As well as the On the Farm Jigsaw, for this week’s Playfest we have been trying out “Animal Safari“- a new game from Orchard Toys.
This game is recommended for age 5+ so it is one for either Mum or Dada to play with our oldest boy while the younger ones are sleeping or busy! It’s a maths based board game where the aim is to collect the most animals and then return to the camp. It involves moving around the board and either gaining animals by landing on the “look out” spaces or by rolling binoculars on the dice and getting the chance to take an animal from another player.
This really was a big hit with our 4 and a half year old, and it has already been played many many times since it arrived earlier in the week! Me and the boys’ dad quite enjoyed playing this. It’s good family fun and although it is an educational game it does have an entertainment side to it, rather than being just pure maths.
As with all the Orchard Toys items that we have had, it’s very well made and good quality. The small detail that I liked is that all the animals cards are slightly different. If two people pick up an elephant card it may be that one has the adult elephant, and the other has a card with 2 baby elephants, or they will have an elephant in a different position. This didn’t escape my little boys notice either and he enjoyed looking at the details, spotting “rare” cards which he hadn’t collected before, and carefully choosing his favourites. (The meerkats and the lions seemed to go down well with him.)
We really liked the game, and it will be nice when the younger boys are able to join in too as there is room for up to 4 players!
Have a look at the video below to see the game in action, and come along to Playfest at 8.30 on Tuesday on Twitter or Thursday on Facebook to see the other Orchard Toys games which we all have been trying out this week.