MAGE Company has released some pretty moderate to heavy games over the past few years, but their recent trend seems to be focused on families and younger kids. I’m not complaining mind you…some of my favorite games are the ones that are very easy to play but still require a little bit of thought. In “Carrotia”, players will be teaming up to gather as many carrots as they can over the course of three rounds. What’s more, players will be building the maze/playing field whilst under the pressure of a time limit. Of course, birds controlled via die roll will be messing with you at almost every turn. Special thanks to the folks at MAGE Company for providing me with a press copy for review purposes. While the game is scheduled to hit Kickstarter in August 2016, I was told that my copy was representative of the final product.
Carrotia: 1-6 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes
Editor’s Note: I opted to overview gameplay in the video featured at the end of this review.
The Review
As I stated in my video review, the only real issue I have with this game is how disorganized the manual is. In a word, it’s a mess. Some parts of the manual should be “over here” and other parts of the manual should be “over there”. For such a casual and easy to play game, it boggles my mind on how a manual could be bungled this badly.
The rest of it, like the gameplay and player interaction, wasn’t bad. “Carrotia” is certainly casual enough to appeal to gamers of any age. The time limit isn’t one of my favorite features…I hate feeling rushed in any game I play. With that said, feel free to use your own timer rules or eliminate it altogether. In fact, feel free to eliminate the birds too if you find their rules and presence to be confusing or too cumbersome, respectively.
I like how each of the players get a rabbit with special abilities and how they have to work together to beat the designated score over three rounds. I also like how the maze will change over the three rounds based on the entry or exit points. You might plan to create open-ended paths toward the bottom of the grid only to draw a quest card the wants you to escape to the side, making you have to swap out existing tiles.
Overall. “Carrotia” is an excellent cooperative game but falls short in a lot of areas. If you’re having a hard time finding a family-friendly co-op game that you haven’t played, then you MAY want to check this out. Otherwise, give it a pass.
Final Verdict: 5/10
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