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My knowledge of dinosaurs never stretched too far until I had kids. Sure I knew the basics like triceratops and stegosaurus, I even knew that the P in pteranodon is silent thanks to a brilliant (that’s the opinion of my 8 year old self) game from my childhood called lost valley of the dinosaurs. But when I came across a compsognathus in one of my kids school reading books many moons ago I had to google how to pronounce that one!
Well, Dino Days has all your old favourite dinosaurs and a few more tricky to pronounce ones too, there's even one called Barry(onyx). A game made by Farplace Animal Rescue for two players where you’re competing to fill your days with Dinosaurs and score the most points.
I Dino What To Say
That’s an utter lie I know exactly what to say about Dino Days! I don’t know what exactly I expected here as it’s a game made by a charity but it wasn’t what I got. In all honesty I’m used to seeing games produced like this as just a reskin of something like happy families, or even just a themed deck of cards but this is a great little game in its own right.
First off the quality is excellent, the box is super sturdy and the cards are just lovely to handle the artworks not too shabby either. The idea is each player has the seven days of the week in front of you, and you're aiming to fill in as many, if not all the days with the highest scoring dinos that you can. You each start with 5 cards, one of which is the giganotosaurus, and the rules are as simple as you either draw a card or play a card and that’s it!
Lets Give This Game A Go, A Try – Cereatops Would
The majority of the cards are dinosaurs all worth different points and all with their own rules about where or which days they can be placed upon. For instance, a stegosaurus can only be placed Thursday to Saturday, but a baryonyx can be placed anywhere. A T-rex is worth a huge 7 points but will scare away any adjacent dinosaurs when placed. Then there's the diplodocus, a dinosaur so long it stretches over two cards and they must be placed together.
In addition to the Dinosaurs, you have various actions cards that allow you to swap dinosaurs with opponents if you both have them on specific days, although the afore mentioned diplodocus is exempt from this card (probably because it’s too big to steal!) There's also a Meteor card that can scare away one dinosaur on one players board, yours or your opponents.
But what about that giganotosaurus card each player begins with? Well, this card is worth a hefty 10 points but it comes at a price; it scares away all other dinosaurs in the week. On my first game of Dino Days I rather cleverly (so I thought) played it straight away onto Thursday. It wasn’t until my week was almost full that my other half played his giganotosaurus onto my week and promptly scared all the dinosaurs away because as it turns out you can play that dino onto anyone’s week!
Don’t Be A (Dino) Sore Loser
Dino Days is for 2 players but if combined with another copy can work with 4 players, or 6 players with 3 copies. In fact Farplace make 3 versions, you can also get Cat Days and Woof Days and I don’t see why you can’t combine the different versions if you just follow the same instructions given on the dino cards or equivalents. I’m pretty sure if a Giganotosaurus can scare away dinosaurs, it can scare away cats too! In fact if you cross dino days with woof days you’d probably get a terrier-dactyl…
Suitable for players 6 and over and I’d say that’s quite accurate but, as ever, this will depend on the individual - my seven year old had no problem getting the gist of it. There are a few sticky issues that could be easily clarified with an extra line or two to the rules if I’m being really, really picky. We presume there is only one dinosaur allowed to be placed per day as there is a card that specifically states it can be played onto another dinosaur. Also, this dino cards value is zero so we placed it covering the one below to cancel out the points of that card, although it’s not clarified on the card. We also sometimes don’t start with the giganotosaurus card as it can feel like you’re just waiting for the other player to scare away your dino buddies.
I really am nit picking with those points because I’m not mad at it at all! Dino days really is a bargain of a game and its pretty darned good for a game produced for charity, you can totally buy it for its own merits, not just because of the feel good factor of helping animals.
Dino Days is T-rexcellent!