Four for Four(-Year-Olds): Deal Me In
Written: Sep 26 '05 (Updated Oct 03 '05)
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Pros: Whimsical faithfully reproduced art, simplified rules, fun for kids and adults alike
Cons: Strictly speaking, you could play these games with an ordinary deck of playing cards.
The Bottom Line: Great gift idea for the youngest gamesters, but will lose much of its appeal by age eight or so.
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| theeye's Full Review: Binary Arts Four Children's Card Games |
I've recently become a huge fan of ThinkFun (previously known as Binary Arts). Their solitaire puzzle games are clever, innovative and loads of fun for kids and adults alike and the company is clearly staffed with a bunch of bright and fun-loving game theorists, computer scientists and mathematicians. You know: geeks. My kind of company.
I first became aware of ThinkFun when we picked up Rush Hour, Jr. for our five-year-old son and hit a home run. Flush with that success, I ordered several more of their games and did a little research on the company to satisfy my own curiosity.
That's when I learned that the set of Four Children's Card Games we'd bought early in my son's game-playing career was actually a ThinkFun product as well. An odd duck amidst the flock of original brainteasers that are ThinkFun's stock in trade, this collection is a reproduction of four classic children's games from the 1950s, complete with the original whimsical artwork for a retro feel.
The four games come packed efficiently into a conveniently compact box that's easy to take along on trips, which we've done frequently. When you have a five-year-old game-playing fiend, being able to tell him that you brought not one, but four different games can be a lifesaver. And it will likely be a few years before The Kid realizes that we could have played any of these games with a single deck of standard playing cards: for now, the specialized decks make the game play easier to follow and having separate equipment for each game feeds his obsession for Real Games With Real Cards And Stuff.
Each of the four slim 45-card decks includes a rule card, so there are no paper instruction booklets to misplace or mutilate; the cards themselves are sturdy, laminated standard-size playing cards. All four decks feature the same generic diamond pattern on the card backs, in green, red and, in a rare lapse of judgement, two barely distinguishable shades of brown.
The games are all classics with which any card player is likely to be familiar, but the rules are appropriately simplified for the young audience and conveniently designed for any number of players. (Actually, one of the games is listed as for 'two to six players' which is close enough to 'any number' for government -- or family -- work.) Aimed at children ages four and up, the games increase in complexity from Old Maid, which many three year olds can handle, to Animal Rummy, Hearts and Crazy Eights, which require a bit more game-playing sophistication.
All four games do require that children be able to hold a relatively full handful of cards and keep them hidden from other players, which may be difficult both physically and psychologically for the youngest kids. At an early stage, it may be helpful to have an adult team up with a child. By the age of five, though, most children should be capable of sorting and organizing their cards and making reasonably wise strategic decisions even on the complicated games; they may, however, occasionally need to place their cards down on the table to manage the large hands that some of the games use.
1. Old Maid
Old Maid is one of the two first card games, along with that old mainstay, War, that children traditionally learn. In this presentation of the game, the illustrations follow a circus theme, with pairs of characters like the Wild Man and the Laughing Lion joining the perennially single Old Maid. The pictures are easily distinguishable, so no reading is required, but the two word captions can provide some helpful early reading practice. (Shhh... don't tell the kids that this is educational.) The entire deck is dealt out to the players who then repeatedly pass cards to their neighbors, laying down matches as they make them until someone is left with the Old Maid.
While the game does require that children hold what may be a very unwieldy handful of cards, the game play is purely mechanical and requires no strategic thinking, so the very youngest players are at no real disadvantage, once they understand the goal. My son, even now at age five, continues to enjoy occasionally playing Old Maid, even though he has largely graduated to more challenging games.
2. Animal Rummy
The second game represents a significant step up in complexity as kids are introduced to a slightly simplified version of rummy. I recall learning standard rummy at a very early age from my grandfather; it's a great game for intergenerational bonding and this kid-friendly version can be enjoyed by young and old alike.
Each card in the Animal Rummy deck features a number ranging from one to four and one of eleven animals: the Wise Owl, the Slick Chick and so on. In the upper left corner of the card (the cards are not symmetric top to bottom), the number is paired with the initial letter of the featured animal; thus the four Wise Owl cards are labeled O1 through O4. The pictures are lushly drawn in pastels, each with a distinctive background color.
The faithfulness of the reproduction is clear in the somewhat anachronistic appearance of the Gay Dog, whose jaunty green feathered hat and purple bow tie doubtless conveyed nothing more than simple gaiety in the fifties. If your children are familiar with the modern connotation of the word, you may want to take the opportunity to discuss how the meaning of words can evolve over time.
The rules are simple, though I find I have to check the rule card each time we play to refresh my memory. The numbers, ranging as they do from one to four, are actually analogous to the suits of a standard playing card deck, while the eleven animals take the place of the ranks. A 'book' is thus three or four cards of the same animal, while a 'set' consists of four or more cards of the same number. At his turn, each player draws (from either the deck or the discard pile), optionally plays any books or sets in his hand, and then discards. As soon as any player empties his hand, he wins the round.
