Candy Land is one of the most entertaining board games in existence. Game play is deceivingly simple. Made for 2 to 4 players, the goal is to move your little, red, yellow, green, or blue game piece from one end of the winding, colored path to the other.
Instead of rolling dice, which is the average means of determining spaces in board games you draw from the top of a stack of cards. On each card is one or two colored squares corresponding directly to the squares on the board. If you draw a card that has one purple square you move forward to the next purple square. If you draw a card with two orange squares, you move forward two orange squares on the board.
The path is made up of three different categories of squares. The first is your basic colored square. These squares are the most abundant, and more often than not, you will land on them. The second type is what I like to call the sticky square. Cleverly disguised as your average color square with a meaningless black dot, these squares, if lit upon, will keep you from moving forward until you draw a card of corresponding color. No mercy is shown for those who are stuck here as others easily pass them by.
However, it is not as easy to reach the end as it sounds. The third and most annoying square is the character square. There are 6 character squares on the board, each residing next to their correponding character, which illustrate the otherwise empty spaces. If you draw a character card you are automatically transported to that square. This can be good if you draw Queen Frostine on the first turn, because you are automatically transported to near the end. On the other hand, if you are one square away from the finish, and you draw the dreaded Plumpy card you get transported all the way back to near the beginning of the board and have to work your way back.
This game, although clearly marked on the front as "A child's first game" is indubitably fun for all ages. You can also create exciting variations of the game for that extra wild party.
Candy Land: version Doomhammer is one such variation. A very violent variation. To play all you need is a home version of Candy Land and 2-4 warm bodies. The more the merrier.
The rules are fairly simple. Choose your game pieces and begin play as you normally would. If you want you can modify the rules as you see fit, just make sure you can complete the game with a fair amount of spare time left at the end.
The reason is this. As soon as the winner lands on the last space, he must grab his/her game piece off of the board and keep a hold of it at all costs. The rest of the players are to then bite, kick, pull hair, even scratch at the winner to get a hold of the game piece which they are harboring. For added flavor, you can make up specialty moves, such as a doomhammer.
Also for a little bit of extra fun, if you have the proper amount of players you can divide into teams for the doomhammer portion of the game.
This game is best played in an open area away from breakable things, and is also not meant to harm or maim players, just for good clean fun.
For players under age 17 we reccomend adult supervision.