Matthew BaileyWe have been fairly preschool games light so far this summer, so I thought next we would look at Splattered Smocks, a lovely little game from HABA that Henry(4) and I had quite a bit of fun with.
It’s obviously aimed at younger players, and while it might not offer loads of depth, it’s bright, cheerful, and has that HABA charm that makes it appealing to play. It’s also got a really fun art theme that Henry especially liked. There’s a brilliant chunky artist meeple that I liked because,e let’s face it we all love a big chunky meeple.
In Splattered Smocks each player is trying to paint pictures using blobs of colour that match cards in the middle of the table. On your turn, you move the artist meeple by turning over picture cards and naming the colours displayed and moving to the next space of that colour. If he lands on a paint tube of the corresponding colour, the player takes a blot of that colour and places it on their smock. The first player to collect seven coloured blots on their smock wins the game.
Now, if I’m being totally honest, this isn’t a game that’s going to set the world alight for older players – it’s very much in that early learning, first-games space. But for what it’s trying to do, it’s bright, colourful, engaging and perfect for learning colours.
This is HABA so you sort of know what you’re getting all of the components are nice but it does have the usual HABA issue of their being no insert.
HABA have long been seen as the leading name in preschool games and they’ve really set the standard for quality and thoughtful design over many years, consistently being recommended over Orchard Tree games and similar. But in recent times they’ve hit a rough patch: the parent company entered insolvency proceedings under self‑administration in early 2024 to restructure amid financial struggles, and while they’ve emerged from that, the move hasn’t done them any favours in terms of confidence or investment and their releases have been noticeably reduced.
Meanwhile, newer publishers are bringing fresh energy to the preschool space. KiwiZou, for example, have been quietly releasing excellent games aimed at the same age range and we have their newest game Castel Boom (yes it is spelt like that even though my spell check was having a moan constantly), coming up as a review in the next few days.
The upshot? HABA may well need to step up their game again if they want to keep their place at the top of the heap.
So overall, Splattered Smocks isn’t going to win any awards for strategy, but it’s not trying to. It’s trying to give younger kids a fun and engaging way to start thinking about movement and colour matching. It’s easy to teach, quick to play, and it looks great on the table. A lovely pick for very young children.
