Snail Sprint

Game 6 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board game Bonanza” is “Snail Sprint”, played by myself, Henry(2) and Toby (5).

I posted about Snail Sprint before in 2021 with a 3-year-old Toby (pic below), but I thought it was due for a refresh.

Firstly some pointers when trying to get a just-turned 2-year-old to play games…

1) A dice try is an absolute must
2) for some reason Henry was happy for me to roll the dice but less keen for Toby to do it so sometimes Henry rolled Toby’s turn for him but Toby still decided which piece to move.
3) This was good colour recognition for Henry and apart from a bit of rule blindness he definitely enjoyed the experience and felt like a “big boy”

Snail Sprint is a fun and quick race game from Haba. If you have ever played Camel Up (I really need to feature that on here at some point) then it is basically a simpler version of that.

The premise is that you pick a card to see which 3 snails you want to win. In the end, you get points for where your snail finishes with the most overall getting the prize.

You roll the dice and get 2 colours (eg yellow and blue). You then choose do you want to move the blue snail to the next yellow space or the yellow snail to the next blue space. This is where the light strategy comes in and can vary wildly. Henry ended up at a bit of an advantage as all of his colours featured on mine or Toby’s cards so as we moved ours his were being moved along.

The snails are magnetic and go around the edge of the box which is super cool and is great thematically. This little touch really gives the game a super premium feel and gives it a decent amount of table presence. It also makes up for Haba’s usual lack of an insert by letting you magnetise the pieces to the inside of the box.

The board is also a simple 3-piece jigsaw which Henry enjoyed putting together.

In the end, you add the scores up and see who wins… and in this instance hilariously it was Henry(2).

This is def one of my favourite Haba games for younger kids and both my boys enjoy this even when more complex games are on offer. This is definitely a good “my first game” for children who are wanting something the next step up from snakes and ladders.

It’s not the cheapest but has come down a lot in recent years and can now be found below £25. This is a good recommendation from me if you are happy with the price. This is a simple game with good components and a great “my first game” that’s a bit more “hobby” and less “mainstream”. In the end, though you will have your own idea if this is worth the price of investment.