Game On! Review: The Three Little Pigs! (Iello)
A little about our family… My wife and I love playing board games, card games and any tabletop game that we can get our hands on in our home. Recently we have been teaching and including my almost 8- year-old son and my 4-year-old daughter in our latest game nights with much success. With so many great games out there, it’s difficult for families to know what is a great game for family game night and what is a waste of money. Every two weeks we will have a new game to review and if any reader has suggestions for us, please let us know in the comments below!
Who We Are:
Jason Brigger, aka the Dad: Co-host of the weekly pop culture centric podcast, The History of Bad Ideas (on Nerdly!), along with a weekly review of Black Lightning the television series!
The Boy: My 8-year-old son who enjoys any type of game, from video games to board games to card games, as long as it makes him think.
The Mom: The Female Perspective will be a guest in this column from time to time in order to bring another perspective to the games we review.
Officially, What Is It?
Per Iello: “As a little pig, your greatest desire is to build a strong and beautiful house where you can spend your long winter evenings. You won’t need trowels or scaffoldings, since you can roll the dice to build your dream home. But beware the wolf prowling around, and all he wants to do is to huff, and to puff, and to blow your house down!”
What’s Included: 5 Special Dice (3 which include the Wolf face), 1 Wolf spinner, 36 House tiles (12 straw, 12 wood and 12 brick), 6 Goal cards, 1 Tale booklet, and a rulebook.
The Three Little Pigs is one of several family games from Iello in their Tales and Games collection and is a nice addition to family game night. The main objective of the game is to escape from the big bad wolf by building the strongest and best house possible by rolling the five special dice included in the game. The game is easy to pick up and learn and the first time my 4-year old played, she was able to grasp the majority of the concept.
How Do You Play?
Roll the five dice, and set aside those of interest. Ideally, you would want to keep the dice showing the most of one type of material (roof, window, and door). On the next additional rolls of the dice, you can reroll all your dice, or only those that you do not want to keep. After a maximum of three rolls of the dice, the player picks the best material available based on how many identical symbols are showing on the dice. Two identical symbols on the dice equal straw, three equal wood and four equal brick. For example, if three roofs and two doors are faced up on the dice, the player can pick a wooden roof and a straw door to build a house.
Wolf Attack!
Any time a “Wolf” face appears on a die, set it aside as the player is not allowed to reroll it. If the player rolls two or more “Wolf” faces, the Wolf attacks! How does the wolf attack? With a spinner! The player that rolled the dice picks an opponent’s building to attack and spins the “Wolf” spinner. If the spinner lands on a material correlating to the player’s house, i.e. spinner lands on straw and the house the player attacked has a straw roof, off the roof goes and back into the pile!
How Do You Win?
At the end of the game, each player counts his or her victory points as follows:
- Houses that have no roof are discarded and are worth zero points
- Each tile on every completed house earns points: Two points for a Straw tile, three points for a Wood tile, and four points for a Brick tile.
- Add up the points for your House tiles.
- Add one bonus point for each flowerpot shown on the tiles you have accumulated, and one bonus point for each house you have completed.
- The player with the most victory points wins. It’s that easy!
“Goal” cards can be added to each game and allows additional points to be gained by completing objectives such as building the tallest house or having the most flowerpots. The “Goal” cards are a fun way to change up the game and add more difficulty to the game if you have more experienced players.
What We Liked About The Game:
Dad: The game box is beautiful and is part of the Tales and Games series from Iello which mimics the old-fashioned storybooks the game is based on. It’s not only beautiful to display, it also takes up less space on the shelf and when all five games are collected, allows your shelf to look nice, as opposed to flat board game boxes. So far, my family only has two games from the Tales and Games series but we will eventually own the whole series, just for the beauty of the boxes on the shelf! In a future column, we will be reviewing another game in the Tales and Games series, The Hare and the Tortoise.
The Boy: I like how game is true to the actual story of The Three Little Pigs fairytale. I enjoy the “Wolf” character and being able to pick which opponent’s house you can attack when the “Wolf” shows up on the dice. I also like the game box design and the ease to store and carry the actual game. I enjoy Iello created a game box different from anything I have seen before in games.
What We Didn’t Like About the Game:
Dad: The Three Little Pigs is a fun game but I feel it lacking something to make it a “must have” game. It’s not that the game is a “bad” game, just more of an average game with not much to differentiate from better dice games on the market.
The Boy: The game can end quickly and it feels too short at times. Once three groups of tiles are used, i.e. all wood roofs, straw doors, etc., the game is over. I wish there was an opportunity to expand the length of the game.
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Replay Value: MEDIUM. The game differs in speed and can be a quick 15-minute game or if the dice do not roll the right way for the players, can take up to 30 minutes to complete. There is very little to set up before playing so players can jump right into the game.
Recommended Age, Per Developers: Eight (8) years and older
Our Recommended Age: Children six (6) and up, with parental assistance, should have no issue learning The Three Little Pigs and after a few games, should be able to master it. For young children, my four-year old enjoyed the game but after the first few rounds, the game did not hold her attention like previous games discussed in this column.
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Final Score:
Dad’s Grade: C+
The Boy’s Grade: A
The Three Little Pigs is a fun dice game and constructing buildings will allow creativity in children playing the game. The game is approximately $20 (US currency) on Amazon.com and is a good starter game for introducing your children to dice games. The game box itself is worth the price and the twist on using a classic fairy tale for the basis of a game is unique. If you are on the fence about purchasing this game, Iello has a few other games in the Tales and Games series that are more fun and will hold your children’s interest better.
