Playing games with Dora! (Nickelodeon Dora The Explorer Kidz Cards)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	Nickelodeon Dora The Explorer Kidz Cards
Date:	18/03/09 (371 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun games in a handy pack

Disadvantages: slightly flimsy

It was my daughter's fourth birthday recently and one of the presents she received was a Dora the Explorer game pack, This pleased her no end as she is a huge Dora fan.

The Dora game pack consists of a backpack, just like the one that Dora carries with her, and inside there are four packs of cards in order to play lots of different games. Some of the games are quite old fashioned ones like I used to play when I was a child. These include Old Maid and Go Fish and I have really enjoyed teaching both my daughters how to play these games.

The backpack itself is made of a purple canvas material and has a smiley face on it. It is a reasonable size that is just right to fit on my four year old's back. The reverse of the backpack has a clear plastic edge so you can see what is inside it. Although it came with four card games in it, since then it has carries all other manner of toys and games as well. The backpack seems quite sturdy and has so far stood up to being manhandled by both my daughters. I would have liked it to have adjustable straps but this is just a small criticism.

It arrived in a cardboard box with the front cut away. In these days of recycling the packaging felt a bit unnecessary and I do think that it could have been sold without the excess packaging. On it however, it does state that the pack holds four jumbo sized card games. I'm not entirely what I would expect the definition of 'jumbo' to be but these just look like ordinary sized cards to me.

The four card games are Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy Eights and Memory Match. Each set of cards come in a separate box which unfortunately are not too sturdy and I can already see that they will not last very long. Each pack has a picture of Dora on the front and is in a different colour to the others. The cards inside each box match the colour on the outside so you are unlikely to mix up cards from different games. Each set of cards is accompanied by their own set of instructions, which is very helpful if, like me, you have forgotten how to play the games. All of the instructions are quite easy to follow and also come on one of the playing cards.

The cards themselves are fairly flimsy and I also fear that it will not take long until these start to look a little ragged round the edges. They are bright and attractive though with lots of different pictures of Dora to enjoy looking at. The cards do not seem to have the strength that you will get in a pack of good quality playing cards. I am not going to go through how to play each game, but, with a little guidance to start with, they are all easily in the grasp of a four year old. The pack is actually recommended for 3 years and upwards but I'm not sure how three year olds would really cope.

I like all the games as they are very easy to play and as with all card games they encourage turn taking. I've really enjoyed playing the games with the girls and they are able to organise themselves to play by themselves too - although sometimes I suspect they are making up the rules as they go along!

You could argue that you don't really need lots of different packs of cards to play the games and I'm sure that when I was young (all those years ago!) we played them all using a standard deck of cards. However, having the four different sets does draw tour attention to the different games that you can play. The games are fun to play but it wouldn't surprise me if in the long run, the backpack outlives the cards!

At the moment it can be bought on Amazon for £9.99.

Summary: A great way to introduce some fun card games