Let's Play Mermaid Island! (Review)

             Hey folks! I hope you aren't sick of hearing about all of the cool stuff Peaceable Kingdom has to offer yet. I have another kids board game to share with you today that especially little girls will love!

             Mermaid Island is recommended for ages 5+. You can play with as little as 2 people or as many as 6, making it great for sleepovers or a rainy afternoon at home. It's a fun little game that, like all PK (Peaceable Kingdom) games, helps children work on certain skills. In the case of Mermaid Island, that is learning strategy, shared decision making (it is a cooperative game), social and emotional development, and following directions. 

             What is a cooperative game? Before we go on, I thought I would talk about this a little if you are not familiar with them! Many of PK's games are cooperative games, which means that instead of the end goal of the game be to beat the other person and win, everyone works together as a team against an “outside force” to win together. I just love this idea, especially for the games for younger children who may not handle “losing” well or not understand.

             In Mermaid Island, you work as a team to get your three mermaids back to Mermaid Island before the Sea Witch. The Sea Witch gets to start ahead of you on the game board, but luckily there are some helpful tools along the way. You can use the two bridges if you land directly on the starting spot, which gets you much farther ahead on the board. There are also magic wands you can pick up along the way which can be used at any time to move the Sea Witch back a spot. She is also not allowed to use the bridges and must always go the long way, so that is helpful. Unfortunately, she CAN steal your wands if she lands on one, making you incapable of using it for the rest of the game!

             Sounds simple enough, right? This game is for kids slightly older than Myka. I am used to age appropriate ones from Peaceable Kingdom that we have reviewed in the past, which she did fine with. This one was a lot trickier than I expected it to be! But, I think we may have just had really bad luck the first time we played. You can watch the video below to get a better idea of the game and see just how bad of luck we had! Ha ha!

             Myka really seemed to enjoy this game. (She is 4 ½.) In fact, she made me play twice, even after losing the first round, so I think that says something. ;) I had to help her, of course, but I think the game in general is a fun introduction to learning simple strategy skills. She seems to be really into games like this lately as she has also been making me play checkers with her!

             I liked the game because there are not many pieces to lose, it's not mind-numbingly boring, and it plays relatively quickly. It did take a bit longer than our other, younger aged games from PK, but Myka stayed surprisingly focused and interested in it.

             If mermaids aren't your thing, there are PLENTY of other games for different age groups and interests! They are all priced about the same, if not cheaper, than most board games I see nowadays too. (Mermaid Island can be purchased for $15.99) Check all of Peaceable Kingdom's games out and keep up-to-date with them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube.

Mixed Bag Mama received free product in return for my honest review. No other compensation was received. All opinions are my own.