This game is reminiscent of the classic Connect 4 game with its “drop tiles” action in seven columns across six rows that represent the Fairy Tale Inn. What is different is that there is more depth, challenge, and fun for a wide range of ages with its additional scoring criteria. During the game, players can earn coins in several ways, and at the end, the person with the most coins wins!
There are eight distinctive character cards included that represent the guests that visit the Fairy Tale Inn, each of which have their own abilities and rewards. For each game, five characters are randomly chosen and their matching tiles placed in a cloth “draw bag.”
There is a guest list board where four starting tiles from
the bag are placed. In this two-player contest, the first player chooses a tile
from the guest list board. Two of the tiles are free, one costs one coin, and
one costs two coins. Next, pick a column slot in the Fairy Tale Inn to
drop the tile into, considering its character abilities, rewards, and game-end
coin collection parameters. Some of the tile spaces have immediate
rewards, such as taking a second tile or earning coins. There are also a
few board slots that result in the loss of a tile’s abilities. Following are examples of how three different characters work in the game to earn points:
- Player 1 places The Evil Queen token. When Player 2 drops one of their character tokens directly above her, player 1 gains coins.
- At the end of the game, all players gain one coin for each of their other characters that are above, next to or below any of their Little Red Riding Hood tokens.
- Some characters, such as the princess, reward a coin to the player who places her and another coin for each of the same player’s Princess tokens that were previously placed diagonally to her.
Once three columns of the Fairy Tale Inn are filled to the top row, end-of-game coins are collected and the player with the most points wins!
I expected this game to be nothing more than a simple tile-dropping game with two-dimensional scoring based on tile positions, but it surprised me by being much more engaging and strategic and enough fun for both adults and kids. I recommend this for a fun family night as it takes a quick 15-20 minutes and keeps everyone engaged. ----- Marsha