Matthew BaileyGame 7 of our “Fantastically Festive Christmas School Holidays 2023 Marathon” is “Cool Animal Facts,” played with Mum, Jack (.8.), and Toby (5).
When I first got “Cool Animal Facts” out of the box, I wasn’t expecting too much as a fairly light family party game. But after a couple of games with Katie and the kids, it turns out that “Cool Animal Facts” is probably my new favourite family-oriented party game.
So the general idea is that each player gets seven cards (as Toby’s reading is still a little patchy, he teamed up with Mum), and at the start of the round, one card from the deck is placed down, which has a particular animal trait on it.
You then have to lay a card that you think can name an animal that has all of those traits. Obviously, as more cards get laid down on the table, this becomes increasingly difficult to the point where you end up having to bluff that you can think of an animal that meets those criteria.
If a player reckons that you cannot name an animal that meets those criteria, they can challenge you. If you manage to think of an animal, you get to give them one of your cards, and if you can’t, they get to give you one of theirs, and the round restarts.
The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins.
On the face of it, this is a simple deck-shredding game with a bit of animal trivia thrown in, but actually, in the three or four games we played last night, it became very apparent that the social interaction and conversation that comes from trying to think up these animals are really good fun. As a family, we had one of the most enjoyable 4-player family sessions that we’ve had in a while.
The highlight of the game came when Jack only had one card left, and it was his turn to play. The card “undergoes metamorphosis” was the unfortunate one that came off the top of the deck. The only card Jack had in his hand was “regrows limbs,” and obviously, I made the assumption that Jack was screwed and had no way of winning the game. I, of course, challenged him, at which point he confidently, with quite possibly the smugest look I’ve ever seen on one of my children’s faces, said proudly, “axolotl.” We looked it up to check (as the game actually encourages you to do), and Jack was pronounced the winner.
A really nice addition is that on each of the individual animal trait cards, there is an example of an animal that has that trait, which means that you always have a decent chance from the start, even if you’re not quite sure. Jack had absolutely no problems, and even Toby had a decent bash at animals helped a bit by Mum.
Obviously, this isn’t a super deep strategy card game; it’s a light trivia game. But the way the cards are made, the addition of the suggested animals, and the fact animals themselves are something that most young children have a decent awareness of make this probably the first trivia game we’ve managed to play with the children without feeling they’re at too much of a disadvantage.
I honestly didn’t expect loads from this when I played it, but as it is, this has rocketed to the top of our “full family” playlist, and we intend to play this with relatives at Christmas.
Keep an eye on the posts as later in the evening, there will be a competition to win a personal copy of the game kindly provided by Level 99 Games. The game is not widely available in the UK yet but should be next year.
They are also providing copies of the game to people for public play, and I will link those details later.
Two copies of the game were kindly provided by Level 99 Games, one for the purpose of review and one to give away as a competition, but I can assure you that all of my thoughts and opinions are our own.
