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By happenstance we got two copies of this classic kids game for Christmas - one published in '04 prior to the Hasbro buy-out of Milton Bradly, and one from '10 after the buy out. The strange thing is that the boards are different. Markedly so.
The '10 Hasbro board is, oddly enough, edgier. The color palette is a marginally darker, and Lord Licorice's domain is a swampy cave rather than a lighter forest. Aside from he and King Candy all of the locational characters are different, with the '10 updated characters being more action-oriented, with an ice cream downhill skier, for example.
However, the '10 Hasbro board is also less challenging. Because of layout differences, laziness and the migration of the '04 board to a grandparent's house I can't do an actual space count, but even if the two boards are the same size the '10 board has one fewer licorice trap (two rather than three) and one more random movement space (for those not familiar Candyland movement is card driven, where you move forward to closest space of the same color you drew from the non-refreshing deck; however, there are a handful of single location cards where the drawer is moved ahead or backward to the corresponding random movement space) that deposits the player very near to the end of the board.
As someone interested in game design I wonder why the changes were made. OK, so the graphical changes are odd but not illogical: I expect the artwork has actually changed dozens of times in the games history. But the changes to the actual board design strike me as odd. Are they the result of rigorous play testing? feedback from the purchasers? Given the age demographic and the game's longevity I wonder why such a thing would be necessary. Anyone have any opinions?
The '10 Hasbro board is, oddly enough, edgier. The color palette is a marginally darker, and Lord Licorice's domain is a swampy cave rather than a lighter forest. Aside from he and King Candy all of the locational characters are different, with the '10 updated characters being more action-oriented, with an ice cream downhill skier, for example.
However, the '10 Hasbro board is also less challenging. Because of layout differences, laziness and the migration of the '04 board to a grandparent's house I can't do an actual space count, but even if the two boards are the same size the '10 board has one fewer licorice trap (two rather than three) and one more random movement space (for those not familiar Candyland movement is card driven, where you move forward to closest space of the same color you drew from the non-refreshing deck; however, there are a handful of single location cards where the drawer is moved ahead or backward to the corresponding random movement space) that deposits the player very near to the end of the board.
As someone interested in game design I wonder why the changes were made. OK, so the graphical changes are odd but not illogical: I expect the artwork has actually changed dozens of times in the games history. But the changes to the actual board design strike me as odd. Are they the result of rigorous play testing? feedback from the purchasers? Given the age demographic and the game's longevity I wonder why such a thing would be necessary. Anyone have any opinions?
