Rescue the Dinos
Dinosaurs are always popular with children so they're a good thematic choice for a family-friendly card game. Case in point: Rescue the Dinos, designed by Andrew Williams and published by Sporting Chance Games.
In this easy-to-play card game, there are six cute wide-eyed baby dinosaurs - one of each of six species - set out initially in a central display. The 2–5 players are competing to 'rescue' four or five of them, depending on player count. To rescue a baby dino from the central display you need to play a pair of matching adult versions. Do so and you place the baby dino in front of you. It's not safe there tho'; a T-Rex card can force you to return your baby dino to the central display, and previously saved dinosaurs can be stolen by another player who plays three of the matching adult dinosaurs or an attack card. There are defence cards that can be played to protect against an attack or steal action.
That's the game in a nutshell. It's a light 'take that' children's game that doesn't demand much concentration on the part of the players. Your actions are pretty much automatically dictated by the cards you have in hand; players' main agency is in the decision at the end of your turn over whether to discard unplayed cards or hold onto them in the hope of drawing a useful pairing.
The dinosaur theme in Rescue the Dinos is incidental rather than integral - the same game could just as easily have been given a wholly different theme - but this is an attractively presented card game with cute dinosaur art that is bound to appeal to youngsters.
