SavannaScapes: Educational Game for Kids to Learn African Wildlife

what our customer say this product:

Powered by

1. Holly Verified Buyer – 21 August 2024

   This is the most fun we’ve had doing an educational game in a long time! You see lots of math games out there, but not so much on other topics. This ecosystem game was such a breathe of fresh air for my kids. Learning while having fun is always great! The goal of this game is to build a balanced ecosystem by placing animals, events, flowers, etc together to perfectly balance each other. At first, I was intimidated by the number of pieces in the game, but within minutes of reading the instructions we had it figured out. Each game piece has either an animal, flower, or event (rain, drought, etc) on it. On the reverse side is a point system for keeping up with points. You place tokens down to balance out your ecosystem. Once one piece is fully balance, you flip it over and earn the points for that card. I love that the points tokens have a little tray to keep them organized. Every single piece to this game is extremely well made and high quality. It’s probably the most well-made board game I have ever owned. The plastic tray inside the box holds each and every piece perfectly. It comes with a bag for taking on the go, or if you prefer not to keep the game box. I personally LOVE this game box and will continue to use it. It comes with a fun fact booklet that gives you so much information. Even as an adult, this game taught me so much. I will be searching for many more games by this company.

   

2. L. Espinoza Verified Buyer – 6 February 2025

   It was return it was expensive and confusing
   

3. Tank-Less Verified Buyer – 10 March 2025

   This is an easy to play and entertaining game with the kids.
   The instructions aren’t always very clear, especially since they ask you reference a video online.
   There’s no game board to hold the square animal / plant tiles in place, so they can get knocked around and disorganized while playing.
   Overall idea is great and again, play is easy to pick up on even for the little ones. Scoring during an event phase needs clarification for sure, however.
   

4. Jessica Verified Buyer – 23 March 2025

   This is not the first game I have purchased from SimplyFun, and it won’t be my last. I played this with my 8 and 5-year-old. My 5-year-old enjoyed the game, but my 8-year-old didn’t (this is because he got the least amount of points). I thought it was a fun game, though it did take many times of having to re-explain instructions to both kids. It is geared for 7+, so I’m sure older kids would get it faster. The strategy part of the game was probably the hardest to explain to my kids, especially choosing the event cards when either event would have the same benefit for them but could affect their opponents’ scores more. The quality of the pieces is great and should hold up with many plays. I like that they make video tutorials on their website on how to play the game, so if you are in a hurry you can watch that instead of having to read through the entire instructions included in the game box. This is a great educational game as well and could be easily incorporated into homeschooling plans or to supplement what they are learning in their traditional classroom.
   

5. D. Knox Verified Buyer – 12 April 2025

   One of the most important parts about selecting an educational game for your kids is whether or not it will get their attention. Well, my kids love this game! First of all, the packaging – the box for the game is quite sturdy, no worries about thin cardboard that will get easily squished. That’s always nice to know when you’re going to stack it with your other games. Second, the molded plastic on the inside of the box for the pieces is quite sturdy as well. This isn’t going to crush easily either and it holds the pieces you need it to without warping. Also good to know! There is an included bag for the various playing pieces, and that’s a durable material also. No worries about it ripping or falling apart or anything. Now, on to the game itself: it feels a bit complicated but as with most games get easier with a run-through or two. That said, I really, really love the choice of the ecosystem as Serengeti-Mara. This is soooo diverse! There are: grasslands, woodlands, drylands (kopjes or rocky areas), and wetlands (rivers or swamps). Apparently this is supportive of “one of the largest migrations of mammals and some of the highest diversity of grazing animals on earth”. This makes it particularly good to introduce all of these plants, animals, and habitats to your family. There are soooo many animals in this game, as well as “keystone” species (species that have a huge effect on the environment around them), flowers, pollinators, and seasons/events (such as wildfires). Everything is worked into gameplay in order to have the family think about how all of these things work together in an ecosystem. It’s fantastic! There is so much to learn and talk about in this game that you will enjoy hours of creative learning. The page here has a really good video that describes how to play the game, and of course there are two booklets included in the game box that describe the individual tiles – the “Serengeti-Mara Fun Facts Booklet” and the “SavannaScapes” booklet which gives all of the rules and gameplay information. The box says it’s for 2-5 players, takes about 30 minutes to play, and is for ages 7 and up. That’s about right. It was maybe a bit too much for my 6 year old, although she did like it. Just a suggestion – use every moment that you can to talk about the information as you go. Use the opportunity to learn as a family! It’s fun. Overall – definitely recommend. Enjoy!