One of the great joys of being a parent is crushing my kids at any tabletop game we play. OK, no really, but we do enjoy playing games together. And they are finally getting to the age where we can move past the mindless roll and move or memory games. So when Big Discoveries offered to send over a copy of their latest game to check out, I jumped at the chance. One look at the box and I knew I would have no trouble getting it to the table with my kids.
Yeti Snowbrawl is a dexterity game for 2-4 players that takes about 10-20 minutes to play. My kids are 5 years old and had no trouble picking up the rules.
Gameplay Overview:
The goal in Yeti Snowbrawl is to be the first to stack 10 snowballs on your platform. Each turn, you’ll draw the top card of the deck. It will either let you stack 1, 2 or 3 snowballs, or potentially try and mess with one of your opponents. There are cards that let you steal a snowball, flick their stack, or the much anticipated Snowbrawl card that starts a snowball fight.
And that’s about it. There are a few minor rules, like you can only have 5 snowballs on your platform, but for the most part, it’s draw and stack until someone gets to 10.
Game Experience:
The packaging for Yeti Snowbrawl is pretty fantastic. One side features a fuzzy abominable snowman with a window in his open mouth, showing the snowballs. I can definitely see this one getting attention on a shelf. The components are pretty solid too, the snowballs are a bit squishy, but have a nice weight to them. My only gripe is that the trays that the snowballs are stacked on are really light, making it pretty easy to knock over a tower.
For the gameplay, my kids picked it up right away. There are only about half a dozen cards and, after a few rounds, they could figure out what each of the cards wanted them to do. The hardest part for them was just stacking snowballs near the higher end of the range. Once they got to 7-8 snowballs, things got a bit precarious. More often than not, something would fall down and there would be pouting.
I actually ended up house-ruling the game to only go to a stack of 8 snowballs instead of 10. It fit better both with their limited skills and also their short attention span. At 10, games were taking a bit too long, and with the “take that” of damaging your opponent’s stack, the game can take longer than you’d like. There are plenty of times when you’d get to 7-8 balls in your stack only for your opponent to knock it down, resetting your progress. Yeti Snowbrawl is a really fun game for kids in 10-15 minute spurts. Once it hits 25-30 minutes, you are beyond ready to move on.
But the real fun came when the Snowbrawl card popped up. The rules say you are supposed to throw one snowball at a stack to try and knock down snowballs, but my kids prefer to just load up on snowballs and throw them all at me. And I’m cool with that. They have a blast doing it and think it’s really funny.
Final Thoughts:
Yeti Snowbrawl was a hit with my little ones and has made its way to the table quite often. They loved the dexterity element and had no issues picking up the rules. The snowballs work well, and have a good feel to them. Although you’ll need to count them when you are done playing the game to make sure none inadvertently flew behind the couch or something.
The only thing I’d caution you about is that if your kids are young like mine, I’d suggest dropping the win condition down a few balls. 10 just seemed a bit too hard for them at their age. But other than that, they loved it and have asked to play a few times already. And for those wondering, this isn’t going to be one of those cross over tiles, like Rhino Hero, that you will be playing with your gaming group. This is a family game though and through, but it’s a fun one at that.
