Home > Categories > Games & Puzzles > Board Games > Beetle review
Have fun with family and friends with the Beetle Board Game! Spin a body part on the spinner board and place the part on your leaf. First one to build a completed bug wins!
• Ages 4 + (choking hazard)
• For 2 - 4 players
Product reviews...
I fondly remember playing the Beetle Board Game when I was a child. Every time we went over to my Auntie's house my brother and I would run to the toy cupboard and the Beetle Board Game would be the first thing that we pulled out to play with.
Fast forward quite a few years and I found the Beetle Board Game was still being sold (which that says a lot to me about the popularity of this game in itself!) for a really cheap price compared to so many other games, and I grabbed one to have in my own home with the intention of having it there for my own children to master and have great fun while playing it.
Now I was jumping the gun a bit as at the time I only had one child and they were only 1 year old and far too young to play this game. But we are now a year and a half on and my son is now 2 1/2 years old (which some people may think is still too young to play this game) and he loves playing this game! He is constantly asking to get the 'Bug' game out and I find it great as even though this is a game made for 2 or more players, my son loves to 'play' it by himself and putting all the bugs together.
I have found this game to be really educational as it helps my son to identify colours, match pieces together, and fit all the pieces together in the right place just like a puzzle.
This game will definitely have a long life in our house!
A piece of advice: I would recommend putting all the pieces for the beetles in a zip lock bag or container as they are easy to get lost.
This game was a total blast from the past when I re-discovered it on the shelf at The Warehouse, and then purchased it. I went shopping for a birthday present for a five year old, looking or something fun, robust, but something educational as well, and found Beetle staring at me from the shelf.
Many an hour was spent as a younger me playing this game, so I purchased it for the birthday present, and also purchased one for my own family. With our eldest being nearly five also, I thought this would be the perfect board game for her, as she was just starting to get into board games and understand them.
The first time we played this game with Miss nearly five, she did not seem to quite understand it - but enjoyed finding all the beetles bits, and mixing and matching the colours for the legs, feelers, body and eyes. Miss two just loved the leaves!!! Great game and can see as they get older they will enjoy it even more!
The game gave us the chance to be experimental and mix and match as well as teaching a little bit about bugs. Remembering this game from my youth - I invested in a container, specially for the eyes - as I know we always seemed to misplace those.
This game is a great, low cost addition to the family game collection. It is great for younger children to simply play, and older to play the game and learn about board games. Heaps of fun, and well worth buying!
This is a fun wee family game that is especially good for the younger members of the family. We have many board games but as my daughter is 5 years younger than her teen brothers most of our games are still a little to hard for her yet. So we had to add some more games to our collection aimed more at her age-group.
Simple to play games that are fun to do without creating a great deal of fuss and confusion. Beetle is one of these games, with the added bonus of also being cheap to buy. The concept is simple. Spin the dial to decide what bettle body part you get and build your beetle. First player to successfully build their beetle wins. The concept is simple. The game play is quick. So little minds do not get bored or side-tracked at how ling or how hard it is to play.
The beetles body part piece are nicely designed for ease of use for little hands and are also nice bright colours too. And they are made of a good quality, thick, and sturdy plastic that is not easily damaged should little kids get a wee bit excited or carried away during their beetle building play.
A nice simple game that all family membera can play, and the younger ones can enjoy ;)
I was given this game quite a few years ago (yes, it has been around a while) and it got hauled out of the cupboard when my daughter was about 3 years old, and that was certainly a good age to start playing it.
Now I have to say, I was brought up playing Beetle with a pen, paper, and dice, so the concept of buying a plastic component game to do the same thing didn't initially appeal to me, however it is a pretty cheap game. And I think the biggest advantage of buying the game, is that it is more easily understood and able to be played by a much younger child, as no drawing skills are required, and the picture on the spinner translates nicely to what piece they place. But for children from about 5 and up... there really is no reason this can't be played by anyone with a spare dice.
