Animals are a popular theme for children’s games, but they also show up in many games intended for an older audience as well.
Welcome to the world of Evolution, where every turn is a fight for survival—quite literally. In this colorful and competitive strategy game, each player takes control of one or more animal species. Every turn means survival or extinction as players compete to collect limited food resources.
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In Fantasy Ranch, players take on the role of horse ranchers competing in a horse show season. Score the most points by building up a large stable and expanding your ranch to be the best around.
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The ice caps are melting. It’s up to you to find enough data to understand and halt the warming, while saving stranded polar bears from drowning as the ice melts underneath them. Are you up to the challenge: Rescue Polar Bears?
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Gather food, barter, attract mammoths, and protect your tribe – but don’t forget to pet Honga, the friendly neighborhood saber-tooth tiger! Read more about this excellent introduction to action selection games.
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Compete with tribes of Cave People to shove mammoths off cliffs… or trick each other into careening off the edge! Survive prehistoric pitfalls and collect Mammoth Meat to feed your tribe.
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Did you know that cuckoos don’t build their own nests? Kiki Cuckoo never learned to build one, and now she needs your help! Elliot helps Andrew and Anitra explain this cute all-ages dexterity game from HABA.
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Match It, Slap It, Group It, Build It, and Connect It, building habitats for wildlife in this educational card game system. What In The Wild? is produced by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, but covers species native to most of the northern United States.
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Guide magical creatures to their homes in the sky, and use magic to push away the oncoming storm. Roll the dice and move any character in Sky Magic, a simple cooperative game with lots of imagination.
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Build your own Jurassic Park and fill it with the best dinosaurs in this short game for 2-5 players.
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Pikoko turns traditional trick-taking upside down with feathery flair. Place bets on the tricks that each player will take. The only catch is that you can see their cards but not your own!
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When the teacher’s away, the penguins will play! Each player will take a turn being the hall monitor (or Catcher) while the other penguins (Runners) try to collect fish hanging over the doors. IceCOOL 2 is a sequel and/or expansion that we prefer slightly over the original IceCOOL.
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In ShutterBug from Mike Elliott and Calliope Games, play the role of a freelance photographer, traveling the country to find mythical creatures and snap pictures of them. Pursue tips and hope you can get high quality pictures – complete your assignment and some side jobs and become a world-renowned photographer!
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Let’s talk to Joe Hopkins, the designer of Endangered. Endangered is on Kickstarter right now. Published by Grand Gamers Guild, with art by Beth Sobel and Ben Flores, we think it looks great!
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Fluff, from Bananagrams, is actually the two-hundred-year-old game Liar’s Dice, with adorable but shady looking critters and clever dice cups. Claire tells you why we like it.
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The Champion of the Wild is a voting and negotiation game for 3-8 players. Coach your animal(s) to victory in a series of competitive events. Listen to our thoughts in about 5 minutes.
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We talk to Tom Clare about his game, The Champion of the Wild. If he could talk to animals, he’d put them into an elite sports competition!
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Let’s go get some ice cream, with the Squeezamals Freeze ‘N’ Squeeze game from Big G Creative. Whether your kids already love Squeezamals or have never heard of them, they’ll have squeezy, freezy, frantic fun with this fast-moving game. Hear Nick & Izzy’s thoughts in less than 4 minutes, or read on below.
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Welcome to the exciting world of bug collecting! Snatch bugs off the rug to add to your collection, but watch out for the bugs you don’t catch – they’ll fly onto the wall and do tricky things.
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Simon’s Cat Card Game is a simple shedding game with a minor twist. The suits aren’t evenly distributed, and you take a “mess” if you can’t play a card on your turn.
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