When it comes to Christmas my boys Lists to Father Christmas mainly consist of new computer games and/or consoles. So I really like to help them balance it back out by adding in some things to encourage them to interact with people again. Board games (not that all of them have “boards”) are a great way to achieve this.
Disney’s Jake and the Never Land Pirates – Who Shook Hook?
We were sent this game in order to review it, to help people make choices in time for Christmas. My 4 year old just loves Disney’s Jake and the Never Land Pirates so we were excited to receive this game. We invited his new friend from school back to test it out. You see this is what is important about games, especially for my youngest, it’s the social interaction.
The game was easy/straightforward to set up (once I’d figured out how you get into the box!) which is a necessity when you have young children, or those with a short attention span. You slot in the trees, and attached the hammock over where the crocodile awaits. Next take the sleeping Captain Hook and place him carefully on the hammock. It does say how you can use different size bands to alter the difficulty level of the game, but I’m not sure if a very young child could do it alone. Then you have to balance the treasure next to him.
All the Disney magic was there – with bright colours and easily recognisable characters. The children can pick a playing piece from Jake, Izzy, Cubby, and the parrot Skully which they could place anywhere on the board. I think this is a great idea because young children do not like being told what to do too much, not having a definitive start I think really helps. Each player then spins the spinner: This was not attached to the board, and I could see that the benefit of this is that it could be easily passed around. However, as it was loose it made it quite difficult to spin. This will give a number that the player must move (good for counting skills) – then they will land on a space that specifies a colour of treasure to take (with any tool) or a particular tool (the sword, the fishing pole,the shovel or the leaf tweezers) to use (any colour).
The idea is to take a treasure without knocking Hook off (he is asleep and we are aiming to keep him that way). If he does fall then that player is out, and the winner is the one who has the most treasures. If the treasure falls but not Hook then the crocodile gets to keep it. The crocodile also gets one treasure if the broken bridge is spun from every player on a bridge space .If all the treasure is removed without waking Captain Hook the winner is the one with the most treasure.
My son was really keen to take Captain Hook and use him more like small World play, introducing him to his Jake’s pirate ship Bucky. I think he would have preferred it if all the pieces were 3d “toys” that he could have also taken off and played. My 6 year old had much more patience for the game. It is recommended for those ages 4 and up, and my 4 year old is developmentally a little delayed.
Available from Esdevium Games for 2-4 players RRP £19.99
Good for fine motor skills, strategic thinking and turn taking, playing together, co-operation (not fighting over the same character), counting, colour recognition, healthy competition.
I definitely think it is worth getting for any Jake fan – even if they do not have the patience for the game just yet they will love to play with Captain Hook.
We were gifted a copy of Disney’s Jake and the Never Land Pirates Who Shook Hook in order to do an honest review.