Travelgirl’s Game Review - Catan Junior

Hi Everyone,

Hubby loves board games so since COVID, we have tried to introduce them to our kids hopefully it will build a habit to take them away from their screens and also be able to enjoy an activity as a family. Hubby and I used to play The Settlers of Catan back in uni days and we also got our friends into it. Recently of these uni friends bought our kids the kids version called Catan Junior. If you have played the adult version, you will know how complicated it gets and it could take hours to finish a game if we take it slow and steady. With the kids version, it is a lot easier catering for the younger audience and most games are at 30 minutes max which is great as kids have very low attention span.

Firstly the box of the game looks somewhat like the original Catan. It was ‘adult’ enough to make the kids feel like they are playing a more serious game. The rules of the kids version is far less than the adult version with more kids friendly wording. Although i did say the rules were less, the rule book still had plenty of instructions. It is best to have an adult to start reading the rules out to the kids and make sure an adult is there for their first few games. Kids under 5 may not like this game as it is a bit difficult for their little brains, and planning still required for this game.

The board itself is also very simple, less land, far less confusing. It still had a similar structure compared to the adult version but treat this as a brand new game, things will be a lot easier to understand even for adults. The colours are bright for easy recognition which leads me to the resource cards. Again very easy to understand and the kids love the different colours. There are only 3 combinations possible which is easy for kids to remember and try to plan their goods throughout the game.

There are 4 sets of colours meaning up to 4 players can play together. These little plastic figures are cute but can be a bit small so be sure to keep them away from babies. Baby M who is 4 loves them and gets excited every time he puts down his bits to claim land. Each resources are drawn in semi cute style to cater for kids. It is a good size to hold for the little hands and this point I really have to praise the designers of the game, they really thought about the kids and how they would handle al the different parts of the board game. As mentioned each game won’t last more than 30 minutes so the kids feels like they have accomplished something. The only thing that I didn’t like even though it was a gift, the price of the game is a lot higher than many junior games on the market. Although it is still cheaper than the adult version, for a kids game it is on the high end of the scale.