Review of Games

Recently I had the opportunity to review some games by Peaceable Kingdom provided to me for free (by Tryazon) in exchange for my reviews. So....here they are:

My thoughts on Peaceable Kingdom as a company: Generally speaking, I really like their games. Their games are all players verses the game in a cooperative fashion. It's neat to get to work together to find solutions to the game's "problem." It is a little "special snowflake, can't hurt people's feelings, no losers, participation trophy." However, I personally don't think that is always a bad thing. Talking and communicating is a good thing and I enjoy talking to my kids about strategy and why certain moves are better than others. There are times to play games where the is a winner, but there are also times to work together. Peaceable Kingdom games are a time to work together.

HOOT OWL HOOT:

General game play: Get the owl pieces back to the nest before the sun comes up. Achieve this by moving the owls to the next colored space on the board that matches the color on the card played. If you have a sun card, you have to play it, and that moves the sun closer to the sunrise.

What I Love:
*My kids LOVE the game
*It's not boring for me
*Difference difficultly levels of play
*Adorable graphics

What I didn't like:
*Nothing


RACE TO THE TREASURE:

General Game Play: Take turn picking a card. If the card is a pathway piece, add it to the board to help build your path to the keys and on to the treasure. If the card is a gnome piece, the gnome is one step closer to getting to the treasure first.

What I Love:
*Super cute graphics
*Visual Spatial map planning skills
*It's not boring for me
*My daughters think the bad guy Gnome is funny.

What I didn't like:
*Nothing


SUNNY AND STORMY DAY:

General Game Play: Read a book about Max and the sunny and stormy moments in his day. Then play a memory game where you match sunny and stormy moments from the book. There is also a baggie with chips to draw out to talk about your own sunny and stormy moments from your own day.

What I Love:
*The concept of sunny and stormy moments is really neat. It's great social awareness for children and I like that the word "moments" is used because it emphasizes the temporariness of the stormy things that happen.

What I didn't like:
*The memory game was not very original (even though there is a cooperative learning aspect to it of avoiding the cloud pieces as a group)
*The whole thing seemed forced as a game. Would have been better as just a book with a page at the end of how to utilize the skills from the book in everyday life.
*Overpriced for basically being a book.