We got this as a back to school gift via Amazon from a family member. It was brand spanking new and I had requested it. I'm just giving a little context because I feel like that is necessary. My kids are ages 10 and up and we are a big gamer family, we know how to respect our games and it's pieces. My 10 year old has an eye disorder which has made it difficult for her to read up until this point. I also homeschool and thought this would be a really good tool to add into our program at least 2 to 3 times a week. My middle kiddo, just got his braces off and has a retainer, and has the mumbles now. If you had a kid in heavy duty braces, or sometimes just a teenager LOL you know what I'm talking about. That information will come in later..
Let's get into why I removed the first star. I removed it for quality, with the price being what it is for this game, I expected a way better quality for materials. This is my opinion, but it seems like some of the images were not well thought out. For example the sneaky Snake card, is a purple snake on the same kind of purple card, it doesn't stand out. I know that seems small, but this is kind of an expensive game. The map is folded up to where if you unfold it there's four perfect squares which is fine you can either flip it over to skull Island or Crystal Island, however it's a little misleading because neither one of them make the game play any different. It's just whichever image you prefer. I like the fact that they use the back and front to create an option and that goes in their favor as most game developers leave one side blank. However I also feel like there was a lot of missed opportunities in this game as a whole. It is advertised for third grade and up, yet there is very little challenge involved, the words are definitely appropriate for the age groups listed, but this game would be better played by earlier readers with smaller attention spans. The game has potential to make it a little bit more challenging but it doesn't and it also didn't utilize its material I feel like in the best way possible. The directions do not even give alternative gameplay ideas and that to me is a missed opportunity. The cards themselves are flashcards with very pointless images and statements printed on them. As you cannot do anything with those resources. The sentences printed on them do not reiterate the flash card word, nor does it give any kind of good fact about what the item is. Some of them are just descriptive. A lot of missed opportunity for this game, I also really really truly feel that it should be revamped and targeted towards the younger kids. As I mentioned above. I tweaked the rules to wear my middle child has to read the sentence out loud, in order to retain the card. There is something in the rules about them making up sentences but I feel like imposing the role that I did allows my mumbling kiddo an opportunity to recite and work on enunciation and his fluency. They're definitely opportunities for you to tweak the game yourself, but I feel like you can do that with any games so it doesn't really make this one special. Overall, I would have loved this game more if it was a $10 game, the price is definitely not worth it, material wise and gameplay. I don't feel like it lives up to the hype. I would also like to add that I did look into the expansions thinking maybe something would be a little different at first glance it doesn't seem to do anything except for give a new word list and a different colored box. Based on the materials that are already have I see absolutely no point in buying a set for the price that they are asking.
