Small Home Gaming: Eye Found It!

Hi all, it’s Chris again with another Small Home Gaming review.

While Pandemic (the tabletop game, not the real thing) is a lot of fun, Sunshine and Sweetheart aren’t yet old enough to enjoy it with us. One of the ways we deal with this is to play after they go to bed. The other way we deal with it is to get games we can play with them. Enter the Eye Found It! family of games. We actually have two very different games from the Eye Found It! line, so we’ll look at both of them.

Disney Eye Found It!: Hidden Picture Card Game (not to be confused with the board version)

Playtime: ~ 10 min.
Players: 2 or more
Age: 3+
Digital Version: No

Overview:

Published by Ravensburger, Disney Eye Found It! is one of our girls’ favorite games to play during family time. Each player is dealt a set of cards, and each card displays part of a scene from the Disney Universe. Players are then tasked with finding random objects in the scenes. The key here is that everyone is looking for the same object. The first person to find it discards the card they found it on, reveals a new object to find, and the next round starts. That’s really about it. The game length is determined largely by how many cards you decide to give each player, but it’s a really fast game.

As for the components, there are just 57 cards which are large, brightly colored, and of a sturdy quality. The artwork is fantastic and really makes it a joy to hunt for some of the harder to find objects. The cards are also double-sided, with a scene to look through on one side, and an object to find on the other.

Spatial Requirements:

One of the best things about Disney Eye Found It! is just how small it is. While it’s a little tight, we can suitably fit a four player setup on our board (23” x 27.5”). Even better, when we’re done the cards go back into their 3” x 5” box for easy storage.

Final Thoughts:

If you have young children you really can’t go wrong with Disney Eye Found It!: Hidden Card Game. The bright colors, recognizable Disney characters, and scavenger hunt gameplay all create an experience that’s great for kids and fun for adults. Add in a reasonable playing area, diminutive storage size, and an affordable price tag and you genuinely can’t ask for more.

Eye Found It!: Journey Through Time

Playtime: ~ 30 minutes
Players: 1 - 6
Age: 4+
Digital Version: No

Overview:

On the other end of the Eye Found It! spectrum is Eye Found It!: Journey Through Time. Brought to us by publisher Wonder Forge, Journey Through Time is the exact opposite of Disney Eye Found It! (the card game) in nearly every way.

Unlike the card-based Disney Eye Found It!, the board version of Journey Through Time is a co-operative game with a shared player piece (time capsule). Players are simply trying to make it to the Finish line before running out of fuel. Movement is largely handled with a Spinner, with players getting to the “search and find” part of the game if they spin a Red or Blue “search” card, or if they land on a “search” space on the game board. Each of these cards provides an object for everyone to search for on the board (hay, clouds, horses, etc). Searches last two minutes and are usually quite easy, though there are a few more difficult objects in the deck. After completing a search, the time capsule moves as many spaces as the number of objects found.

At the start of the game players divide up the marker pieces and pick a character. Each character has a special ability that can be used to assist in the journey. Each player takes it in turns to use the spinner and resolve any resulting actions (move, search, lose fuel). Players work their way across the board until they either reach the Finish space or run out of fuel.

The componets are of reasonable quality. The board is solid enough and feels like it will stand up so a moderate amount of abuse, the Character cards are made of a heavy cardboard that should survive quite well, the marker tokens are made of a sturdy plastic, and the sand timer is made of a less sturdy plastic. The Search cards however, seem to be made of a very thin cardstock and bend easily. Granted you don’t really do much with them but it would still be nice if they were a bit sturdier, especially as this is primarily a kids game.

Spatial Requirements:

Eye Found It!: Journey Through Time is, frankly, enormous. The gamebox (the one you have to find space to store) is 16” x 11” x 3”. It isn’t the largest game box we have, but it’s far from small. The game board itself is an enormous 72” x 14”. Yes, this game board is 6 feet long. The rest of the game is actually quite decent. There’s just twelve marker pieces, a small deck of double-sided Red/Blue search cards, the player piece, and the sand timer. The board itself comes in three different tri-fold segments that enable it to fit nicely in the medium sized box. We’re able to fit the game board and three players (two are children) on our IKEA FRIHETEN couch. I typically sit on the opposite side of the board on the floor.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, our family enjoys Eye Found It!: Journey Through Time. It’s a good change of pace from the card-based Disney version, and it feels like a more traditional game (for better and worse) than the card game. That said, the board is enormous and not everyone will be able to find a great place to play it. Additionally, the board is also extremely busy. While this is necessary to accommodate the gameplay and keep it from being a cakewalk, it does seem to cause some problems for four-year-old Sweetheart. Then there’s the issue of cost. As of the writing of this blog, Disney Eye Found It!: Hidden Picture Card Game is significantly cheaper than Eye Found It!: Journey Through Time. It’s also significantly smaller, better for young kids, and just as much (maybe even more) fun. All in all, I simply can’t recommend Eye Found It!: Journey Through Time for small homes (or any home really). If you’re looking for a Search and Find game, or maybe want something new to do with your kids, definitely go with Disney Eye Found It!: Hidden Picture Card Game.

NOTE: There is a card version of the Journey Through Time game but A) we haven’t tried that one, and B) it seems to be incredibly difficult to find.