Candy Land Board Game

While checking out a thrift store for pieces to create my personal board game, I decided to get a playable game for this blog that could include my 5-year-old daughter. Therefore, I bought Candy Land as it was the only game I came across that was for ages 3 and up. As expected, since this was purchased used, some of the pieces were missing from the Candy Land game. So, when I made my trip to the dollar store for more items for my personal board game, I purchased some toy figurines to use as substitutes. Additionally, there were no instructions, so I searched those out on Hasbro.com.

Game mechanics

My board came with a spinner, but it also came with cards. After searching for instructions (and information) online, it looks like there are two ways to play: either the spinner or with cards. The spinner is the method of play for the more modern versions, while having each player take turns choosing a card is the original method of play. I’m not sure I have all of the cards, and as I flipped through them, it looks like I was missing a couple of the destinations, like the peppermint and the peanut. Nevertheless, I figured I’d try playing with cards first, since it was the original method of play. Each player takes turns drawing a card which dictates movement based on the color of the card matched to its next appearance on the game board’s path. There doesn’t appear to be any player choice involved in the game mechanics, just the random luck of the draw of the card. The path winds around the game board alternating colors of red, purple, orange, yellow, blue and green with the goal of reaching the end at King Candy’s Castle. There are various other destination options with an illustration highlighted on a pink tile, and these work either positively or negatively, depending on a player’s location on the path when he draws the card. There are also a couple of places where a player can bypass larger portions of the path if he lands on the tile for the gumdrop bridge or the rainbow pass. The only other negative option for gameplay are a few tiles with a licorice X that punishes the player who lands there with a lost turn.

Game Critique

I was impressed with the simplicity of the game play. I didn’t think I could find a board game that my daughter could play with us, but this really worked. There were no words to read: just a color square on a card, and sometimes two, color squares, indicating a larger, or double move on the path. It was intuitive, even for my daughter. That said, it would make the game more interesting for older players, if there were some way to introduce player choice into the game mechanics.

As for the storyline, or narrative, there’s not much more to it than to make it to King Candy’s castle at the end of the path. However, I think the creator’s did what they could by naming and anthropomorphizing the destinations, like Gramma Nutt in Peanut Acres, or Lord Licorice in the Licorice Forest. Similarly, I think it helped to keep my daughter’s attention by using the purchased figurines, as she was enticed to play with the princess figure. While there is no sound or user interface, per se, the visuals are very colorful and cartoonish, and I think that helps to attract children to play the game, and probably encourages their imagination while playing the game. This colorfulness also does well to illustrate the theme of candy and its many colors. Additionally, by adding some shading to the color on the cards, instead of just leaving it flat, adds dimensionality, and is to me, reminiscent of colored candy from my youth.

Collaborative Experience

I think every parent goes into gameplay with his or her young child knowing there will be a meltdown at some point. As we played, my wife and I communicated several times using only our eyes to telepathically decide how strictly we would hold to the rules, knowing what the result might be. Some infractions we overlooked, hoping that they were unintentional, while other rules we enforced, hoping it would build some resilience in our daughter’s character. However, eventually, we had our moment when my daughter, who was in the lead and quite close to finishing, drew the gingerbread card which sent her back to practically the beginning. It was tough, but after some talking with her we made it through. My wife ended up winning that game, but my daughter wanted to play again, saying “Next game, I’m not going to cry.”

Conclusion

I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this, but after my daughter had her meltdown, I thought it might make it easier when playing with younger children, to remove the destination cards. This would leave only the colored cards, and reduce any large swings in progress or regress. Then, after a few plays without them, the parents could start to introduce one or two destination cards at a time and give the child a “heads up” that there might be some surprises in the game play.

But, even though my daughter had her moment, she still wanted to keep playing, and it was either the second or third round that she won, and she really enjoyed that.