Emojito!
Designer: Urtis Sulinskas // Publisher: HUCH! // Ages: 7+
Little Meeples Rating: 5/5
If your kids love making silly goofy faces, Emojito is for them. In fact, we think Emojito is for everyone! This game was very recently nominated for the Kinderspiel des Jahres, a German award that is easily considered the penultimate honour for a family board game to receive. Is it worthy of the nomination? Let’s see.
Gameplay
Emojito’s rule set is very simple. The active player draws one card of a character whose face displays an expression full of emotion. The player then has to copy that face to tell the other players what he/she sees. That card is then mixed with 6 other cards and are laid out on the board such that a number is next to each card. Each player then secretly votes for which card they believe matches the face that was expressed by the active player. Reveal the votes and see who was correct. For each correct guess a player moves their player piece forward a space on the track. Each lap provides a player with a trophy card and you can determine how many trophies to win the game.
As player pieces circle around in the hexagonal board, the different locations let the player know if they are to:
- Provide a facial expression along with a sound
- Provide only a facial expression
- Provide only a sound
The game also comes with a cooperative variant where everyone plays against the game. In this case there is only two player pieces (one for the team and one for the game). Each correct guess moves the team’s player piece one space forward. Each incorrect guess moves the “game’s” player piece forward. This is our preferred mode of play.
Impression: Great for ages 4-99!
Our kids have been requesting to play this game non-stop because it’s just so incredibly fun. Everyone is making silly faces and laughing at each other. Kids don’t care so much if they get it right or wrong, because everyone is just having a good time. We don’t even keep score, we just play as long as we feel like it. This is one of the reasons we love family board games. They provide a great bonding experience as everyone sits in a circle and interacts with each other. Will it spark some of the cognitive benefits we have previously talked about, such as critical thinking? No. But it does more than its fair share in developing social skills and family bonding.
One of the main draws for us is that this game works for anyone. The box says 7+, but our 4 year old handles the game fine (once she got used to keeping her card a secret until after the voting round). We also played it with her grandfather (who has never played a game with them). Imagine playing a game with a 4 year old and a 60+ year old. Even more so, her grandfather doesn’t speak English. So we were able to play the game completely language free, because laughter transcends all language barriers. We can’t put a value on that, so this game will stay with us for years to come.
Verdict: Big happy face emoji!
The ease of play and accessibility gives this game legs. It will be played for years to come. Take it for what it’s worth, an extremely enjoyable experience for the family. We can’t imagine anyone not having a good time playing this with their kids. We haven’t played the other two games nominated for the Kinderspiel des Jahres, but Emojito is a winner for us.
