Get your kids learning colors as they rescue penguins

Back when the boys were much younger and Princess wasn’t really playing games I’d scour the game aisles as Target and toy stores looking for games I could play with my kids.  I discovered very quickly that most toddler games were made for 2 players.  That just wouldn’t work for my family because I started off with 2 toddlers, and it wasn’t going to work to say, “I’m sorry Batman you play by yourself while I play with your brother.”  Within a year or so I had 3 young kids I was looking for good preschool games to play with everyone.

You know what?  Most games are made for 4 players.  We have 5 people in our family.  This means usually Princess teams up with someone else.  She doesn’t mind that too much, she likes playing that way.  But, I like games that have more than 4 players.

Playing Penguin Rescue

Enter Penguin Rescue (affiliate link), you’re trying to rescue 5 penguins.  We decided they were a family, from an egg, two kiddos, and a Mommy and Daddy.  The key thing here: there are 6 players.  That means we could have Aunt Tara over and she could play with the whole family!

The play is simple, so you can play it with young kids.  You roll two dice and different colors come up or a wild card.  Then you choose which color you move to.  Along the way, there are Krill cards that give you information about the Arctic that can change where you go.  We were all able to figure it out in less than 5 minutes.

The good news about this?  Princess loved this game.  She won, even in a severely sleep deprived state she won.

What do we like about Penguin Rescue?

• solid wooden pieces for the penguins
• thick cardboard pieces for the other ones
• not overly long gameplay
• if playing with 6 players there’s a bit more strategy involved
• if playing with 4 players there is less (this works perfect for just me and the kids, it’s easy to get your penguin)

What would I change about Penguin Rescue? Or What should you know?

• I wish your playing figures were wooden as well.  They’re thick cardboard, so not likely to break or bend, but not as nice as the penguins.
• cost $32.00.  I bought ours at their annual Christmas sale.  The game is solid enough to charge that much, but you want to make sure you’ll play a lot to pay that.  We probably will. Looks like it’s now out of print, I’ve now got it linked to Amazon, so it may show up.
• I declared during our play that we were going in a clockwise direction.  Rules don’t state clearly on that.  You could play without a stated direction, but that would make some of the Krill cards confusing.
• I also house-ruled that if the dice go on the game board you must reroll.  Otherwise, pieces were getting knocked all over.

Overall, we played the game yesterday, Thursday, and I’ve already had all 3 kids claim this is the game they’re going to pick for Friday Game Day.  So, that tells me it’s a big hit.

Oh, and they’ve not so subtly hinted I need to buy Bank It.  I was trying to watch for it to be on sale, but I think I’m going to have to break down and buy it…….