Orchard Toys Smelly Welly Game Review

Lily has really been interested in games lately and is really enjoying doing things that are challenging her and making her think.

So when we met Orchard Toys at the Toy Fair, I was shown a amazing range of puzzles and games that they have. They also showed me there brand new game Smelly Wellies. Lily had a little try of it and she seemed to enjoy it so Orchard Toys sent us one to review. 

And here it is...

I really love the boxes that the Orchard Toys games come in. They are always so eye catching and really great for storing them away. They look great on Lily's bookshelf where she can help herself to it when she wants. I think the fact the boxes are so colourful is what attracts Lily to want to open them and get the contents out. 

The game comes with -

• 4 Jigged Monster Boards
• 24 patterned welly cards
• 1 instruction leaflet 

Again the pieces are really colourful and I just love the monsters on them. They are definetly more cute funny looking monsters than scary. The boards them self are made from really decent strong card which is great. I love that its not easy for Lily to be able to bend and damage the cards. The wellies all have recognisable patterns on to. I can say to Lily find the bananas's or find me the stars and she is able to do that.

So how do you play this game?

The game is all about finding matching pairs of smelly wellies for the monsters. 

The main way to play is by having 4 players with a card each or you could have 2 players with 2 cards each. You each have a board set which is a certain colour. These boards all come in 3 separate jigsaw pieces so they can be put toggether by your child, making it a extra activity for the game. On the back of all the wellies is either the colour green or red. You first separate the reds and greens and place all the greens out with the pattern facing down. You then stack all the red cards with the pattern facing down. Each player chooses 3 red wellies, or 6 if they are playing with 2 boards. Then you place the red wellies on the board with the pattern facing up. You should have one welly for each monster.

Then each player takes it in turns to pick up a green welly to see if it matches on of the welly's that there monster is wearing. If so then it gets placed onto the board, if not it gets placed face down back onto the table.

The winner is the first player to get all their matching wellies and they have to shout out SMELLY WELLIES!! 

The instructions leaflet was really handy as they now come in picture form and are laid out as step 1, 2 and 3. I must admit, instructions can confuse even me so its a great way to show how to play the game. Also as the child gets older they can be able to understand the instructions themselves. 

The great thing about this game is it can be changed slightly to be made easier or more difficult to suit the age of your child. 

We decided to make the game a little easier and simpler for Lily to understand. She chose which coloured board she wanted, which was blue and red. She easily managed to find all the correct coloured pieces and push them toggether in the correct order. I then laid out all the welly's with the pattern upwards and I let Lily get used to learning about a matching pair. She chose one welly with the pattern and placed it on the welly. It took her a few attempts to understand which foot it went on. But she got there in the end and cheered when she did. I then got her to try and find the matching welly in the pile. She took her time doing this but eventually spotted it and would shout out "there it is" and then place it next to the other welly. We played like this until she had got all her wellies on the board and then we celebrated with lots of claps and praise.

One thing that Lily wasn't quite understanding and getting quite frustrated about was the wellies not slotting into the shape on the board. She is so used to playing with a jigsaw where she shape is cut out and she places the shape in that she got angry that the welly wasn't staying where it should. As the boards are quite shiny and slippery, she would also get annoyed when she was placing a welly onto the next monster and would move the other welly's with her hand by accident. I think in time when her hand and eye co-ordination gets better she will find it easier to place them down and not knock them.

As Lily is only 2 years old she has a short attention span at the moment and so after completing one board that was enough for her and she wanted to go off and play. When we did try to play the game the main way of playing, she took a few turns but I think grew bored in the moments where she had to wait her turn and soon decided she didn't want to play anymore. I think for now we will stick to our simple way of playing until she is able to put a little more attention into a game. 

The game is so great for learning and here are the things I think your child would learn playing this game.

• Recognising and Matching Patterns 
• Learning and Matching Colours
• Hand and Eye Co-ordination when putting the Jigsaw pieces toggether or placing down the Wellies. 
• Patience, and Taking Turns
• Learning Left from Right
• Encourages Observational Skills
• Develops Memory Skills

The game is aimed at children from 2 to 6 years old and the game can be played with 2-4 players, although we found a way to play a version of the game with one. The game is now available to buy and is £7.50.

You can see more about the game here on the Orchard Toys website. 

What do you think to this game? Would your children love it?