Yo ho ho and a boatload of fun
KRAKEN ATTACK
Designer: Antoine Bauza & Esteban Bauza | Publisher: Loki
Designing a great kids’ game is a tricky proposition. Ideally, it should be simple enough for young players to understand, but with enough depth to keep grown-ups entertained. It needs to be fast-playing enough to cater to children’s attention spans. And ideally it should come with a fun theme and some cool physical bits and pieces to play with.
Kraken Attack ticks every single one of these boxes. A co-op game of pirates fighting to repel a giant sea monster, it’s a co-design from Antoine Bauza (7 Wonders, Ghost Stories, Hanabi) and his son Estaban. Perhaps including his own offspring in the creative process helped Bauza tap into a child-like sense of excitement, because from its fastflowing gameplay to its toy-like plastic components, everything about this release seems to radiate a sense of family-friendly fun.
Its action takes place on a brightly illustrated board with a sailing ship in its centre, surrounded by a set of lanes. Each lane contains one of the kraken’s deadly tentacles, and on each player’s turn they’ll roll dice to see which move towards their craft. If a tentacle ever reaches the ship, it rips a chunk from its hull. Allow it to happen one too many times, and you’ll sink – something pirates generally prefer to avoid.
To ensure you stay afloat, you and your fellow players will have to sprint from one part of the ship to another, fighting off the advancing appendages using cannons, pistols and cutlasses while scrambling to repair damage. The tricky bit, though, is that the actions available on your turn are determined by a deck of shuffled cards, and you’ll constantly need to confer with your teammates to work out how best to use the limited set of options at your disposal.
To make things a little less punishing, each pirate comes with their own special ability, letting them perform certain actions repeatedly, attack from apparently impossible angles or unleash devastating volleys of cannon fire. But as the game progresses the enemy becomes steadily angrier, launching quicker attacks and eventually poking its head above the water to finish off you and your crew. It means that, as in any good co-op game, the challenge and the tension ramp up with every round. But you’ll also only be able to defeat the beast once it emerges from beneath the waves, and it does mean that the preliminary stages feel a bit less consequential, with no way to deal meaningful damage to your foe.
Still, though, this is a fantastic introduction to cooperative gaming, and with everyone on the same side, there’s no potential for the kind of tears and tantrums that can arise in competitive kids’ contests. Its cartoon artwork and gorgeous pieces give it incredible visual appeal, and its rapid-fire pace mean no one ever has to wait very long for their next turn to come around.
Good children’s games are a vital part of any parent’s collection. This is one of the best to come out in years.
OWEN DUFFY
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
◗ 1 Ship board
◗ 1 Kraken tracking board
◗ 1 Kraken figurine
◗ 4 Pirate pawns
◗ 8 Tentacle figurines
◗ 8 Ship’s rails
◗ 6 Kraken dice
◗ 40 Action cards
◗ 4 Player aid cards
◗ 4 Hole tokens
◗ 3 Kraken Attack tokens
◗ 4 Whirlpool tokens
◗ 1 Rulebook
WE SAY
With its quick-fire rounds, ramping tension, buccaneering theme and beautiful physical production, Kraken Attack is a fantastic addition to a family game shelf.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED FORBIDDEN ISLAND…
Where Forbidden Island served as an introduction to co-op games, Kraken Attack simplifies things even further.