Duck Duck Go! product reviews

I love board games and this game looked so appealing... and in fact I played a friends copy of it once and was still so intrigued (and sold on the cute little ducks), that I bought my own copy of the game.

If you buy the game off the shelf, you end up with a random selection of ducks, but I believe if you order directly off the suppliers you can choose which ducks you would like included. I haven't checked out this option, but I can't imagine it is that cost effective... although a great option to have!

Anyway, back to the game - it didn't take me long to see past the cuteness (did I mention how cute the ducks are!) and realise the game sadly isn't all that great. I've only played the simple version so far so maybe the advanced version fixes this, but I can't comment on this area.

Firstly the cards can be a little hard to read - trying to line up which way your duck is facing, and then figure out which way it is supposed to move, can be tricky. And secondly it can be frustrating when you just keep 'bonking' (yes that is what it is called) the other ducks or the wall. And to be honest the whole thing is a little boring.

However I'll be hanging onto this game in my collection because at some stage my 4 year old will be keen to have a go and I'm always keen to introduce her to new games as she gets older. But sadly I wouldn't recommend this game unless you are looking for something just a little bit different to add to your collection.

I wanted to like this game, I really did. I like rubber ducks, that there are real rubber duckies in the game is kinda cool.

Sadly, I wasn't a huge fan.

The board game is made of hexes that you arrange into the appropriate shape depending on skill level and how many players there are. There are 3 bouys that you must touch or pass over before heading to the centre drain to claim the win. To determine your move there are movement cards which show which direction you move in and how many spaces. Your duck always has to be facing in a certain direction when it's move is finished as indicated by arrows on the card. Each person has 3 of these cards in their hand at a time and each turn, secretly chooses which card to play.

We actually found following these movement cards got a little confusing at times. There is a large purple arrow which you can line up with your duck to help you move onto the right hexes but to be honest even with that we still got a little muddled plus it was confusing, secretly choosing which card from our hand to play. A few times we found we had actually read the card and board wrong and therefore chosen the wrong card.

The other thing we couldn't handle with the game was really quite juvenile on our part (hey at least we admit it) but I challenge ANY adult to keep a straight face when playing a game where there is "duck bonking". Yup. If your duck hits the side of the board during a turn, or the drain to early or even another duck (*chortle*) it's called ducky bonking. I kid you not. The joke did manage to last for the whole game but all the same we could see it getting pretty tired and it really was hard to take seriously!

I can see this game appealing to (blissfully oblivious) kids who have zero idea why their parents and sniggering the whole time (or would it really just be us???). The ducks really are a pretty cool gimmick.

There is also an advanced version of the game to make it more challenging though we didn't play it ourselves.

Unfortunately though, while it's one we would play if it was pulled out by friends, it's also not our first choice.

For a laugh: How NOT to spend your Anniversary