Dodo

A short review of a previous fave this evening as I am not at a computer and having to do this on my phone. I have some big hitters coming up in the next few days though .

Game 34 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board Game Bonanza” is “Dodo” played by Jack (8.), Toby (5), Grandad(71) and myself.

DODO is basically a match tiles game made super “deluxified” and I am so torn by whether to recommend it or not

The concept of DODO is simple. A ball slowly (more on that in a sec) moves down the side of a mountain. you roll the dice and then have to turn over a tile to match. Once you get a certain amount of matches you can take a piece of support and place it on the side of the mountain so that the egg doesn’t fall and can continue to work its way down the mountain. At the bottom, the final piece is the boat that needs to be in place to catch the egg and carry it to safety (again by rolling the dice and matching tokens).

That’s about it. Essentially the game is “roll a dice and match a token in a given time limit”… so why on Earth would I pay £25 for this I hear you yelp!

because the egg is really cool

Right so the egg is essentially a ping-pong ball but it is filled with a non-newtonian fluid meaning it doesn’t just roll down the mountain it kinda judders slowly… This affects the rate and sometimes it speeds up and other times it can stay still for a really long time but it will always eventually move.

The DT teacher in me looks in awe at the design, thought and tech that has gone into making this thing…

The game itself has an amazing table presence and looks very inviting to play and all in all, this is a super premium package..

So do I recommend it?

It depends?

Do you only care about gameplay? In which case grab a regular die, an egg timer and write some numbers on the back of bits of paper and you are off to the races.

Do you care about a super cool physical package I have played in a game for a super long time? Then look no further than this.

I think you know if this is for you… cause it’s very much for me. We played it about 5 times, and even grandad thought it was awesome.

100% a board game cafe try

We also ended up using the egg as a rolling ball across the wooden floor to try and stop in a target for extra “value for money” points…