Kids Express

I got a review copy of Kids Express and played it with my 4-year-old twins.

Kids Express is a kids game with a similar theme and look to Colt Express, but completely different gameplay (which is great for me since I didn’t particularly like Colt Express). There’s still a really neat 3D train and it looks really cool on the table.

The game is a cooperative dexterity game – you’re working together to steal the treasure back from the bandits off the train. On your turn you can move your character or shoot the slingshot, and then you take a luggage piece from the location you are. The game ends when one pile of luggage is out, and everything on the train belongs to the bandits then – so there’s some strategy in trying to balance out the luggage you take. Each luggage also says what happens when you take it – usually a bandit will move and/or steal luggage.

The real fun is the dexterity. When a bandit is on a train car you can’t go there, but the slingshot action lets you flick a cardboard slingshot at the bandits, and anyone you knock over goes back to their home place. My kids love this part. You use your player board to measure how far away you start the flick from – an easy shot is horizontal, and a harder shot is vertical. So you can adjust difficulty per player, which is great when playing with adults and kids (or different skill level kids). One of my kids is actually better than I am at the flicking part.

Also the box has images of where to put things away, which is super neat. I haven’t tried storing it vertically yet though since I’m scared.

Overall I thought this was a fun game, and I recommend it as a good dexterity game for kids, especially if the kids like the theme of trains or defeating bandits.