Pressman Toys The Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Game Review

Pressman Toys The Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Game has been a wonderful addition to our family's game collection. This is a board game designed for up to four players and is recommended for people over the age of three, but my 5-year-old struggled a bit in playing this game when she was a 4-year-old.

Set Up

This game has a board that unfolds, a spinner, and cards that need to be placed in a stack facing down. There are 16 cards of which 4 make a circle, including:

• ruby slippers
• diploma
• heart
• badge of courage

Players can choose one of four characters, which are placed on small stands:

• Dorothy (definitely my girls' top pick)
• Scarecrow
• Tin Man
• Cowardly Lion (my personal favorite because I get to say "I'm Scaaarrrred" throughout the game!)

How to play

Players take turns drawing a motion card that will direct the player to move forward 1-4 spaces. A few cards have a picture of Glinda (the good witch), and the player doesn't move but gets the chance to spin the spinner for a chance to get one of the four needed items (listed above). Several places on the game board also have pictures of Glinda.

There are also pictures of the Wicked Witch of the West, in which the player loses a turn. Players may take two shortcuts if they land on certain spots, but there are two spots where the player takes a ride on the witch's broom or on flying monkeys back to a previous spot. I think I had to ride that broom back the whole game one time! (I tend to change the rules a bit if a child gets stuck like that and limit the number of times she has to go back.)

If a player doesn't have all four pieces (slippers, diploma, heart, badge), she cannot go past a certain spot on the board and must ride back on the flying monkeys and hope she lands on some Glinda spots before someone else makes it all the way home to Kansas.

My Viewpoint:

Pressman Toys The Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Game is fun to play with characters that my children adore from the movie. My girls tend to fight over who gets to be Dorothy until I insisted that they rotate or flip a coin or both pick other characters. I'll even let one of the girls be the Cowardly Lion...on occasion, as long as I get to dance like the Scarecrow if I get a needed item!

You don't have to be able to read to play this game, but it may take a while to get home to Kansas, especially if players get stuck on the wicked witch or cannot seem to spin for the right stuff or end up going back on the broom or flying monkeys, but that can add a fun twist to the game as well. The main suggestion I have for the game is to make the stands for the characters a bit larger and/or heavier because they fall over easily.

This game has provided hours of entertainment at our house and I give it a hearty thumbs up!