Friends of a Feather – Cute Collection Game for Kids 3+ | Review

Cute birds, a cosy nest and lots of colourful feathers:  Friends of a Feather is a colourful children’s game for 3 years and up. How suitable is it as a first game?

When do you start playing games with children? When do children grasp their first tactical game mechanisms? This depends entirely on the child’s development and can begin as early as 2.5 years.  Help the children during the first rounds of play. It is important that the child quickly grasps the simple basic rules of the game. Most children learn very quickly, especially if they like the look of the game and have fun playing with the individual parts.

Friends of a Feather a game in the “my first board games” series from Ravensburger Spieleverlag. Up to 4 players can play in short rounds of about 10 minutes.

It is a collection game with bright colours that the children learn to match. They also have to make their first decisions and weigh them up.

Transparency notice: Ravensburger-Verlag kindly sent us a review copy of Friends of a Feather free of charge. However, this review is unpaid and reflects our honest opinion.

Friends of a Feather at a Glance

• Game type: Children’s game
• Age: from 3 years
• Players: 2-4 players
• Duration: approx. 10 min.
• Publisher: Ravensburger
• Publication year: 2020
• Game objective: Collect and win the most feathers of the same colour for your own bird’s plumage.

Angebot

Ravensburger 20587- Feder-Freunde - Kinderspiel, EIN kunterbuntes Sammelspiel für 2-4 Spieler, Farben Lernen ab 3 Jahren

16,99 EUR

How to play Friends of a Feather

Each player gets a bird card holder in one colour. An empty nest is placed in the middle. The cards in this case are colourful tail feathers, which are piled up in a face-down pile. Everyone takes 2 feathers, puts them in the holder, depending on the number of players, a few feathers are placed face up in the nest, then the game starts.

Now the players take turns to decide whether they want to draw two feathers from the pile or swap one or two of their bird’s feathers for feathers in the nest. The aim of the game is to have the most feathers in the colour of the bird’s card holder at the end.

The game is played until there are no more feathers on the draw pile. Then all players may exchange feathers from the nest once more.
At the end, each feather in the bird’s colour counts 1 point. In addition, there are colourful joker feathers in the game that also count for one point. The bird with the densest feathers in its colour wins.

Another Game Variant of Friends of a Feather

Apart from the basic variant of the game, another variant is offered. In this variant, each player tries to collect one feather of each colour in addition to his or her feather colour. This earns 5 extra points.

Children’s game from 3 years, short playing time of 10 min.

Rating and Conclusion

Recognise colours, understand the first simple rules and stay focused on the game: Friends of a Feather is a beautifully designed, simple card game where children quickly grasp what it’s all about. A round of the game lasts about 10 minutes, during which the little ones stay concentrated on the game. The game is recommended for ages 3 and up. My little players of this age understood the rules of the game very quickly.

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Pro and Con

Holding cards is still too difficult for small children’s hands. The bird card holder at Friends of a Feather, on the other hand, is made of thick material in such a way that small children’s hands can hold it easily. With each feather, the plumage becomes denser and children’s fingers sometimes find it easier than adult fingers to accommodate the feathers. Since the feathers are made of paper, they also bend easily. It remains to be seen in the long-term test how the material holds up.

From the age of 3, children begin to play more and more actively with their peers, often learning by observing and imitating or repeating what they have just learned. The little ones now understand the difference between “It’s my turn” and “It’s your turn” and the meaning of “yes” and “no” has also become clearer – these are basic prerequisites for board games. Friends of a Feather is wonderfully suitable for precisely this important developmental phase in children.

The rules are kept simple and clear in an age-appropriate way. This first collection game is also about learning the basics of board games. Because there you have to wait until the other players have had their turn. There are wiser and unwise decisions. And there are winners and losers at the end.

Since we haven’t been playing the game for very long, it remains exciting to see how long Friends of a Feather will captivate the little one and be brought out. Especially in spring and summer, when the birds are building nests and breeding outside, Friends of a Feather is a great game to tell stories about the colourful birds.
For around $ 19.90 at the moment, Friends of a Feather is rather high-priced.

For Whom Is Friends of a Feather Worthwhile?

Friends of a Feather is a beautifully designed game and is particularly suitable for children who are currently in the observing and imitating phase or who are enthusiastic about colours and learning them.

Conclusion

Friends of a Feather is a beautifully designed simple collection game that teaches children the first basics of board games. It is wonderfully suited to the developmental stage of children from around 3 years old, who are excited about colours and learn by observing and imitating!

Play is great, no matter what age! On Greatime, you’ll find complete tutorials of free games such as air balloon games, reviews of new family games such as Emojito and Troll and Dragon and many more games for adults. And there are many more leisure ideas for activities with kids, friends and couples to discover!

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