We have had a lot of enjoyment with BlueOrange for their wide selection of fun and educational games. Draw 4: Dig for Dinos! is the latest game we have tried from BlueOrange and is recommended for children ages 5 and up. 2-5 people can play Draw 4: Dig for Dinos!
This game has dinosaur bones that are part of an excavation zone. The object of this game is to discover and expose enough fossils to become the most famous paleontologist.
This game includes 40 dinosaur tiles and and an instruction sheet. It takes four tiles to complete each of the 10 dinosaurs included in the game. There are quadrants of a dinosaur on one side and their skeleton or fossil on the back side of the tile.
There are also 23 action tiles (brown in picture) in the game. 6 are rocks, 3 are for discarding, 3 exchanging, 3 stealing, 4 playing twice, and 2 returning. Their is a question mark on one side and the action is on the other side of the playing tile.
The number of tiles you play with does vary based on the number of players. The remaining tiles are simply left in the game box. You can also play with all of the tiles and make it a longer version of the game.
Initially, the action tiles are mixed with the dinosaur tiles and the beginning excavation tile (flag “1”) must be used.
All of the tiles are shuffled face down, with the skeletons and question marks showing.
The tiles are arranged face down in a square of 6×6, 7×7, or 8×8, depending on the number of tiles you are playing with. This is your “excavation zone”. Then select the first player. We also go with the youngest to keep things simple.
The first player removes the beginning excavation tile. This spot where that tile sat will create a free space between the tiles to start the game.
The players, a.k.a. paleontologists play clockwise. They take turns drawing one of the tiles that has a side next to a free space. If they draw a dinosaur tile, they can start building a dinosaur in front of them.
If the player draws an action tile, he or she turns it over and performs the action immediately. If a rock is turned over, it stays on the excavation site. Otherwise the action is performed on the other side of the action tile. Sometimes an action cannot be performed, like if none of the other players have a tile when drawing the STEAL card, or one to exchange for EXCHANGE. If a person has all four tiles to complete a dinosaur, another player can not take those tiles from them with action tiles.
Here is one of the action tiles for PLAY TWICE. The player takes 2 new dinosaur tiles from the excavation zone.
Here my daughter has the four tiles to complete one of the dinosaurs.
Here’s my little paleontologists. One is being surprisingly silly.
The game ends when the last accessible dinosaur tile is taken from the excavation zone. The players count their points from having unmatched dinosaur tiles and 2, 3, or a complete dinosaur (all 4 tiles), which gives the most points.
The player with the most points becomes the best paleontologist and wins the game. Sometimes there can be more than one winner if they have the same score.
Draw 4: Dig for Dinos! is an entertaining game that allows young players to take part in the fun. The tiles are thick and feel quite durable. Depending upon the number of players, an average game lasts 12-15 minutes. Draw 4: Dig for Dinos! Is available on Amazon and other retailers nationwide.
Disclosure: I received a product sample for this review. No other compensation was received for this post.
