Matthew BaileyMinecraft Builders & Biomes is, by far, one of my favourite Minecraft games. And to be honest, it sits quite happily in my collection regardless of the Minecraft licence — which is why we’ll be taking a look at it this week as part of “MINECRAFT WEEK”
So, I was really excited to get my hands on a copy of the brand-new Minecraft Builders & Biomes Junior. It’s aimed at a younger market, but interestingly, it’s a very different game to the original — and it can sit quite happily alongside it as out inaugural game of the series.
Whereas the older game is a tile-based strategy game, Minecraft Builders & Biomes Junior is essentially a dexterity game, with a light amount of memory and strategy thrown in.
You start the game by building your cube of blocks on a platform surrounded by lava inside the base of the box. You also decide what level you’re going to play on — the level determines how difficult the game is. This is a lovely mechanic, as it means you can play with much younger children and keep it nice and simple — or ramp it up to give even adults a decent challenge.
The general idea is that you lay a load of biome cards out in a 5×5 grid. You’re trying to find the correct biomes you need in order to build. This can be made easier by adding a farm, which reduces the number of blocks needed, or by adjusting whether you need specific biomes or if you can use any.
On your turn, you flip over a card in the grid and see if it matches a biome you need. If it does, you then use the big foam-core pickaxe to try and knock the right blocks onto the grass without them falling into the lava. On our first go, this looked ridiculously easy — but after a few games I quickly realised it’s very much not the case. It’s actually quite tricky!
If a block falls in the lava, it’s out of the game for good. If it lands on the grass and isn’t needed, you simply return it to the stack. The green blocks act as wildcards — although we accidentally ignored that in our first game, which made things a lot harder. And I mean a lot.
In addition to the biome cards, you might also turn over monster cards. These require you to knock out a black block to defeat them — and those blocks don’t go back into the stack, so they reduce your available pool. You can use a torch on the easier settings to help remember where the last mob was, which just adds to how modular and accessible the game can be.
If you’re playing a particularly tricky setup, each character has a one-use pickaxe that lets another player help by holding a spade or forming a barrier to stop blocks falling into the lava. It’s a lovely little co-op moment and great for encouraging teamwork. For really young players, there’s even a diamond pickaxe they can use again and again — so they always get help with each task.
And this leads me to one of the best things about Minecraft Builders & Biomes Junior: it scales brilliantly. You can play on the easiest settings with diamond pickaxes and lots of support for little ones — or crank the difficulty up to 11 by removing pickaxes, banning wildcard
blocks, and using the high difficulty mode. Suddenly, it becomes a genuinely tough co-op dexterity game!
Don’t think of Minecraft Builders & Biomes Junior as just a “junior” version of the original. The original is a competitive, point-based strategy game. This is a joyful, co-operative dexterity game. When I sat down to play it, I didn’t know what to expect — as junior versions of games are often a bit lacking — but we finished our first play knowing this one was going straight into our regular rotation. It’s a fantastic game in its own right, and honestly, one of the better dexterity games I’ve played in quite a while.
It’s really unique. The mechanics are clever, the slight memory element adds something extra, and the component quality is high. The tiles are nicely made, the box is cleverly constructed, and the foam-core tools are satisfying to use. And of course, the little wooden cubes are the star of the show — this just wouldn’t have worked with anything else.
Minecraft Builders & Biomes Junior is an excellent game that I’d happily recommend to just about anyone — even if you’re not a fan of the IP.
A great way to start Minecraft Week!
