Football Final & Mermaid Party

Having looked at Little Acorn’s previous two games over the weekend, I now wanted to focus on Football Final and Mermaid Party. As before, the reason I am reviewing these, which is something I generally do not do, is that they are essentially identical games. The only difference is theme, one has you gathering players for a football team, and the other has you gathering mermaids for a party.

As with the previous pair, it was genuinely disappointing to realise just how identical these games are, especially as there is absolutely no information on the boxes or product pages that makes this clear. So be careful if you are thinking about buying these, you really do not need both of them. I have heard some discussion suggesting that these are simply different themes for different audiences, but I am still very much of the opinion that these are 100 percent gendered themes. Even though there are female players in the football game and boys in the mermaid group, the reality is that these games are very clearly aimed at different genders.

That said, these two are actually reasonably decent games. Essentially, you lay out a large grid of cards in front of you. Players then take turns revealing and drawing cards from the shared grid, trying to match them to spaces on their own player boards. In Football Final, you are collecting footballers to assemble your team and then trying to draw the goal card to score and win the match. In Mermaid Party, you are gathering underwater guests to fill your lagoon and then drawing the party popper card to host the celebration and win the game.

Each player has a double-sided board used to place matched cards, with one side unnumbered for simpler play and the other numbered to add an extra level of challenge. Drawing matching cards lets you build your team formation or fill your party board. Both games include extra event or action cards, tackles, saves and bookings in Football Final, and playful sea creatures and hazards such as Fin the shark in Mermaid Party, which can help or hinder progress and add a bit more interaction and surprise. While the artwork differs, all of these extra cards are mechanically identical.

One thing that will appeal to some families is the range of levels, allowing the game to grow with the player, although even Henry (4) found the most complex level manageable.

Level 1 – Beginner: Simple memory matching with no special cards or numbered spaces. The first player to complete their board and then draw the winning card, either the goal or the party popper, wins.

Level 2 – Intermediate: Players must match cards to numbered spaces on their board, adding a basic counting and numbering challenge that helps develop early maths skills.

Level 3 – Advanced: Full rules including action and sea creature cards that introduce twists such as losing a turn, taking cards from other players or triggering unexpected effects. This is probably the level most people will end up playing.

We played Football Final first and I actually had a reasonable amount of fun with it. The grid ends up being fairly large for a memory game, which makes it a bit more challenging than you might expect, even as an adult. Henry really enjoyed it, and it was noticeably better than the previous Little Acorn games we played. That said, it still felt like it needed something extra to really stand out. Like the others, it has a very Orchard Toys-style vibe. These are decent, perfectly playable games, but you absolutely do not need to own both of them.