your
teacup lands on you are able to collect the treats on the headmistress plate
that matches. There are also a few “good
manner” cards that reward players for using good manners during the game.
taking, using good manners, and counting when you tally up your treats at the
end of the game. We did find that the
air puffer tea pot really did not work well and we ended just using our finger
to spin the color wheel in the cups when we had to pour tea. Also, one of the good manner cards had
Sophia’s picture on it (the only Sophia card on the tray). You are supposed to curtsy if you draw this
card. My girls caught on quickly as to
which card this was and fought over who would get it first. We ended up just pulling it from the game and
at the conclusion of the game we would play it as the last card and we did a
group curtsey- problem solved!
group curtsey. While it may not have worked perfectly, the concept is cute and got us together laughing and having fun- a
win in my book! It’s available at many major retailers.
