Silly dodo, you've precariously perched your backside upon the edge of a particularly dangerous clifftop... but wait... what's that? Dodo Jr. is on the move from inside his wibbly wobbly egg and is going to get scrambled!
In Dodo, designed by Frank Bebenroth and Marco Teubner, players work together to save the wibbly wobbly egg from plummeting into the sea by making and placing platforms. The rules are simple, roll the die and find the matching resource amongst the flotsam and jetsam. Once you find the matching resource or a Hagulaminapitopasi villager, you'll place it on your platform, once all the slot's have been filled you'll place that platform on the the cliffside to continue the track. If you don't manage to place the next platform down in time the egg will plop off the edge and the game is over. The game ends if the egg successfully navigates its way into the boat below.
How does it play?
A game of Dodo take around 5-6 minutes to play and a further 5-10 minutes for setting up and packing down. We'd found that Jacob would often want to play at least 3-4 games back to back as we would slowly increase the difficulty. It's not a difficult game, Jacob enjoys setting the game up on his own and is even happy playing it on his own (something unusual for him). It has been a nice game to have in our collection for that very reason and feel it would be a great one to play when his friends come over.
The ease of the game can come at a bit of a cost to the enjoyment at times though. 4 or 5 of our plays resulted in a win before the egg made it to the final plank and it would be a bit of an anti-climax as you wait for it to edge its way down. The difficulty builds in the game by removing extra Hagulaminapitopasi (wildcard) tiles. We'd found after the first play that using the expert mode was essential, it involved finding 1 or two extra resources per piece but will balance it out for a 6 year old so that there's a little jeopardy.
Is the egg made of magic?
Google tells us that magic is the power of apparently influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces... so yes it is. Magic or not it is a gimmick to a game which is essentially a bolt on to a fairly basic memory game... but... 6 year olds love magic and that's why this is a great game.
Jacob used to love his matching pairs game and I suspect he still will, but sometimes it was hard to play head to head with him as he'd get upset when you'd take the one he wanted to match! The addition of a dodo egg timer fixes that problem and lets everyone play together in harmony whilst telling grandma to get her act together and find the last matching tile before it's too late.
The matching element of the game feel less about memory and more about dexterity for kids, there are only 6 types of resource and the wildcards but the die means that you might end up looking for the same thing a dozen times so there needs to be plenty available on the table. I'd have potentially have liked to see some recipe cards or similar but with a broader range of ingredients spread across the same amount of tiles to bring the memory element back into the game but it doesn't stop the enjoyment.
Is it a game for drunken adults?
Dodo is a great family game to play with the kids but the ease of the game would be a put off for those of us who have weathered the world for too long. It's unashamedly a kids game as there is not a single adult character in any of the art.
If you own any kids then you'll no doubt realise this is a mute point, drunken parties are generally just a memory, if you're a cool aunt however then yes, it can be multipurpose.
Should I buy it?
If you have young kids then they'll no doubt love the game. The table presence, the action, the magic wibbly-wobbly egg, the ability to slowly make it more of a challenge and the tactility of it all makes it a win for our family. If your kids don't like memory games then probably not to be honest but it's worth a try.
The game says 6+ but given how easy it is, ages 4+ playing with an adult or older sibling would be fine. I think you'd be pushing it a bit with a 10 year old unless they're playing with younger siblings.
If you're interested in the game but have more questions then I'm happy to answer them in the comments below.
You can also find the best online prices at boardgameprices.co.uk
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