Customer Reviews

Cooperative Game of Discussion, Logic and Rescue, Princess

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Princess Game, which uses the "cooperative" approach to board game playing, has been a favorite in our family for many years.

Players must work together to rescue the princess from the castle in which she sleeps in an enchanted slumber. As you move your pieces around the board, you encounter obstacles that must be overcome before you can reach the princess. You are given items to use as you choose - a candle, a boat, a key. Be careful - if you land on the "Dark" spaces too often, night will overtake the castle and your quest will not be successful.

Because it is a cooperative game, all players must agree on how to get past each obstacle. This can lead to some spirited discussions! Best of all, you are free of the tears and arguments that happen with most board games when one person wins and everyone else loses. I am convinced that is the reason this game has endured over many others in our game closet. It can also be played in many ways - sometimes we play "the preposterous version" (our own variation!), where, for example, a firefly can drink the moat dry so that we can cross. Other times we go for realism.

"Princess Game" can be played in 15 minutes to half an hour, so it does not require a major time commitment. It is a relaxing, imaginative way to sit down and enjoy some time with your child.

By the way, don't think this game is for girls only: I am the mother of three sons, now 8, 11, and 15, and they have all loved this game (we still play it!)

I bought this game for my six year old daughter's birthday in hopes that all the children (4,6,10)would play together and that the grownups could play too without completely zoning out. It has far exceeded my expectations! The kids really enjoy it. My ten year old son says he loves "the imaginative spirit about it, and it's just a really fun game for everybody." We've taken it to gatherings and not only do the girls like it, the boys really like it, too. The girls say it's fun because they get to "save the princess!" And the grownups wherever we go get interested and start playing, too! It promotes cooperative play, not competitive, and you get really creative about the ways to use the resources you have (a firefly, a candle, a horse!) to solve the obstacles facing you. Another plus is that the game pieces have the French words as well as the English, so we've had some fun with that as well. The greatest fun for this homeschooling mom is watching my three kids laugh together, imagine together, and work together towards a common empowering goal. This game is creating wonderful memories for our family and friends. I highly recommend it!

I love this cooperative board game. Kids always surprise me with new stories to solve the problems and remove the obstacles in order to rescue the princess.

This game is great for kids who use their head to think of ways to rescue the princess.

...It allows children to use their imaginations which make a relatively simple game different every time. Super!

This game is awesome. It is so simple that my 5yo and 3yo can play it together alone. It is highly imaginative and inspires a lot of creativity - the stuff my kids have come up with trying to save that princess has been hilarious and also demonstrates some really great problem-solving. There is no one winner - we either all win or all lose, which is great for eliminating fighting. In short, the kids love it, I love it, and they don't need me to play it, which - if you are a mom - you know is priceless. #winning

Our girls (ages 4-7) were first introduced to this game about a month ago while playing with a friend. We've been having issues with our younger daughter not handling board games well with some of the more traditional games (Candyland, Shutes & Ladders) for her age, and those games have ceased to be entertaining for our older daughter (or me!). Anyway, Princess has been a great way for the girls (and their friends) to play cooperatively and it is gratifying to see them work together to rescue the princess. Our youngest easily handles the disappointment of not saving the princess every game since it's a collective loss. Bye-bye tears and grumpiness. Hello family time, fun, and creativity. We also bought Max for Christmas since we've been impressed at how well the cooperative games work for our family. That game has more to do with odds/strategy, whereas Princess involves creatively using the pieces in addition to chance. Also, with Max, not necessarily all the critters are saved/eaten, but for the Princess, she is either rescued or not. Both girls like each game and often we play 2-3 rounds of one game, then switch to the other. It is more fun with 2-4 kids and having a parent "help" with the game rules the first few times definitely helps transition the kids so they can play it without an adult. I think older (9 yrs +) kids might get bored playing Princess with same aged peers, but having a mixed age group (of any age) keeps the interest level since every age level seems to have a different perspective on how to creatively rescue the princess. In any case, it is a nice way to have older siblings play with their younger siblings without all the drama.

I had this game as a young child myself and loved to play it with my friends. It is a great teambuilding game and the difficulty can be easily adjusted to meet the needs and ages of the players. Recently, I brought it with me to play with some kids that I babysit. I adapted the rules and successfully played the game with a 3 year old. She loves it!! This year for Christmas, I bought the game for her and her sister. She is 5 and her sister is 3. They both love it! The 5 year old remembers all of the extra fun things we added in:
During the game, the players have to confront various challenges to help rescue the princess and make group decisions. One of the challenges is to cross water to get to the castle. We chose to use the rowboat to get across. Instead of simply playing the card, we put the card down and added in rowing actions. Similarly, when we got to the guard, we added dialogue for him. These are just little fun tidbits I have added to help make the game more fun/sometimes easier for the younger kids. It is amazing what they remember over a period of 3+ months of not playing the game.
Overall, the game is a great problem solving, team building, choice making game. Great for all ages to play together!!

The company that makes the game, also makes lots of other cooperative team games. They are all awesome and all very fun to play. They are really different because they are not your typical competitive winner/loser games. These are games where everyone is a winner and there are natural problems that need to be solved. Great selection of games!!

Once you get over how cheap-looking the game is (so you may not want to buy it for a gift, if that would bother you), you'll realize how refreshing it is to play a cooperative game! My daughters loved working together to save the princess! Another friend likes playing it every time she comes over and has requested it for her birthday, so we're buying another.

We also really like the "Max" game and "The secret door" from the same company. I think "Max" is the best game we've tried so far.

I think Family Pastimes makes brilliant games. The kind I want my kid and his friends ( I bought this as a gift for a girl) to have, learn from, have fun with and grow to be kind human beings. My son also has the Snowstorm and he plays that by himself. They are simple and fun.