SOS Dino
Designer: Ludovic Maublanc & Théo Rivière // Publisher: LOKI // Ages: 7+
SOS Dino is a cooperative game where players move 4 Dinos and their baby eggs to safety up in the mountains before erupting volcanoes and crashing meteors destroy the land. The theme provides a tense and exciting narrative for the kids to play out their rescue mission. Mechanics are simple and easy to grasp for children as young as 4 years old, making this a fun game for a wide range of ages.
Gameplay Overview: Draw a tile, place it down, move a dino
Playing SOS Dino is smooth and turns move along quickly. A player simple draws a tile from the bag, which consists of either lava tiles or meteor tiles.
The lava tile has colours that denotes which volcano to place it next to, extending the path of the lava, limiting the board area for the dinos to move. The meteor tile has a symbol that matches one spot on the board where it will crash, killing any dino on that spot.
The tile also has iconography that indicates what your next action will be:
a) Draw another tiles
b) Move one or two dinos (the back of the tile indicates one dino that cannot be moved this turn)
Impressions
Theme: The theme really shines as the kids are invested in saving all the dino and eggs. The components play a big role since each dino is incredibly cute. The kids really want each dino to be safe and any time a dino is near danger they clutch their teeth in suspense. It really keeps them engaged through the whole game.
Components: As mentioned, the components are fantastic. Not just the toy factor of the 4 dinosaurs. The 3D cardboard for the volcano and mountains give it a really good table presence that just screams to be played.
Age Range: Although the box says 8+, all aspects of the game was easily grasped by our 6 year old. Enough so I could comfortably say the box could say 6+ on it. Our 4 year old was also fully engaged and understood what had to be done on each turn. She just didn’t catch on to the subtle strategies of creating a safe path for the dinos.
Strategy: The game is highly tactical. Taking what you get and working with it he best you can. Being able to direct the path of the lava flow allows you to plan ahead your dino movement so it has as safe a journey as possible. Passing through a “possible” meteor crash point provides a bit of push your luck. Take the risk of getting squished by a meteor or take the longer way around. Difficulty can be increased by adding more obstacles to the board. Scores are given at the end for how many dinos and eggs were rescued. We have yet to get a perfect score and rescue everything, which is a good indication of game design. In a sense, every game ends with a win (safe dinos and eggs) and loss (perished dinos and eggs), feeding the need to play again.
Duration: For us gameplay lasted over 30 minutes which we consider to be on the long side for us. However we did play with children below the suggested age, so it often took longer than it needed to be. With that said, the kids never tired of it. When the theme is this strong it really keeps them going. Also the increasing sense of danger keeps them focused.
Verdict: Engaging, nail-biting suspense for a wide range of ages
SOS Dino was a hit even before we played it. Just opening the box excited the kids and they eagerly wanted to start playing. Whenever we suggest games to introduce to new kid gamers we focus primarily on theme. SOS Dino’s theme is its strongest asset, making it perfect to draw in a kid to the board gaming world. Cooperative games also play a strong role in our recommendations because it removes the competitive aspect of gaming that can lead to frustration and disappointment in very young gamers. It’s the cooperative nature that allows us to play SOS Dino with our 4 year old without any hiccups. Any game that allows for a wide range of ages to play together has a longer shelf life in our house.
Overall, SOS Dino isn’t very deep on strategy but it’s incredibly high in fun and player interaction. It gets a high recommendation from Little Meeples!
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* SOS Dino was generously provide for review by Luma Games, the exclusive Canadian distributor of Loki Games