Base price: $12.
1 player.
Play time: ~15 minutes.
BGG Link
Check it out on Kickstarter! (Will update link when Kickstarter is live.)
Logged plays: 2
Full disclosure: A preview copy of ROVE Jr. was provided by Button Shy. Some art, gameplay, or other aspects of the game may change between this preview and the fulfillment of the Kickstarter, should it fund, as this is a preview of a currently unreleased game.
Button Shy previews are always a treat. They’ve usually got something interesting cooking in the tank, so you can imagine my delight when I got to go back and check out ROVE not once, but twice, in two different forms. Granted, I’ve covered ROVE previously, so feel free to check out my thoughts on the core game, but I’m always interested in mixing it up with some new games. So let’s dive right in!
In ROVE Jr., players are trying to sort things out for a decidedly-more-kid-friendly robot problem. Here, a lot has been simplified to make the game more friendly to a wider audience, but the puzzle remains the same. Use Movement Cards to rearrange Modules so that you can create the pattern indicated on the various cards. As you do, you’ll get cards back and try again until you’ve completed seven patterns. Then, you win! That’s often easier said than done, though; there’s still a decent challenge if spatial games aren’t your forte. Can you help this cute little robot complete all of his missions?
Overall: 7.75 / 10
Honestly, ROVE Jr. is pretty great! It does a really nice job of taking the existing ROVE gameplay and scaling it down for either a little more laid-back fare or a younger crowd. The art style is very cute, which is never a bad thing. I already enjoyed ROVE quite a bit, so more ROVE is never a bad thing, as far as I’m concerned, but having a nice and gentle on-ramp for the gameplay is great. It both shows how much Button Shy has correctly gauged ROVE’s staying power and how compelling the core gameplay loop is. I already appreciated the game as they added more expansions, but expanding in both directions (one sequel and an on-ramp game) is a very smart move. I’ll have more to say about both in time, so let’s focus on ROVE Jr. for now.
In terms of core gameplay, it’s pretty significantly simplified. The movement rules aren’t limited; you can just move any pictured Modules as many spaces as you want (including over other Modules). You also only have four Modules at a time, which decreases the overall complexity of the game pretty significantly. These all add up to give you a ROVE where you can focus on learning the mechanics at the same time as solving the puzzle, or a ROVE that’s great for players new to spatial gameplay. Or, I mean, being real, sometimes you just want to win a game. I generally am very pro-“A game should always have a ‘player always wins’ difficulty setting.”, so, a kid-friendly ROVE is right up my alley on that front.
Are there drawbacks? Sure, but mostly in the sense that I wish they had experimented a bit with ways to raise the difficulty beyond starting with fewer cards. It’s not a bad way to make the game harder, but I’d love some complexity challenges or extra puzzles or something, and the reduced difficulty of the ROVE Jr. setup seems like it would have been a great spot to experiment a bit more. But that’s okay. I still think ROVE Jr. is a great distillation of the core game for younger players, and if you’re looking for a way to teach spatial games, you want something you can play alongside your kids, or you just want a break from standard ROVE, ROVE Jr. is a nice spin on it!
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