Happy Little Dinosaurs - "Cute Dinosaurs & Impending Doom"

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What’s Happy Little Dinosaurs About? How To Win A Game Of Happy Little Dinosaurs?

Happy Little Dinosaurs is a goofy game all about outlasting your fellow dinosaurs. Random events happen to you and small companions, which make life a little harder to live. Survival is the name of the game. Use your different tools and weapons to stay alive and be the last mini-dinosaur alive. Alternatively, if everyone lives long enough. You will have an opportunity to get to the end of your trail, using your personal weapons cards to slowly take you to the finish line.

the green disaster cards called the natural disasters — Natural Disaster Cards

the blue disaster cards called emotional disasters — Emotional Disaster Cards

the red cards of disasters called the predatory disasters — Predatory Disaster Cards

Should I Buy Happy Little Dinosaurs By “Unstable Game”?

If I could go back and not buy this game, I probably would have picked something else out. I just don’t see myself or my family playing this game very often. It’s not one of those games that has a lot of substance to it. It’s cute, playful, and has a fun artwork theme. But other than that I just don’t see myself playing this more than once in a blue moon. My wife and I, played about 3 games in a row when first learning this game and that was plenty for us for the day. Again the artwork and the simplicity of the game might be great for the recommended 8+ area. For my family, we just didn’t find it at the top of our list.

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Happy Little Dinosaurs General Information
Play Time: 30-60 Mins
Publisher: Unstable Games
My Recommended Age Group: 8+
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty 1-10: 5

What Does The Gameplay Like For Happy Little Dinosaurs?

The gameplay is pretty straightforward, a main “Disaster” card is drawn for the group. Then everyone lays an ability card facedown to try and combat everyone else. Avoiding getting any of the disaster cards is the biggest goal. Do your best to predict what others might do and lay a card that will keep you safe and conserve some of your more powerful cards for when you need them. The person who ends up with the lowest number gets that “Disaster” card. That person now gets to discard and draw new ones first. While the person with the largest number gets to move they’re dinosaur further up their board path.

Game Cards / Board Pieces

How To Play Your Turn For Happy Little Dinosaurs?

The first thing you want to look at is what type of disaster is at stake. There’s emotional (blue), predatory (red), natural (green), and the wild card the “meteor strike.” If you get 3 of the same kind of disaster then you’re toast. Also if you get 1 of each of the 3 disaster cards then you’ll be done for.

So after you figure out if this is a disaster you need to avoid, then you figure out what card is best for this round. Not every round will be life or death for you, so sometimes to save one of your good cards for an emergency then you gotta play a lower-level action card.

Once you’ve played your action card, everyone flips up they’re cards. The highest card moves forward those spaces on their board. The lowest takes ownership of the disaster card and is that much closer to being out. The person who gets the disaster cards gets to do they’re discard/draw action and then everyone draws a new card.

The next round begins and the game goes on from there, till there’s no one else left standing but the one.

all characters of happy little dinosaurs

How Hard Is Happy Little Dinosaurs To Learn, Teach, And Play?

At first, it took my wife and me a minute to figure everything out. I’m a really big advocate for everyone just looking up YouTube videos to figure out how to play. It’s usually quicker and has more examples of how to play and adds a level of better understanding for me. After you’ve learned how the game works and all the different actions it becomes a lot easier to explain.

After our third play-through of the game, we pretty much had everything learned. We then could complete the games fairly quickly between my wife and I.

What I Would Like To See Added To Happy Little Dinosaurs?

Some of the best parts of this game for me are all the fun card art and funny disaster cards that go with it. So obviously I think that expanding on that is a must. Other than that trying to spend some time adding new mechanics to the game to add more strategic complexity would be a good idea. I think it’s needed to help grab my attention and maybe other older more veteran board gamers.

Happy Little Dinosaurs Box Setup

The box comes with 4 different character cards and respective dinosaur board pieces. The directions of course, which is one of those foldable huge pamphlets. Then the two sets of cards, Disaster and Weapons cards. So overall not too many different items. It comes in a very compact and nice box. Everything is super easy to put back into the box without confusion. Also doesn’t bulge out of the box like it’s over stuff. Overall it’s a great setup for the box and repacking it overall.