Matthew BaileyDisney’s Mickey and the Beanstalk game from Funko Games has been out quite a while, and I’ve nearly bought it a couple of times.
As it is currently on sale at The Entertainer, I decided to finally grab it, give it a go, and take the plunge, especially as Henry is now getting to an age where these types of games work a lot better with him. We both played this together as a co-op.
The general concept of the game is simple. you spin the spinner, which gives you your move value and shows where on the top level the Giant is going to move. You then have to move around the board, collecting all of the items needed to feed the villages below. You’re trying to grab everything without getting caught by the Giant and without having too many items confiscated by him. Once you have collected the items, you then have to go and retrieve the golden token using the key in order to win the game.
It’s a relatively simple co-op game designed for young children and we really enjoyed it. The board layout is great, it has brilliant table presence, and even though it isn’t the most complex, it definitely scratched that itch for a fun game to play with little kids.
All of the components are really good quality and the whole thing works really well.
I would say what was a little bit disappointing is that some games use setup variations or cards to change the variety each time you play, whereas there isn’t really anything here to make one playthrough feel radically different to another. The other slight disappointment is that even though you can play as different Disney characters, they don’t have any special powers or abilities to differentiate them from one another. Really, you’re just getting a different figurine and card.
That said, if you’re looking for a game, especially one you can give as a gift, which has great table presence, a recognisable licence, and is a fun little co-op game to play with the kids, you could do a lot worse.
