As I opened the box and unfolded the map for MicroMacro Kids for the first time, some questions immediately went through my head.
Okay, will they actually enjoy it, or will they get bored in ten seconds?
Will they actually know what’s going on, or am I essentially going to be playing this game by myself?
Will this map get destroyed within the first five games that we play?
I wasn’t all that worried about the game itself. I’ve played through two boxes of regular MicroMacro, and my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In fact, I think it’s one of the top 10 games of the last several years. But now we had two new partners, and they were four and six years old. That’s not exactly the age range where you expect careful observation, patience, and logical deduction to shine.
And yet.
Little Humans, Big Fun
As soon as the map hit the table, both kids were in. We had to lay a few ground rules first. If you’ve played the original MicroMacro: Crime City or MicroMacro: Full House, you know the drill. One massive, detailed black-and-white map. A set of cases that ask you to trace characters through time and space. A very Where’s Waldo kind of joy, where the act of looking is just as satisfying as finding the answer. MicroMacro Kids keeps that exact foundation, but strips away anything that would get in the way of younger players enjoying it.
There are no murders here. No bodies. No uncomfortable moments about whether that squiggle-headed person is having an affair with that triangle-bodied person. Instead, the cases in Crazy City Park are built around small mysteries like missing items, especially food. Lots of food. What’s impressive is that it never feels dumbed down. The questions are simpler, sure, but the satisfaction of spotting the right detail on the map is still very much intact.
Little Crime Solvers
At first, the kids thought it would be impossible. But as we talked to them about listening to the clues and noticing what made each character different, they started to get the hang of it. Soon enough, they started pointing, narrating what they saw, and inventing little stories about the characters. They also would scream with delight whenever we would stumble upon an illustration related to an older case.
They were also HUGE fans of the little green markers that are used to keep track of your clues. The original games suggest that you use coins or similar tokens to keep track of what you’ve seen. These translucent markers are so much better, though, because you can place it directly on top of what you found. This tiny little detail makes the game much more kid-friendly and feels like it was put in by a parent who really knew what was going on.
I also like how the cases have been moved from several decks of cards to one ring-bound book. Again, this feels like a parent-made decision, as it prevents any sort of chaos with cards all over the place or getting mixed up. Definitely a big plus for a kids version of the game.
Certainly, there are some problems with the original that carry over. There’s not really any replay value here, though there is at least one bonus case available out in the wild. There are also some additional challenges in the back of the casebook to stretch your gameplay a little longer.
I also wish that they had considered something different for the map. Yes, it’s paper, and I’m sure that makes the game much easier to produce, but it gets beat up pretty easily at our house, especially on the bottom edge. As the kids lean over to look at the top of the map, they inevitably bend and fold it in ways it shouldn’t go, leading to rips and tears. It likely will hold up for as long as we have cases to go through, but it would’ve been cool to see something done about that durability issue.
Final Thoughts
But honestly, those small issues don’t matter much to my kids right now. My youngest regularly asks to play “the map game,” and he never wants to stop after just one case. He wants to keep looking, keep finding things, keep shouting for joy when he sees a dog or a cat in a place a dog or a cat shouldn’t be.
MicroMacro Kids doesn’t feel like an educational game pretending to be fun. It feels like a fun game that happens to reward attention, patience, and teamwork. And if a game can get a four-year-old to slow down, focus, and ask to keep playing, that’s a pretty strong case all on its own.
Look for MicroMacro Kids: Crazy City Park at your local game store or purchase it online through Amazon today.
Highs
- Kid-focused design choices
- Encourages teamwork and storytelling
- Easy to learn, easy to start
Lows
- Low replay value
- Map durability issues
Complexity
Time Commitment
Replayability
