EDITOR's NOTE: The Meeple Guild is providing additional reviews over this holiday week, so check back daily for new game reviews.
YORKTON - Ever get a game and from the outset you know it might be just a little misleading?
Frog Chess, a game with an unnamed designer from Binary Cocoa is such a game.
There is nothing with this game that has even a modicum in common with the classic game of chess.
It will remind a little of checkers, and maybe more accurately Chinese Checkers.
So don’t grab this one and expect it to be deep and involved like chess.
That is not to say the game doesn’t have merits – but primarily as a game for younger players and their families.
Frog Chess, as you might expect, has play pieces which are frogs.
In a two-player game each has 18. In three-player it’s 12.
In the start phase players place their frogs on the 36-space board.
And then the jumping starts.
If you are the last frog to jump, you win.
It’s pretty straight forward, yes you can read simplistic here.
When a frog is jumped, it is removed from the board. Frogs can jump forward, backwards, sideways and diagonally. Frogs can do single or multiple jumps, even jump their own team frogs if needed.
That is why the game suggests ages six and up which makes it a fine little game for young families.
That it plays for two, is great for parent and child, and three well it’s nice fit for a lone child family, or parent and two sibling children. In that regard Frog Chess is a nice little gateway abstract strategy game, and the frog pieces will grab the attention of young people.
This is not a game that will entice adults, although the rule where a frog ending up on the outer ‘swamp’ squares is lost is a neat rule – you might ignore with the youngest players.
But as a family game, young families especially, this a fine little game.
