The Meeple’s Eye View is an in depth review of one of the many games in our board game library.
Be the life of the parade! Colorful cards and characters make up this fun card game from Z-Man games.
Theme: Alice in Wonderland Parade
Number of Players: 2-6
Game Time: 30 minutes
Age Appropriateness: 10 and up
Game Type: Parade is a card game with set-collecting and discarding strategy
Game Play: Players are dealt a hand of five cards, with six cards face-up in the middle forming the parade. There are six different colors of cards (each representing a different Wonderland character) which are numbered 0-10.
On each player’s turn they add a card to the end of the parade. Placing a card at the end of the parade could force other cards from the parade out of line and into that player’s collection in front of them. The goal is to have the fewest points (card values added together) at the end of the game.
The player with the most of each color does not score the cards of that color by numerical value printed on the card, but rather each is worth just one point.
Component Quality: The game is made up entirely of cards, which are normal quality. The artwork is nice, and the box from Z-Man games is a colorful purple and gold with a great big Cheshire cat grin.
My Take: The theme in this one wipes away quickly. It really is just a colored card game. But that isn’t a bad thing. The game does not really need a theme, but there is one if you want to see it.
I like this game as a replacement for Uno. There is significantly less luck than playing Uno, but you still have to get good cards.
The first time I played the game I did not grasp the rules for why certain cards were pushed out of the parade and into my collection. The scoring seemed a little strange too, with some cards being worth just one point and others face value.
The second time I played everything made sense. It may just be one of those kinds of games, or perhaps just the way it is explained. Don’t give up on it quickly. It is a really good filler card game once you get the idea.
Expansions and Replay-ability: There are currently no expansions for Parade.
Rick Grayshock is a husband and father who is a digital content producer for FOX Sports Ohio and is a co-founder of the Cleveland sports website WaitingForNextYear.com. Rick is excited to contribute to Meeple Moments and to write about his ‘other’ favorite hobby.