Toy Review: Milton Bradley's Candy Land Castle Game

The new Milton Bradley Candy Land Castle Game was a smash hit with my preschool daughter. The Candy Land Castle Game is designed for children three and up and encourages shape and color recognition. The rules are simple enough for preschool children to comprehend, and easy enough for preschoolers to play with only mild supervision.

The Candy Land Castle Game comes with four gingerbread game boards, 18 colorful shaped tokens, and a Candy Land Castle and retails for around $20 (depending on retailer).

Thankfully, the Candy Land Castle DOES NOT require assembly. Castle construction appears pretty solid, and capable of with standing preschool age enthusiasm. The Candy Land Castle operates as a token dispenser, with a slot machine style lever used for dispensing tokens. The lever IS NOT spring loaded, and therefore avoids the risk of pinching little fingers.

The gingerbread game boards operate like bingo cards. Each board contains four colored shapes, and each board is slightly different. Children take turns pulling the lever. If the Candy Land Castle dispenses a shape found on her gingerbread game board, she places the token on the game board, and the next child takes a turn. If it does not match, the child places the token back into the dispenser, and the next child takes his turn. The first child to match all of the shapes on a gingerbread game board wins.

Tokens must be placed in the dispenser shoot one at a time to ensure they fall flat. This allows them to dispense properly. My daughter had no problem loading and dispensing from the Candy Land Castle. If tokens fall into the dispenser perpendicular, not all of the tokens will fit into the shoot, a good indication that it improperly loaded before the game even begins. This only happened to my daughter once.

I believe the Candy Land Castle Game is not only useful in reinforcing color and shape recognition, but for enhancing the social skills of sharing and taking turns. Allowing each child to pull the lever for his own token, encourages children to temporarily relinquish toys, while the repeated game pattern illustrates the idea of patiently waiting while others have an opportunity to participate.

The Candy Land Castle Game is designed for up to four children; however one child can enjoy the game as well. My daughter uses all of the gingerbread game boards when playing by herself, making the game slightly more challenging.