Full disclosure: A review copy of EXIT Family: The Trophy Case & Night at the Carnival was provided by KOSMOS.

This is one of the fun parts of writing up a Future Review; I have no idea when this is going to drop, and I reserve the right to come back and edit this before I publish. I’m not going to do that, in all likelihood, but I reserve the right to do so. It’s currently … late September and I’m finishing up a work trip and headed back home, so I’m taking my usual “stay up all night playing video games since I have to be at the airport at 4:30AM” tack for some reason. I don’t hate sleeping; I just don’t want to risk missing my flight, which has literally never happened before. I worry. Assuming I survive all that, you’ll be reading this review since I’ll set it to publish … later. I already wrote up two Advent Calendars, so I’d expect this in two or four weeks at the earliest. Something to look forward to. So now that we’ve done that, let’s check out another EXIT Family title!

In EXIT Family: The Trophy Case & Night at the Carnival, the local animals are back and ready to solve all-new mysteries! This time, they’ve got a missing talent show trophy and a mysterious carnival invitation to handle! In case you’re new to EXIT Family games, these puzzles and riddles are generally aimed at the 8+ crowd, giving them an experience similar to the classic EXIT titles with a decoder disk and puzzles with number solutions, but the scope and scale of the puzzles are toned down a bit to make that learning curve less steep for them. Plus, there are places that older players can jump in to help or observe or keep track of things, as they might be wont to do. The solutions correspond to larger cards with easy-to-read text that advances the story and gives them new Riddle Cards and things to do. The most interesting part of the game, in my opinion, is that half of the mystery is locked up at the start of the game, and you have to get through the first half before unlocking the second! What new challenges and mysteries await the local pets and animal friends, and will you be able to solve all of them and potentially avert a disaster?

Overall: 8.75 / 10

Oh, this is an even better EXIT: Family than the first one! EXIT Family: The Trophy Case & Night at the Carnival demonstrates even more novel uses of the two-case formula, and I’m really liking how they turn out! I was kind of intrigued by the original usage of it, way back in EXIT: The Catacombs of Horror, and I’m a little amused that the format has now been basically completely committed to making delightful family game iterations instead. Out with the Parisian skulls and in with cooperative animal friends. Plus, there’s distinctly younger-player-friendly puzzles that make the game fun for the whole family. It’s not quite as straightforward as the EXIT Kids games can be; here, players have to set things up and build out puzzle states like the standard EXIT series games, but with slightly lower-complexity puzzles and larger fonts and such for younger players. Honestly, I enjoyed many of the puzzles. Sometimes you need an easier puzzle to give your brain a break and I’ve really needed the break lately.

I don’t exactly love the Hint Book style that they’ve used for these; I think it’s easily my least favorite of the various EXIT series options. It’s a bit too easy to see ahead to other puzzles when you’re flipping through it, and I’d rather not have that happen when I’m looking up a hint. And yes, I needed a hint while I was playing; it happens. We missed a visual feature that ended up being important and it wasn’t called out by the Riddle Card specifically, so we goofed it for a while. I’ve complimented the EXIT Family series before for focusing on puzzles that encouraged tactile play, especially for younger players. This one does an excellent job presenting riddles with tactile elements like building structures up, placing things, and even a very fancy horse racing minigame. It’s a superb way to get younger players excited about escape rooms and puzzle solving that harkens back to the days of early-PC puzzle gaming that I used to love. Maybe that’s why I’m so enamored with these? It’s certainly not the pets; I don’t care about them at all, unfortunately. Do love the puns, though, so there’s always a compromise.

This is all to say that I think EXIT Family is well-placed in its current zone of confidence, firmly between the EXIT Kids series and the EXIT Advent Calendars. EXIT Kids is more straightforward than the target audience for EXIT Family needs, and you can springboard (with time and practice) from EXIT Family to the standard EXIT games, though I think the Advent Calendars are a really good entry point since you can moderate the puzzles over the span of 24 days. If you’re not a parent or trying to get a family into the games, you might find that EXIT Family is a bit less complex than you’re looking for as an adult player. You might also find that it’s a nice break from more complicated puzzles; I’m not here to tell you your business. Either way, though, I’d definitely recommend checking out EXIT Family: The Trophy Case & Night at the Carnival if you’re looking for a light, friendly, and tactile puzzle game experience! It’s been a lot of fun to play and I’m excited for the next one.

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