Squinkies Gumball Surprize Playhoue Board Game

This game is a hit with my five year old granddaughter. Her dad also plays with her and he says it is a old game.

My six year old grandchild was very happy to receive this game. She said it was fun to play and she loved the squinkies.

Excellent price! Fun game, enjoy playing it with my 8 year old daughter

First of all, this game is cute and fun. My daughter loves to move the Squinkies around and, even though she can't read yet, she recognizes what the various spaces mean and knows what the cards say, just by recognizing the pictures and/or shapes on the cards. For example, she can't read the "Take a Card" space on the board, but she knows when she sees the "heart" on the gameboard (the words are written inside the heart) that she gets to take a card from me. Same goes for the "Switch Cards" card. She can't read the card, but she recognizes the set of hands (on the card) and knows that she has to switch cards when she sees the hands. So technically, no reading is required to have fun with his game. The game pieces are Squinkies and my daughter loves that.Now for the disadvantages: Three of the four Squinkie game pieces were white. I understand that different games come with different Squinkie game pieces, so the game that sombody else orders will probably have different Squinkie game pieces than ours, but three of our four Squinkie game pieces were white. This was confusing for a three (almost four!) year old child.....a white bunny, a white kitty and a white puppy. My daughter would forget which which piece was hers, or simply mistake the bunny for the kitty and end up moving the wrong piece, etc. This problem was easily rectified in our case because we have about 40 other Squinkies and we simply switched out some of the pieces. In case somebody purchases this game who doesn't happen to have a large Squinkie collection like we do, this might be something to think about.The lenticular puzzle is a little bit too difficult for our daughter. The entire puzzle is a blurry pastel color (providing no contrast for her when she looks at the picture and tries to figure out which piece goes where) and with so many Squinkie bubbles (part of the picture on the puzzle) she was getting frustrated. The puzzle itself shouldn't be this hard, my daughter is really good at these puzzles and is able to put them together with relative ease. This one, however, has a challenging picture which would be great if the colors could be used as a "helpful hint" to guide her along the way and help her figure out which pieces go where. Instead, the entire puzzle is practically the same color all over. Pair that with the repetitive Squinkie bubbles all over the picture and you have one very frustrated toddler.My last complaint, and this one is a major one, is the length of time that this game has the ability to last. This game can last anywhere from 10 to upwards of 45 minutes, depending on how many times your cards are taken away from you or how many times you take away another player's cards. A player needs 5 cards to win the game (one of each of the four Squinkies, plus the "So Cute" card.) There are several "So Cute" spaces on the board, giving the player who lands on them the right to take the "So Cute" card from the player who currently has that card in his/her possession. This is unbelievably frustrating at times, especially when the game has been going on for nearly an hour because the "So Cute" is constantly changing hands. There have been times in our family when someone will be two spaces away from winning the game (finally!!!) and then they have to give up the "So Cute" card, meaning they can no longer win during this round because somebody else now holds that card. There have also been times that, during the times when this game lasts too long for my liking, I will deliberately miscount the number of spaces I advance, deliberately stopping short or skipping over the "So Cute" space, so I don't have to take the card away from my daughter (this comes in handy if she is close to winning). Now sometimes this game only lasts 15 or 20 minutes, and that is absolutely fine with me. But when the game starts pushing an hour because the cards keep changing hands so many times, my daughter gets frustrated, which causes me to get frustrated. Also, there is no "quick game before dinner" with daddy, because there is no guarantee the game will be over before bedtime. I have suggested to my daughter that we play this game without the "So Cute" card, but she refuses. To her, this card is special (because there is only one of them) and she will not play without it. Personally, I'd like to set this card on fire.Other than that, this game is fun and cute. Just make sure, if you want to play it correctly, you set aside an entire afternoon for it.

Fun game