The Gruffalo 4 in 1 Game Box Review
Reviewed by Amy Adeliyi
My daughter absolutely loves The Gruffalo story by Julia Donaldson and knows it off by heart, so she was very excited to try out all of the games when the box arrived. The game was delivered via Yay Games and retails at £25. The box is nicely presented with pictures of The Gruffalo, the Fox, Owl, Snake and Mouse. The four games are suggested for 4 years and up, which was perfect for my 5-year-old daughter. You can play each game with between 2 and 4 players, although the ‘Oh help! Oh no! game was very competitive when my two older boys joined in.
The first game ‘The deep, dark wood’ was a version of dominoes using The Gruffalo and the scenery to match, and the first to use all their cards is the winner. My daughter found this easy to get the hang of and could match the pictures without help. Although the words from the story are printed on The Gruffalo images of the domino cards, you can easily match the images for those children not yet able to read.
The second game ‘What’s a Gruffalo’ needed The Gruffalo boards, tiles and cards. This was a mixture of games in one, using memory to remember which card was placed where and completing a jigsaw of The Gruffalo image on the board. You started by placing all The Gruffalo tiles face down and then took it in turns to pick a Gruffalo card. You then had to turn over one of your coloured tiles and hope that it matched the part of The Gruffalo on the card. If you found the correct tile you could place it on your Gruffalo board. The person to complete The Gruffalo board the fastest is the winner. It turns out my children have great memories and easily beat me at this game!
The third game ‘His eyes are orange…’ was a little more complicated for my daughter to grasp and may take a few goes to get the hang of it. The object of this game is to collect all 5 mouse tokens. You do this by collecting a set of three character cards and reading out the story in the correct order. You have sets to collect for each of the following characters – the fox, owl and snake. Again, I would suggest this was for an older child or doubled up with someone who can take on the reading part of the game.
My daughter particularly enjoyed the 4th game ‘Oh help!, Oh no!’ as she was quite good at launching her mouse token to land on the correct area of the scenery much better than mummy! The object of the game is to pick a Gruffalo card in turns and then throw your mouse token to land on the correct area of the scenery that matches The Gruffalo card.
My only criticism is the lack of organiser in the box, as there are no compartments to separate the different game elements when storing the games in the box. We have overcome this by using sandwich bags to separate each game set so that you don’t have to search through all the game pieces before playing the games.
As my daughter has only started to learn how to read, she does need help with some of the games as reading the words on the cards need a little more advanced reading. However, she had a good try at guessing from the pictures on the cards.
This was a great family game and will be fantastic to play over the festive period when family and friends come to visit. Its great learning game as you will hear the recall of the story throughout each game. Definitely a 5* review from us.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £25
Available to buy from Amazon here.