For young children, this game can be frustrating. It is often advantageous to hold books or sets back and so victory frequently comes as a sudden surprise, often accompanied by wails of outrage from the losing player. For this reason, even more so than the complexity of the gameplay, the game requires a bit more maturity. On the other hand, unlike Old Maid, Rummy does afford the pragmatic parent the easy opportunity to throw the match in favor of a child who is refusing to go to bed until he wins a hand.
3. Hearts
When we first saw that Hearts was included in this collection, we were rather dubious. Hearts, after all, is a sophisticated card game with more than enough strategic depth to engage serious game-playing adults; introducing it at age four seemed rather ambitious. And classic Hearts typically requires four players which made it an unlikely choice for a couple of superannuated parents and their only child.
It turns out, however, that the game is amenable to play by any number of players and the kid-friendly design of these cards seem to send the subliminal message that This Game Isn't Really as Hard as You Thought.
The smaller-than-standard deck includes four suits (hearts, stars, horseshoes and four-leaf clover) and only eleven ranks. There are no face cards to confuse the unfamiliar; instead the cards are simply numbered from one to eleven. Like a standard deck, these cards are symmetric top-to-bottom and the ranks and suits are listed in the corners of the cards.
The nine of stars is clearly marked as the special JINX card, corresponding to the Queen of Spades in a traditional game of Hearts.
The rules are somewhat stripped down and easy to pick up even if you are not already familiar with traditional Hearts. I won't go into detail on the game play, except to note where the rules diverge from the standard. Only two cards are passed during the passing phase prior to the first trick and any suit other than hearts can open. If the number of players does not evenly divide the deck, the extra cards are placed face down on the table and awarded to the winner of the first trick.
When playing this game with the youngest children, you will likely need to play open-handed at first or team the child up with an older mentor. The strategy is somewhat beyond the ken of most four year olds and in a closed-hand game, it is difficult or impossible to determine whether the child is following the rules. We found, however, that by age five, our son was able to play this game independently and with a moderate degree of strategic insight. He will undoubtedly continue to improve the quality of his play and I expect that, unlike Old Maid, this game will retain its interest for him for many years to come.
4. Crazy Eights
This game, which my son insists on calling Crazy Apes, is another classic I recall enjoying when I was a child. Although it's listed fourth on the game box, I'd characterize it as slightly less complex than Hearts and I'd recommend introducing it after Animal Rummy.
As in Hearts, this deck features eleven ranks and four suits; this time the suits are represented by hearts, stars, diamonds and anchors. (I am not certain why the original designers of the game shied away from spades and clubs, but I rather suspect that it had something to do with protecting the morals of the little ones.)
Eights, of course, are wild and the object of the game is to empty your hand, by discarding cards matching either suit or rank. If a player is unable to discard, he must draw repeatedly until he is finally able to make a match. Easy as pie, especially to a child who is already familiar with the game of Uno. In fact, Uno players may find this game a bit boring, as it lacks some of the more interesting cards introduced in Uno. On the other hand, most four- and five-year-olds are much enamoured of playing A Different Game, even if the difference is largely cosmetic. Having an extra deck with unique illustrations is likely to please.
One problem I've noticed in this deck design is that, while rank and suit are noted at both the top and bottom of the cards, the center illustration is not top-bottom symmetric. As the illustrations all feature the card rank prominently in the center, it is easy to confuse the sixes and nines at a quick glance. A minor annoyance but one that can confound young players not yet accustomed to looking at the corners of the cards.
Deal Me In
Is it really worthwhile to pick up these games when, in all honesty, all of them could be played with an ordinary deck of playing cards? If your kids are, say, seven years old or younger, I'd say yes. Older kids will probably eschew Old Maid entirely and are likely ready to play the other three games, in either simplified or full-fledged versions, with standard playing cards. But young kids are often intimidated by the stark images of a standard deck and find it difficult to remember whether a Jack or Queen is the 'bigger' card. And having customized illustrations helps distinguish in their minds which game they are playing and keeps them focused.
Besides, for those of us who reached parenthood somewhat late in the game, the nostalgia value is well-worth the ten bucks. Sometimes the oldies really are the goodies.
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Further information and resources:
Manufacturer's product page: http://tinyurl.com/auar9
Background information on the company: http://thinkfun.com/ABOUT.ASPX?PageNo=ABOUT
Look up the rules to hundreds of card games: http://www.everyrule.com/framesets/cardframes.htm
A fun and educational way to keep score for multi-round card games.
ThinkFun products previously reviewed (stay tuned for more to come): Roadside Rescue, Rush Hour, Jr.
Other games my son (and his folks) recommend for the grammar school gamester: King's Table, Fluxx, Kill Dr. Lucky, Aquarius, DuelMasters, Monopoly
Recommended on-line store: http://www.stewarttoys.com
These games are also available at many Barnes and Nobles stores, if you need to pick up a last-minute gift
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 12
Type of Toy: Game
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Epinions.com ID:
theeye
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Location: New York, NY (it's a hell of a town!)
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 165 members
About Me:
Company president, math geek, first time mom at 39, epinion addict. Sleep? Not lately.
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