Genius Games Ecosystem: Savanna - A Family Card About Animals on Grassy Woodland of African Savanna - Fun & Educational Ecology for Kids & Adults - Strategy Board for rs, Students & Teachers

This is a super fun game!

Love this new version of ecosystems. We have the original and sort of expected this to be exactly the same with new artwork, however there are different rules for these animals in order to score points. I love that the concept remains the same, but with new things to work around. Just like the first game, the artwork on this one is beautiful! It's easy enough to teach that my 6 year old can play fairly well. Great game for 3 plus players, we've played with 5 and everyone enjoyed it!

My kids were all excited to play this Savanna version of Ecosystem. My 9yo seemed to understand the game concept well enough. The younger children (ages 4 and 5) each paired with an adult to form teams. Although they didn't really understand the rules, they were interested to learn about animals of the Serengeti Savanna and how they create an ecosystem. The gameplay is a simple concept -- each player has a hand of cards to choose from, places one in their grid and then passes their hand. This forces players to use the "best" cards in their hands rather than trying to save them for later. The tricky part is understanding how best to use the cards to score points. There are guide cards for each player that explain how to score points with each card type. Trying to figure out the best strategy for building an ecosystem is definitely not mastered in a single game. The gameplay goes fairly quickly, but scoring everyone's cards can take a while, especially the first time playing. There is also a solo version of the game included in the instructions. Instead of trading hands with another player, you alternate between playing a card into your grid, discarding a card into the 'opponent' Swala's grid and drawing new cards. To win, you must beat Swala by 55 points for an easy victory, 75 points for normal, or 85 points for difficult (you choose the difficulty level you want to play). In some ways, this is an easier way to play, since you're able to choose which cards to use and which to discard, so there's a lot more freedom in planning how to build your ecosystem. The cards and game scoring guides are all sturdy and well-made. The printed cards are colorful and beautiful. The included scorepad is helpful and contains plenty of sheets for gameplay. Overall, this is a really nice educational game for learning about the savanna ecosystem. The instructions also include a section with information about the different animals and features of the savanna ecosystem. Due to the complicated scoring, I would recommend that at least one adult or teen who doesn't mind math plays to help kids with the scoring.

Was purchased as a gift for my animal loving nephew. He loved them. Makes learning about animals fun.

My kids and I love the other two Ecosystem games, so we were very excited to find out there was a third one. In this game, the flipping of zebras and gazelles which can then be 'eaten' by hyenas and vultures is just brilliant! Each of the Ecosystem games scores in different ways and we just can't pick a favorite, they're all so good! Sometimes we just play all 3 games in a row!