Jurassic Park DANGER is a new strategy board game from Ravensburger, just in time for the release of the new Jurassic World II movie on DVD! We’ve all enjoyed the Jurassic World movies in our family, so the boys were really excited to give this game a try.
The game is more complex than some of our other board games, so provides more of a challenge and allows you to get more strategic. The game is recommended for ages 10+ as it is more challenging than some of Ravensburger’s other games, but as our boys are all big fans of the movies, all three boys (ages 10, 8 and 7) wanted to play and all of them have managed the game well with an adult playing alongside.
The concept of the game is that one player plays as the dinosaurs, and the other plays each play as one of the human characters. The humans then work together to help as many of them as possible escape from the dinosaurs onto the helicopter and away to safety.
The game comes with a board that’s made up of a few puzzle-like pieces to create Isla Nubla. Within the island, you will find the control centre, visitor centre, maintenance shed and helicopter pad. You also see a varied terrain with cliffs that need to be climbed over, and electric fences which can be activated once a human player visits the maintenance shed.
Each human player chooses a different character to be, and each one has their own slightly different objective which they need to fulfil in order to get (or keep) their character token, which they must have before they’re able to escape.
During the game, if your character has already escaped, or been eliminated by a dinosaur, you are allowed to choose another character to play as so you will still be in play continuing with the game.
As for the dinosaur player, they control all three of the carnivores – TREX, Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor, which the ability to move all three during one turn, depending on their cards and strategy. Each dinosaur has one “special move” that can be used in addition to their card moves, which can help to give the dinosaur player an advantage.
Both dinosaurs and humans can move around the board by running, climbing and sneaking, and sometimes need to roll a particular number or higher, to be allowed to perform a certain move on their card.
Before you start, you will need to read the instructions quite thoroughly and it seems a bit complicated but we found that once you get going it doesn’t take long at all to get the hang of the moves and the turns, and the game was soon flowing well. There is an instruction video here which can help if needed.
In our first game, our youngest player wanted to be the dinosaur as he is the biggest dinosaur lover in the family. Unluckily for him, we just about managed to get three players to the helipad before he managed to eliminate them – so the human players won! It will be really interesting to see how the games plays out once we play it more times to hone our strategies, and with different family members taking on the role of the dinosaur. This game would be fun for adult board game players to play without kids too, as it does have enough strategy involved to keep it exciting. Each game takes around 50-60 minutes to play.
Overall it’s a great board game. We will definitely play again and again, and I would recommend it to any family with older children looking for more strategic and complex board games, especially if you are fans of the movies. Jurassic Park Danger! is available from shops including Amazon for around £25
See the Ravensburger site for more info.
We were sent the game in order to review.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.