Thames & Kosmos 'The Colour Monster' Game - Review

[AD/Gifted - We received a copy of the game for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

When we were offered the chance to try out the new 'The Colour Monster' game from Thames & Kosmos, I jumped at the chance. It is based on the popular children's book of the same name and although we aren't familiar with it (although I'll definitely be buying a copy now!) the premise of the game really appealed to me, especially with having an autistic child who sometimes struggles with emotions.

The Colour Monster encourages discussions of emotions and how to help children understand them. 

Inside the box you get:

• a game board
• dice
• Monster figure
• child figure
• 2 x shelves
• 8 x jars
• 5 x colour tokens

Before you begin, you need to build the two shelf units and place the jars circle side facing out. The Monster and the girl figure will both begin on the pink splash of colour on the game board and the colour tokens will go on the relevant splashes. Each colour represents an emotion; pink is love, green is calm, blue is sadness, yellow is happy, black is fear and red is anger.

Each player takes turn to roll the dice and they can the move the Monster or their friend (who is there for support) across the game board. 

Once you have stopped on a colour, you must tell everyone something that makes you feel that emotion then you pick a jar to put the colour token into. Each jar will have a colour on the back so you have to guess the right one to get a match. Three of the jars have mixed emotions. If you get the right jar, you slot the token in. If you get the wrong jar, you must put the jar back. If you choose a jar with mixed emotions, you must turn it around so that the colours are on display. If all three end up being turned around during the same game, the Monster will be confused and overcome with emotion and need to go to bed. You win if all the tokens go into the correct jars without the Monster becoming confused.

Both C and E absolutely love this game and have even been asking Daddy to play it with them while I've been at work. It's not like any other game we have played before and it is so nice to encourage a discussion. It made me realise that I very rarely talk about my own emotions with the kids so doing that for a change was refreshing and it is lovely to hear their thoughts and feelings too - some of which did surprise me a little.

The drawings are stunning and it's just a lovely family game that will grow with us and be played a lot. It's recommended for children aged 4+ and retails at £38. You can find out more about The Colour Monster at Kosmos Games.