Snail's Pace Race

Snail's Pace Race

A Snail's Pace Wins the Race 
Snail's Pace Race is a cooperative, non-competitive game that is part of Ravensburger's Imagine-Play-Discover line of early learning games for children ages 3 and up. Players move six colorful snail game pieces along the path of the game board, each starting from their matching colored leaf. All snails race even if there aren't an equal number of players. Players roll the dice to move the snails forward along their color path until they reach the last spot in their color.

Players Cooperate with One Another to Race the Snails 
Ravensburger's Snail's Pace Race is an early learning game designed to introduce preschoolers to the basics of board game play without the pressure of direct competition. In this game, the snails race each other, faciliated by the roll of the dice thrown by the children. The game encourages cooperative play as participants work together to race the snails. Snail's Pace Race introduces children to basic board game rules such as turn-taking, patience, dice-rolling and piece movement. Players also get to practice their counting, color-matching, memory, and social skills.

Bright Artwork and Bold Designs Engage Children 
Like the other games in Ravensburger's Imagine - Play - Discover collection, Snail's Pace Race features bright artwork and bold callouts to engage young players and hold their attention. The carved wooden snail-shaped playing pieces provide a tactile appeal and help deepen players' connection to the game.

What's In The Box? 
6 wooden snails, 2 colored wooden dice, 1 playing board, 1 set of instructions

Review by Stephen Karmol https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1176504/pace-thing-why-game-works

I've watched children in my classroom of 4-6 year-olds enjoy this game immensely over the past school year. We have two copies of the game, and they are both frequently in use. The children enjoy the theme, the brightly colored wooden snail meeples (sneeples?), and the ability to play with up to six players. The simplicity of the rules and setup means that they were able to learn the game and play it independently very quickly, something early childhood educators value in their classrooms.

There are two particular aspects of this game that I'd like to highlight in this brief review.

(1) Every player is active on every turn. I can't stress the importance of this enough in the children's play experience. There are so many games that incorporate a turn-taking structure (I roll, I move. You roll, you move.) but Snail's Pace Race has players looking to see if their color has come up each time the dice are rolled. From a design standpoint I can see how this is almost a necessity in a six-player game, but even in a two-player game I believe it positively impacts children's engagement and focus.

(2) The fastest and slowest snails win the race. Together. As in: there are two winners each game. This simple twist encourages children to think about the game differently, and it has been interesting to watch them realize that a close second place is not nearly as desirable as the back of the race.

The last thing I'll say is that this game is so simple in its gameplay and design that children started to modify the rules and create their own variants after just a few months. I appreciate that the simplicity of the game helped foster the confidence to start altering the game and make it more interesting, challenging, or simply different as the year unfolded. 

My First Games : The best toy store and board game store in Singapore! We sell boardgames and toys that even adults have fun playing. This encourages parents to spend more time with their children, having fun! Even better, when parents play board games with their children, the children are engaged, they learn to listen to and abide by rules, and their concentration span is lengthened. Just play with your kids, already!