Fun Farm
Fun Farm
From: IELLO
Reviewed by: Stephanie McClung
Fun Farm is a new Family Board Game from IELLO.
Want a fun family game that challenges your quick reflexes and is super easy to learn and play? Then try out IELLO’s new game, Fun Farm! It is a fast-paced game of drawing cards, rolling dice, and trying to grab foam farm animals before your opponents. You may even find yourself oinking or neighing in the midst of the fun!
From the directions:
“The animals have escaped from the farm! You need to bring them back before they get into trouble – and you want to do so faster than your opponents so that you can save more than they can!”
The premise of Fun Farm is to compare color combinations on two dice with cards laying in the play area and then grab the corresponding foam animal. On each turn, the player (called the farmer) turns over a new card and adds it to the play area which is the inside of a circle made by randomly placing the foam animals in a circle. Each card shows one of the 6 foam animals in the middle and 2 dice symbols (in the top right corner and bottom left corner). Then the “farmer” rolls the 2 six-sided dice – a white die and a black die each having 1 of 6 different colored circles on each side (red, blue, green, pink, yellow, and black). All players (including the one rolling the dice) then compare the colors on the dice with the card(s) in the play area. If the color of either die matches one of two dice symbols on the card, then that card is activated. Players try to grab (capture) the foam animal(s) that matches any of the activated cards. Each player who correctly captures an animal collects the corresponding card(s) and places it in front of him/her. The foam animals are then replaced in the circle and play passes to the next farmer on the left. Cards that were did not match the dice and therefore were not collected stay in the play area. Play continues until all cards have been played. At that point, the player with the most cards wins the game.
Playing Fun Farm
Fun Farm was extremely easy to learn and play with my family. The game is recommended for players 6 years old and up, and this seems to be a good age to start. My 3-year-old could easily match the dice colors with the ones on the cards, but it took her much longer to find a matching card and then find the corresponding animal that matches the card. As a preschool teacher, ¬¬I can see how younger children could play the game, but to be competitive they would need to be playing against other younger children so they were all on the same level. I might try this game out with the 4-year-old children in my class because I think it covers some great skills. Color matching is fairly simple, but because the same colors are used on 2 different backgrounds (black and white), this game really challenges your visual discrimination skills. Even the adult players sometimes confused the colors and grabbed the wrong animal, which has a penalty of losing one of the cards you had previously collected and putting it back into the play area.
One of the great things about Fun Farm are the directions. The rules are short, fitting on one side of a half-sheet of paper (with a Spanish translation on the back), but are very complete. Even though this is a relatively simple game to play, there are some sticky situations that come up in the game. These situations are covered in the rules in a section called, “Clarifications About Capturing.” Kudos to the writers for great play-testing and covering these possible situations that need clarification in the rules. So many times I’ve played simple games and something comes up that isn’t stated in the rules, but that wasn’t the case in this game.
The one possible difficulty with Fun Farm is every player being able to see the cards, be within reach of the animals, and see the dice when they are rolled. Because players have to see quickly and respond quickly, it is very important that each player can see the dice as soon as they are rolled. The directions do tell you to roll the dice IN the circle of animals, we had to frequently remind the children of this because we found out that not being able to see the dice quickly and easily can be a big disadvantage. While playing with 4 people (though we had 5 people around the table), there were instances where it was hard to see one or both dice or hard to reach one of the animals (as the circle of animals had to get bigger a few times because of the number of cards within the circle). The game is made for 2 to 10 players, but I would imagine the table would be quite crowded with 10 players all close enough to see the cards and the dice and to reach all 6 of the foam animals.
From the website:
“In this fast-catching game, players compete to spot and catch the animal shown on the cards before all their opponents.”
In conclusion, Fun Farm is a great game for children, family, or even a group of adults wanting a quick and easy game that keeps you on your toes and challenges your mind and eyes. It is easy to learn and quick to play (average game is 15 minutes) so it holds the attention of even the younger players. The super cute and squishy foam animals are very appealing and would attract players old and young. The rules are very well-written and even address possible confusing or unclear situations. While it is easy to play, it still offers the challenge of visual discrimination and quick reflexes and seems to bring out the competitiveness of all involved. I would highly recommend this game to anyone wanting a quick, fun game that still challenges you and makes you want to win!
For more details on IELLO and their new Family Board Game “Fun Farm” check them out at their
website http://Http://www.iellogames.com/, and at all of your local game stores.
Codex Rating: 17
Product Summary
Fun Farm
From: IELLO
Type of Game: Family Board Game
By: Luca Bellini
Illustrations by: Erika Signini
Artwork by: Paola Vallerga – Scribabs
English Rules by: Mario Sacchi and W. Eric Martin
Game Components Included: 6 foam animals, 24 cards, 1 white die, 1 black die, rulebook
Retail Price: $29.99 (US)
Number of Players: 2 – 10
Player Ages: 6 and up
Play Time: 15 minutes
Item Number: 51117
Website: http://www.iellogames.com/
Reviewed by: Stephanie McClung
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
About the author
Stephanie McClung (Stephanie McClung)
Stephanie has always enjoyed games and is pretty competitive about them, whether it’s softball, scrabble, poker, or Risk. Marrying a gamer (Ron McClung) just gave her many more opportunities to play games (new and old). She also really enjoys playing games with her children and using games in her classroom. Stephanie is an editor for The Gamers Codex but also occasionally writes a review.
