Peek-A-Boo Zoo - Be The First to Discover The Missing Animal - for Ages 3+ - A Guessing Board Game for Toddlers and Families

As a parent there are a few things I want out of a game: some sort of skill practiced, easy to learn, few rules to argue over, playable/replayable (and able to hold the attention) of a range of ages, and perhaps most importantly quick enough and not so mind numbingly boring that I consider condemning the game to the far corners of hell. This game checks all those boxes and even includes a few thoughtful extras.The premise is simple - An animal card is hiding inside the game board and you travel along the path to expose peak-holes. From each of these you have to observe and remember details so that at the end of the path you can guess which animal you saw. In total there's maybe 50 or so colors to land on so with two players both make it to the end of the board within 5-6 rounds of rolling. The spaces are also cleverly set up so that its pretty hard to make it to the end without getting a look at the full compliment of clues. Finally a parent must have designed this because the game is mostly self-contained, and has a hiding mechanism when you initially insert the animal card in the box, when you peak at the clues (you put your piece on top of the cover and lift then replace), and at the end there's a good chance all the players can catch up and take a shot at guessing the animal.A few notes:- The pawns are intended to lift up the peaking hole (*great for fine motor practice), but can be a bit sticky when you try and replace them so a parent might need to help hold down the piece- There's a mechanism where some of the spots have you move forward or backwards 2-3 spaces. Great opportunity for counting in addition to the built in color recognition, but on a few playthroughs we got stuck in a loop - move forward to the backwards space (which always happens to be the viewing spot), then role and get the same thing again. Easy fix - just have them go to the next backward space instead or re-roll.- The only place where you can see all the animal options is on the instructions. It would be nice to have a big reference card. For older kids this could be used at the end of the game to help with guesses and younger kids as they move along to compare what they see to the options.- Some of the animals don't have a lot to differentiate from one another based on where the holes appear. You may have to help younger ones focus on key details (pointy vs round ear, color of the fur). Similarly they may have trouble holding onto those facts as they go along so consider either leaving the clues open once everyone gets to see it or allowing them to reopen everything when its their turn to guess.

Tickled the fancy of the 3-year-old, who enjoyed peeking behind the windows. But from an adult perspective, the sturdy board is too cramped, and would be much more interesting with more loops and some detours. The pink and orange spaces are hard to distinguish from one another. All the same, he finds it entertaining and that is worth the modest price.

This game is so cute and colorful, and really great quality. The pieces are very well made. Both the board and the tokens to move around the board are chunky and made out of wood. There are 8 very cute double-sided animal cards for 16 animal options. The object of this game is to figure out which of these adorable animals has escaped from the zoo. Players move around the board taking peeks at the hidden animal card to gather clues, so that they may guess the escaped animal at the end of the game.To play this game -1. Cover up the holes in the board with the 5 wooden Peek-A-Boo tokens.2. Secretly slide one of the animal cards into the slot in the game board, making sure the players do not see which animal it is.3. Players roll a die to move their pawn around the colored spaces on the board.4. If a player rolls the Peek-A-Boo on the die they get to peek under one of the Peek-A-Boo spots on the game board, revealing a portion of the animal card, helping them to determine which animal it is.5. Once players reach the end of the board, players can use the information they have gathered to make a guess about which animal they think has escaped the zoo.This game is listed for ages 3+, however I think it might be more easily played by ages 5-8. For ages 3-4, the chunky style, theme, and cute and colorful look of the game is quite appealing, but they may have difficulty guessing the animal at the end of the game. The Peek-A-Boo circles on the board are about the size of a quarter, therefore you do not get to see that much of the animal. The Peek-A-Boo spot in the top right corner is rather high so there are certain animal cards where you do not get much of a clue while looking in that window.I highly recommend this game, even for those 3-4. Kids will need assistance from an adult to set up and move around the board. To make it easier for the younger kids, I would suggest that before playing, you look over each animal card with them and have the children name the animals, so that they have an idea what they look like and which animals to expect. I made this fun by telling a story about the animals at the zoo while showing them the animal cards, having them name the animals as I went along. I then told them that an animal had escaped the zoo, and they needed to help figure out which one it was so we could get them back to the zoo with their friends. This is a great beginner game for kids. Get it, they will have fun!

My 3 year old granddaughter got bored very quickly with this game, it’s hard to tell what animal it is for a grown up never mind a toddler!