Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a nice game that is easy for young ones to play - no dice or counters - just simple memory game and matching. And that's why I rated it at 4 stars instead of 5 - it's just a bit too simple.
The game play is simple: You have one set of cards ('middle layer') with dinosaur bone pieces on them - these fit together to assemble 1 of four dinosaurs. You place those face down and then put a 'top layer' larger card on top of each of the them. The top layer cards have little notches in them so you can use the 'excavator tool' to life up the top layer and then secretly peek at a middle layer card. If the piece is for your dinosaur, you take that middle layer. If it is someone else's dinosaur part, you put it back. You keep going until someone assembles their dinosaur (about 6 cards per dinosaur). There are ruby cards (let you take an extra turn) and snake cards (you flip up an extra top layer and whosoever dinosaur part it is, you give to them). The way this works, it is much more fun with 3-4 players than it is with just 2. With only two players, if someone flips up a middle layer card and it's not theirs, they put it back and that's an obvious tip off to the other player that the piece is for their dinosaur. Which makes it kind of unchallenging.
I guess the easy way to describe this is that it is similar to a preschool memory game but changed to resemble a dinosaur bone hunt. Game play takes about 20 minutes or so and there are a LOT of pieces since there are the larger 'top layer' cards and then the smaller 'middle layer' cards. If you lose a card, it severely affects the game so you need to be very careful with this.
For educational purposes, the back side of the 'top layer' cards all have dinosaur facts. But with only 30 of those cards, those facts get exhausted pretty soon. And with only 4 dinosaurs to get the bone pieces of, there's not a lot of depth of play or learning. Each of the dinosaur piece cards is lined by a color, making it easy for kids of all ages to know immediately whether the card goes with their dinosaur.
In all, a nice game but definitely for the very young dino lover.
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Smithsonian Dig That Dinosaur GameGo on an exiting excavation to find the parts of your dinosaur. In the unique board game, players turn over cards, using a mini-excavation tool to uncover dinosaur bones. Includes fascinating information about dinosaurs and their prehistoric habitats. Game includes game base, dig tool, 30 grid cards, 30 missing bones cards, 4 dinosaur cards, and rules. For 2 to 4 players, ages 6 and up.
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