The Quest Kids – Let’s Get Some Stuff!

Kids games are really hard to find. A lot of companies are trying to produce great games for kids, but not all of them have been great at it. One company is though, and that is Treasure Falls Games.

Their The Quest Kids franchise is really strong. The games are great, are entertaining for kids, and still fun for adults. Recently I had an opportunity to play the game with my kids and below are all of our thoughts. Spoiler alert, the game is fantastic and I highly recommend you pick it up.

How to Play

The Quest Kids is all about going on an epic adventure. You will be collecting treasure, fighting monsters, and helping your friends. Players will choose from one of four characters, although a fifth playable character is included in the first expansion. Each character has a great character board and a matching miniature that can be used to move around the dungeon. Cards in the dungeon are laid out with red cards on one side and grey and green cards mixed together on the other.

Each player will have three hit points, some starting cards as well as a quest card. On their turn, a player can move to a space that they can actually access. That might be an adjacent space in a room or through a door into another room. When they get to that spot they flip over the card to do whatever it says. Some cards provide bonuses, well other cards might have monsters or other things.

What I really like about the game is that most of the cards are fairly self-explanatory. Most cards have a star value to them and the stars are going to be your victory points at the end of the game. Some cards have a cost in order to receive something. For example you might have to pay specific cards in order to find a gem in the dungeon. Should you not have what you need to pay for the gem, the card goes back down for you or another player to try to obtain. Defeating monsters works much like trying to find things.

Each monster will require a set amount of cards to defeat and if you do you will earn the monster card and get the associate stars at the end of the game. If you’re defeated by a monster you lose one of your hit points. If you lose all your hit points your next turn will be lost after which you will gain one hit point back.

Since this is a game aimed at kids of course there is some cooperation if they want. For example, if I cannot beat a monster because I don’t have a specific card, another player can play that card for me. If they do, they will receive a Kind Kid card which always provides positive bonuses.

At the end of the game everyone adds up how many stars they have on their various cards. The stars can come from defeated monsters, completed quests, treasures they’ve pulled from the bag, and any other cards that provide star such as hit points. Whoever has the most points, wins.

Components

I was really impressed with the components for The Quest Kids. The miniatures are easily the most impressive bit, as well as the gems. The character cards in dungeon cards or of typical card quality. They might not be linen finish but they’re more than adequate for this game. What I do love is that the game can be upgraded if you so choose. None of the components are bad, however. If you want neoprene mats for both the main board and player boards, you can get them.

You can also upgrade the dungeon tiles from card to cardboard. These are great yet unnecessary upgrades. I played The Quest Kids multiple times with my own kids both using standard components and upgraded components. Well I might’ve noticed a component difference, the experience from my kids was no different. Since ultimately the game is made for them I would say that the upgrades are not necessary. Great quality, you might ask? Most definitely, but not necessary.

Is it Worth It?

Kids are all about getting stuff, and this game just gives you a lot of stuff. This might sound like a mocking the game, but I couldn’t be praising it more. The game is aim for kids 5+ but I gave my four-year-old a chance to play, and even he understood how it worked. I was so sceptical of the age range on the box, but the development team did a fantastic job making a game that has some depth, but it is so easy for almost all kids to play. But let’s get back to all the stuff.

Every turn in The Quest Kids feels like you are making major advancements in your dungeon crawl experience. What I mean by that is, and don’t laugh, you’re always collecting stuff. When you’re not collecting stuff, you’re defeating enemies, and essentially collecting more stuff. My kids loved the opportunity to pull treasure from the treasure bag, flip tiles to see what was underneath, and more. Everything had a thrill to it.

My kids loved the opportunity to flip over cards and see what mysteries were underneath. My kids loved helping each other defeat monsters to see what benefits they get from the Kind Kid cards. Why? Because the game give you stuff, and white kid doesn’t love having lots of stuff.

The game is an all roses, of course. There were times where my kids flipped over a card, and didn’t have the necessary cards in order to grab the stuff from the card.

They sometimes had to deal with adversity when trying to find certain things in the dungeon. However, it was never so terrible that they ever got frustrated. Not knowing what might be on the card, and what might be required, keeps things moving and creates a great experience.

If everything worked just as the kids wanted it, I’m not sure the game would be as enjoyable as it is now. Adversity also made my kids think about how they approach the dungeon. They realized they needed to do a better job of collecting certain cards before trying to successfully handle dungeon tiles. The more they played, the more they understood this. It has made subsequent games of The Quest Kids extremely fun and entertaining, and a bit more competitive every time.

Conclusion

If you have young kids and are looking for board games to play with them, the quest kids is a fantastic option. Right now we only have a few games we enjoy playing with our kids, that provide equal entertainment for them and us as parents. This is one that will live on our shelves, will get to the table often, and will be shared with friends. Even at four years old, my youngest son had a blast with The Quest Kids. I think your kids will enjoy it too.