Richard Scarry's Busytown Eye found it! game review

November 10, 3:19 PMChicago Children's Toys ExaminerRenée Carver

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  The Richard Scarry's Busytown Eye found it! game from I can do
that! games develops a sense of teamwork, teaches attention to
detail, and will delight Richard Scarry's fans with its charming and
clever design. (credit: Renée Carver)

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The Richard Scarry's Busytown Eye found it! game is an outstanding new cooperative board game for 2 to 4 players ages 3 and up that will delight both parents who are fans of Richard Scarry's classic children's books and children who are fans of the new Busytown Mysteries animated series currently airing on the Cookie Jr TV CBS weekend morning block of cartoons.

How to play Busytown Eye found it! game

Players must work together to travel across Busytown and cross the water on the ferry to reach Picnic Island before Pig Will and Pig Won't eat all of the picnic food. Each spin of the spinner allows players to move a certain number of spaces forward, tells the pigs to eat one of the food items, or requires the players to work together to solve a Goldbug Mystery.

To solve a Goldbug mystery, players turn over a Goldbug card that tells them what type of object they will need to search Busytown for. The game board is a 6-foot-long representation of Busytown, covered with illustrations of buildings and scenarios adapted from the classic illustrations from Richard Scarry's Busytown books. Players must search all over the board for the chosen object (kites, barrels, shovels, etc.) and mark each example they find with an orange plastic magnifying glass before the egg timer runs out. Then players count how many objects they found and everyone gets to move that many spaces ahead.

Children preschool-age and up can develop
teamwork and enjoy cooperative play during a
round of this game. (© I Can Do That! Games)

All players must have boarded the ferry before it can travel the last few spaces to Picnic Island. If the players reach the picnic before the food is devoured, they win!

Richard Scarry's Busytown Eye found it! game review

Inventive, educational, and charmingly designed, this is easily one of the best board games of the year. It is a great first board game for preschoolers as it will teach them basic game skills (spinning a spinner, moving spaces, taking turns) in a nurturing environment that encourages teamwork.

Along with the emphasis on cooperation, another outstanding aspect of this game is the cleverness of the Goldbug mysteries. At least one or two examples of each objects are easily spotted, while others are hidden or being used in unexpected places in ways true to Richard Scarry's characteristic silly sense of humor (for example, a pair of socks hanging with a row of flags over a gas station or a long baguette tucked in the side pocket of a hitchhiker's backpack). Kids will develop an attention to detail and learn strategies for teamwork by dividing the board up into sections for each person to search. Even the youngest children can help by being in charge of watching the egg timer.

Each section of this Richard Scarry game board is as
interesting to look at as the pages of one of his classic
children's picture books. (credit: Renée Carver)

Visually, this Richard Scarry board game is also a treat. The character movers (Huckle Cat, Sally Cat, Lowly Worm, and Hilda Hippo) look as if they have just zoomed off of the pages of a Richard Scarry book, and kids can pore over each section of the game board with as much enjoyment as they might pore over the pages of What Do People Do All Day? or Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Even after playing this game for many rounds, even parents will find themselves spotting more funny vignettes or details in the picture that they had not noticed before.

Great board games for preschoolers

Families searching for great board games for preschoolers will definitely want to get a copy of the Richard Scarry's Busytown Eye found it! game for Family Game Night. Children will enjoy every aspect of playing it, from scrambling from one end of the board game to another searching for just one more hammer to playing with the toy magnifying glasses between turns. Parents, in turn, will find this enough of a challenge to have fun playing it over and over for the umpteenth time.

We purchased our copy of the Richard Scarry's Busytown Eye found it! game at a local Chicago Toys R Us store. It usually retails for around $19.99.

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