Matthew BaileyGame 39 of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” – “Jurassic Feud” played with Toby(6) and Jack (9).
Back in January of last year, Toby and I played “Catapult Feud,” a really cool dexterity game where you set up castles and use siege weaponry to fire boulders at each other’s structures, trying to knock them down.
Toby absolutely adores this game and asks to play it regularly. As it requires a fairly large floor space, it’s also a useful incentive to get him to tidy up his bedroom.
Imagine his elation this morning when a prototype for “Jurassic Feud,” the sequel to “Catapult Feud,” showed up on our doorstep. Needless to say, within minutes, the playroom was tidy, and Toby and Jack were setting up their structures, kicking off what would turn into about five hours of Jurassic battles. (The Ikea bookcase for Jack’s room that arrived with it never did get built).
It’s worth noting that I have the base set, the Pangea expansion, as well as two of the neoprene mats. The mats we used are actually our own from “Catapult Feud,” but the ones that come with “Jurassic Feud” are exactly the same.
There are two ways to play. The first is Quick Play, where everyone receives warriors, bricks of one colour, a dinosaur, and three boulders. You build your fortress 1.5 meters away from your opponent, and then, one at a time, you shoot boulders at each other. This is the simplest way to play and, generally speaking, the boys’ favourite. Over the course of the five hours of battles, they experimented with various permutations, including using other dinosaurs from Henry’s big dinosaur box. The beauty of any game like this is not only in the components that come with it, but also in the imaginative possibilities of combining them with other toys to create interesting and engaging scenarios.
At one point, Jack devised a duel mode where each player was on a separate block in a wide space, and they had to essentially snipe at each other. They also played a cooperative mode to see if they could knock down a larger structure made of all the pieces as a team.
There is also an advanced setup where you place everything according to specific brick placement rules—everything must be within the borders, and all pieces must lie flat. Each player then takes a weapon and places it on the left or right side of the player board. Each player gets four boulders and six action cards. You shuffle the cards, take three in hand, leaving the rest face down, and place all of your warriors according to the warrior placement board, using tools like the distance marker to ensure that warriors are legally positioned. In the tactics phase, you choose your action cards and play one if you wish. These cards grant powers such as the ability to rebuild, steal a card, or fire your weapon twice. You then fire as normal, and any damage is cleaned up and removed from the game.
One of the small criticisms I had with the original “Catapult Feud” was that, apart from the main slingshot, the other weapons felt a bit weak. This seems to have been greatly improved in this version. It’s worth noting that the versions I’m playing with are 3D printed rather than injection moulded as the retail components will be, but if anything, the retail components should be of higher quality than the ones I played with—and those were excellent.
The T-Rex slingshot is very weighty and feels really satisfying to flick a boulder from. After a few tries, you get the hang of it, and being able to be fairly accurate with your shots becomes a reality, creating a rewarding feedback loop as you gain confidence in your abilities.
The Triceratops launchers that come in the Pangea expansion are also really strong and much better than the equivalent in “Catapult Feud.” They are also weighty, but instead of allowing a ball to arc, they fire straighter with more force. These are great for displacing rocks that may be hiding warriors behind them.
I remember when I was a child, setting up towers made of Rainbow City and WWF wrestling VHS tapes. I would then use 2p coins to flick at these VHS boxes, which had army men set up across the top. “Jurassic Feud” really captures this childhood memory, and I enjoy playing this game with my kids just as much as they do. It’s rare that when a new game comes into our house (which happens relatively frequently), everything else is dropped, and the day is taken up by playing it.
Is it perfect? Of course not, but I think the biggest flaw is simply that I want more—more expansions, more pieces, more of everything—and that can only be a positive.
Henry (3) has been out with his grandparents all day, and I know it’s only a matter of time before he finds this and it becomes his new obsession and I look forward to getting my hands on the finish version next year.
“Jurassic Feud” is live on Kickstarter now and will be running for about another five days at the time of writing this. For what you get, and the fact that this can be a starting point for a really strong dexterity game that did a fantastic job of keeping the kids away from screens all afternoon, it’s actually pretty good value for money. You can pick up a standard set for about £48 or spend just under £21 more to get the Kickstarter edition, which comes with both dinosaurs as well as the game mats.
Disclaimer: A prototype of “Jurassic Feud” was kindly provided by Vesuvius Media Limited for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are our own, and the price has been taken into account when writing this review.
