Ravensburger Snails Pace Race - Children's Game
by Ravensburger
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Our Price: $13.25
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Category: Toy
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: RavensburgerBrand: Ravensburger
Release Date: 2007-05-29
Model: MN041-167
Product features:
- Players line up the colorful smooth wooden snails on their starting arrows and then predict which will come in first and last
- Improves color recognition, number conceptualizing, task completion, turn taking, and social skills playing
- Taking turns
- For 2 to 6 players
- For ages 4 to 8
Toys and Games Reviews of Ravensburger Snails Pace Race - Children's Game
Customer Review: Poor design; few alternatives; make your own instead!
Summary: 3 Stars
The game board is poorly designed. Considering that it's intended for 3 year olds, there are one or two confusing aspects to the board that should not have been. See last paragraph below to save a few bucks.
First of all, each colored snail should have its "track" marked in its own color, so that a 3 year-old can clearly see and understand that the piece stays in the same lane. On the first few plays, my 3 year-old would move a snail forward and over to an adjacent track in front of another snail. Sounds silly, but it confused the next turn's play ... and you just try explaining to a stubborn 3-year-old the error!
Secondly, the snails are actually LONGER than the squares they occupy. They overlap the square's front & back edges. So when my 3-year-old advances a snail, he naturally jumps the snail to the next "visually available" square, i.e. he advances the snail two paces, rather than one. It's too trivial for me to correct his play, but very odd for a company like Ravensburger to flub this up so badly.
These sound trivial, but for such a simple, simple game as this, it is amazing that they got it so wrong. It's as though they threw the game together without testing or thinking about it, like a trivial whip-it-out-and-sell-it-fast game.
In the end, I took a piece of cardboard, bought six little tubes of paint and a magic marker, and drew my own board for the game correcting those flaws.
That said, I note that when it comes to introducing a 3-year-old to the idea of board games, I suppose I don't know of any other games that are quite this simple. "Max" is a great game but slightly more complex, as is "Orchard", so this is the only one I know of.
I would suggest, instead of buying this game, that you do the following (which I am confident will not violate the copyright!) as a fun project for you and your tot: (a) Choose THREE colors (buy 50-cent tubes of paint at any craft store), (b) make a racetrack on a strip of foam-board or heavy cardboard about 6x20 inches or so, mark it with a black marker into 2x2 squares, paint each long "strip" of squares with one of the three colors to make three parallel tracks, and note the start and end spaces in some way (e.g. an arrow and a star), (c) take a blank die (wood cubes are sold in most craft stores for less than a buck) and paint the six sides with those 3 colors (two of each), (d) find three pegs or pieces to paint with those colors --- and voila, you have a single-dice racing game that will be every bit as fun as this game or better. What is more, creating this game would be a perfect arts-and-crafts moment for you and your child to enjoy. To play the game, set the 3 pieces at the start position, and roll the die, moving whatever piece whose color comes up. "Let's see who gets to the end first!" is enough to motivate any kid. "Yay! Red's the winner!" and your kid will love it. "I made that!" as mine proudly announces. Enjoy.
Description of Ravensburger Snails Pace Race - Children's Game
Little ones will learn their colors while playing a fun game. Choose a color snail that you think will come in first and one that will come in last. Roll the wooden die and move the snails that match the colors rolled on the dice. If two of the same colors are rolled, then your snail would move two spaces. Onceall of the snails have reached their color circle at the end of the board, the game is over. Just remember to keep track of which snails were first and which finished last. The players who chose the right snails win.So many children's games require an adult to help out or set things up. Not this one. The Snail's Pace Race is a simple game that proceeds at a child's pace. Everything is based on colors, including the dice, without a printed word in sight. Players roll the dice to see which two of the colorful wooden snails they'll move forward one space on the board. No matter how many children play, all six snails enter the race. The goal is to guess which snail will be the first--or the last--to cross the finish line. --Lynne Sampson
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