Splendor Kids Components Overview and Impressions
While Splendor Kids does break one of my big no-no’s when it comes to production, I can’t help but be impressed with what Space Cowboys have done with this kid-friendly title. Far too often, companies think that since a game is for kids, the quality of the product can be lesser; that is never, and should never, be the case. Splendor Kids is almost the perfect production, regardless of the audience for the game. Let’s take a look at what makes this so impressive.
There are two things you don’t often get in a kids game: wooden pieces and dual layered boards. Those are both present in this release. The resource tokens and the coins are nice chunky, screen printed wooden pieces. They are nice to hold, and a good size to be both accessible for kids and adults. I’ve played quite a few kid games where the pieces were just too small – these are the perfect size.
The game also comes with wooden character pieces, but I’ll talk about these later when I talk about what I dislike about this production. The cardboard elements are pretty limited in this game, and I’m a bit surprised that since the bulk of the components are wood, why they aren’t all wood. That said, the cardboard pieces are nice and thick, and will hold up well to grubby little kid hands grabbing them throughout each game session.
The game box also includes an insert, which is quite handy. One portion of the insert actually comes out of the box and is set on the table. It holds all the wooden resource tokens and the coins you will be using in the game. It’s a lightweight, sturdy cardboard holder that does the job well, and you don’t have to put it together either. Well…you kind of don’t have the put it together. Again, more on this later.
The game board is big and vibrant, and fits the mold of a traditional kids game. Splendor isn’t the most beautiful game on the market, and if you were to ask which looks nicer, I’m taking the Kids version all day long. This board has a ton of spaces on it though, and they might be just a tad small despite the size of the board when put together. I do understand why this is the case – this would be a massive table hog if this board was any bigger.
Let’s get to the bad. Games should NEVER have stickers. Ever. I absolutely hate applying stickers to games because rarely is it done well. I had to sticker the character pieces, which felt odd since all the other wooden components were screen printed. I get it, you can add more colour with a sticker, but I think screen printed characters would have been so nice. And remember that included tray I talked about that is removable for the game? You have to sticker that as well. This makes a BIT more sense to me, but again I would have preferred a pre-printed tray.
Still, this is one of the best produced kids games I’ve seen in a long time. The new asmodee Kids line is something I’m really excited about, and a line of games we will be featuring more and more on the site over the next little while.
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Article By Adam