So at least for now, I've given up the joy and fun of being able to draw the craziest and best beetle for the fun of being able to make the craziest coloured plastic beetle with a mixture of the components... yes we've never stuck to one colour beetle, as there is no reason why you can't share the pieces around and make multi-coloured beetles... which is also helpful when some of the little pieces start to go missing!
The other difference to the pen and paper game I grew up with is that there is no tail, but instead 2 chances to win a leg. This helps speed up the game so you don't end up with a heap of legs to get at the end of the game.
All in all, I have to say, this is one of the least tedious little kids games I've played... it plays quickly and easily and I happily play a couple of games in succession.
So if you get Beetle at a good price, and you have quite young children who are just starting out into board gaming, and you don't want to play with more than 4 players, then I do recommend this game.
When shopping for Christmas presents for our nephews I came across this game at The Warehouse. It instantly brought back memories as I suddenly remembered playing it when I was younger. It was on special for $10 so i grabbed it thinking i would add it to the boys presents. Our nephews are aged 3 and 6 so i thought this pretty much was aimed at about the right age group.
From previous experience (both when i played it and other children I teach have played it) I remember it being a nice, simple and easy game which the children (if old enough and at that stage) can figure out for themselves. For this reason it is great when children are just learning about board games, taking turns and sharing. As with any game it is also a great teaching tool for allowing children to develop understandings about winning and losing.
I also liked how younger children were able to use this game to make their own game so to speak ~ using their own level of capability, whether they are simply fitting the bug pieces together (which can be a great challenge) or learning about colours and bug body parts along the way. After talking to my sister in law after Christmas all of the above was confirmed by her ~ apparently this game was the favourite of the lot of Christmas presents her boys received and they have played the game every night since receiving it.
Fully recommend to others and will definately be buying it again for presents myself! :)
I use to play this game when i was younger and loved it, when I saw it on special at the warehouse I decided to grab it, my daughter was 3 at the time and had lots of fun just sorted the colours together not actually playing.
Now at 4 years old she understands how to play better and we make it a family time. Its such a great way to learn colours, bug body parts, turn taking and understanding winning and losing. Which I'm high on when it comes to my kids you win or lose. My 3 year old boy is very interested in the game too and he started being interested about 2.5yrs and its taught him how to wait his turn which is great, i can watch both kids play this game without parents as its so easy to understand.
The only problem I have found is all the little bits come in small bags that you cant reuse ive had to put all the pieces into a small ziplock bag so we dont lose any pieces. Other than that its a great old game for the whole family to enjoy young and old. It does say 4+ years but you know your own children and what they are able to do, and just sorting them into colours like my daughter did to start with doesn't hurt anyone :)
This is a nice and easy game. A great one for when you are introducing your children to board games.
We got this game for my son when he turned 4, and he still loves to get it out and play, especially when Granny comes over. What's good about it is that my 3yo is also interested enough, and whilst she hasn't grasped the concept of taking turns yet, she's happy enough to potter along and figure out where all the bits and bobs go.
The only thing I would recommend, was there there be a zip lock bag or similar come with the game, as once the box starts getting worn down, it's easy for eyes, legs etc to escape the box and get lost. As such, we have had to transfer the pieces into a smaller, more robust box. So perhaps, in the future, it could be a good idea to release the game in a sturdy, long term container, instead of a cardboard box.
All in all, a fun, easy game for the kids.
This is a great wee game that has been around for ages! (I even had it as a child!). The concept is really simple but one that my 4 year old really loves. He also likes to play it on his own which again is something i really like when its time to get dinner ready.
The pieces are made of really durable plastic and are in nice funky bright colours. The only downside is that the eyes and antennae of the beetle are really small and easily lost if not looked after well. I *try* to get him to keep them all in a wee Tupperware container.
This is great entertainment for the price of the game, for adults the game is a little too simple and it gets a little boring after hours of building beetles! But it seems to be a great hit in our house for Mr 4!
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