3 October 2017

Review: Orchard Toys Games Compendium


Being an Official Toy Tester for Orchard Toys means the kids and I get to try out all sorts of brilliant games which is amazing. The best bit is that I then get to tell all my lovely readers about these games so you can make up your mind before you buy. The fab thing about Orchard Toys is that they always have an excellent educational quality about them so no matter how much fun the kids are having they're always learning.


So for this month's Orchard Toy review I have the fantastic Games Compendium box which has four fun games based on Orchard Toys favourites. You've got Jungle Snakes & Ladders, Monster Dominoes, Old MacDonald Game and Red Dog Colour Game. This box full of fun games is aged at 3-6 years and can have between 2-4 players per game. Because I have a 7 year old and an almost 3 year old Games Compendium suited us perfectly. Plenty of games for the 7 year old to play but still enough games for the almost 3 year old to get involved in.


To start with I thought I'd play a few games with Harlow when her brother was at school to give her a chance to get a feel for everything and so her big brother didn't take over. Her favourite had to be the Red Dog Colour Game. It's a matching colour game and was very easy for Harlow to understand. She's still getting to grips with her colours so this was amazing for helping her to identify them. Learning through a game is much more fun than Mummy spouting colour names at you. Anyway so this game is a match the colours game and it's the first player to cover all the coloured spots on their board that wins. You get four different boards; a blue rabbit, green teddy bear, yellow teddy bear and red dog. Each board has coloured spots on it and there's 24 coloured discs and 1 colour spot dice that comes with it. To play you choose a board each and spread out the coloured discs colour side up in front of you. Youngest player goes first and rolls the colour spot dice. Whatever colour it lands on the player looks for that coloured disc to then cover a spot on their board. This basically continues until someone's board is all covered. Pretty easy.


Next up is Monster Dominoes. Another fab and easy game to play but still tons of fun. Logan really enjoyed this game and we've played it several times now. Might even take it away with us when we go on holiday soon. You get 28 domino cards all with different colours and monsters on them. To play you shuffle the cards and deal each player 7 cards, placing the remaining cards in a pile face down on the table. The youngest player goes first putting a domino down then the next player has to match a monster to it. If you're unable to match then you take a domino from the pile. Game play goes on like this until nobody can match any of their dominoes or if one player has played all their dominoes and wins.


Jungle Snakes & Ladders is pretty self explanatory but is still a fabulous all time classic game. I remember playing it as a kid and getting so frustrated when I landed on a snake! Ah memories. There's 1 playing board, 4 playing pieces and 1 number spot dice with this game. Youngest player goes first as always, they need to get an advantage after all, and the winner of the game is the first person to reach the monkey finish space.


Last but not least we have the Old MacDonald Game. It's a brilliant game if your child likes animals like my daughter. She couldn't wait to have this all set up to give it a go. You get 1 jigged playing board, 24 coloured discs, 4 playing pieces and 1 colour spot dice for this game. It's worth noting that the coloured discs from the Red Dog Colour Game are used for this game too and they have animals on the back. Luckily it means you won't have tons of tiny pieces in the one box. Anyway, the object of the game is to be the player with the most animals at the end. To play shuffle and spread out the coloured discs colour side up in the middle of the table. Each player has to choose a playing piece and put it on the start space. The youngest again goes first. You roll the colour spot dice and move to the first space along the path that matches the colour shown on the dice. The player then chooses a disc of matching colour from the table and without looking at the animal on the other side, places it in front of them. Play continues like this for a while but if you land on a coloured space with a gate on it some of your animals escape and that player has to return one of their coloured discs to the table without looking what animal is on it. Play continues until one player reaches the end space. This signifies the end of the game and a green must be rolled to finish. Once the game has ended each player can turn over their coloured discs to see how many animals they have. The winner is the one with the most animals.


As you'll agree Games Compendium is a box crammed full of 4 very exciting and very enjoyable games. Orchard Toys have really made a brilliant fun box. I love that each game teaches number counting, colour recognition, shape recognition, memory skills and matching skills. It really is a perfect box of games and at £15.95 it's a perfect price as well. I'll definitely be recommending to friends and family as a fab birthday/Christmas gift for kids as price point, quality and learning factor are ace!

I was sent the Game Compendium box in return for an honest review. 

1 comments on "Review: Orchard Toys Games Compendium"

Hina said...

Great!

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