Game Review

Concept:

Race to be the first to be adorned with a princess' royal jewelry.

Gameplay:

Players choose a color, then spin to decide who plays first.

Pawns may be placed anywhere on the board to start. On each player's turn, they spin the spinner, and move their pawn the indicated number of spaces. 

As your pawn lands on each space, you may collect one item from the jewelry box that matches your color (bracelet, necklace, earring, or ring)  the princess crown, or the black ring.  If another player already has the black ring or princess crown, you take it from them instead.

There are a few spaces that ask you to return a piece of jewelry, too.

To win you must collect your own colored earrings (2), necklace, bracelet, and ring, and the crown -- AND you must NOT have the black ring.

Winning Conditions:

• Collect all of your colored jewelry & the crown -- but not the black ring.

Our Opinion:

A very important rule in designing games -- know your audience.  This game is for little girls who want to dress up like princesses.  To them, it is great. To anyone with older tastes in games, this is silly. 

We didn't go out of our way to buy this game -- my daughter received it for her third birthday. She loves it.  Even though she doesn't understand all of the rules to the game, she has a huge set of toy jewelry to enjoy.  She does understand the game enough to collect the pieces when she lands on each space, but she still struggles with the concept that having the black ring is bad.  Nonetheless, both the Baroness and I have now played this game dozens of times -- it succeeds in being a favorite game for my little girl. (Yes... I  actually dress up with the jewelry when we play -- half of the fun is having her race someone else to win.)

The game can either play extremely quickly, or take an incredibly long amount of time.  Relying upon the luck of the spinner is how the game is really won.  If you never land on a space that lets you pick up your last jewelry item, you cannot win.  On the other hand, sometimes the game is over before anyone can enjoy it (this can be a mercy for those of us who aren't fond of cross-dressing.)

In all, it's a fun game for little girls -- there isn't too much strategy to learn. And when the game is no longer the child's focus, you have a nice stash of costume jewelry.  Be warned, the earrings don't stay clasped for too long -- they're the easiest to lose. Buy it for your little princess-in-training, but be willing to play, too.

Where to buy:

Any local toy store -- Our copy was from a Target and cost about $10.