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Poseidon's Kingdom board game review: Family friendly undersea adventure
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Poseidon has lost his treasured trident, and your friends have disappeared while trying to find it. It turns out they have been captured by evil Hans the Kraken. Suckers! The Kraken plans to make a nice stew out of them. Can you prise open his tentacles, release your friends, and defeat him? Hope so. Oh, it's probably not a good time to mention the shark. - photo by Ryan Morgenegg
When looking for a board game to acquire, there are a few qualities that make the best games stand out. Does it look beautiful? Is it easy to learn? Is it appropriate for families? Is the game still good after multiple plays? And the bottom line, is it fun to play? When a game excels in all these areas, it is a must have. Poseidons Kingdom by Game Salute is just such a game. Its absolutely fantastic!

Lasting just under an hour, Poseidons Kingdom is a fun foray into the realm of the seas for two to four players. The theme is that Poseidon has lost his magical trident and the players represent a family of sea creatures trying to help find it. The only problem is that part of each players family has been captured by the evil Kraken. To win, a player must rescue the members of their family first.

In the game, each player represents a family of sea creatures. There are the orange starfish, green octopuses, blue fish and yellow clams. The player pieces are hand-painted, cartoonish 3D characters that look absolutely gorgeous. There is also a shark that patrols the waters of the game board looking to catch a players sea creatures. There is also a cute dolphin game piece that can protect players from the shark, but a player has to get lucky to attract the dolphin.

Two different boards are used for the game. There is a large board representing a section of the sea and another board representing the lair of the Kraken. A 3D dice wave cradle sits at the back of the large sea board and fills up with dice throughout the game. When it hits a tipping point, it spills out onto the sea, dispersing dice everywhere. Cool!

Dice are important because they represent food and can be used to release family members from the Kraken. A family member is released by accumulating dice in certain combinations such as a pair of fives or three numbers in a row. Meanwhile players also build a 3D catacomb home base that unlocks abilities such as more movement, additional dice eating and more dice storage.

On a turn, a player must make the tough decision of building a home base and getting better abilities or place dice on the big 3D crashing wave. The person with the highest score when the wave crashes gets a one-time unique ability. Its the only way to get the dolphins help against the shark.

The second part of a turn involves moving a creature on the sea board to gobble up dice that can be used to release family members from the Kraken. If a player doesnt quite have enough dice, he or she can store them in the home base.

The final part of the turn is the movement of the shark. It moves in a set pattern on the sea board and gobbles up any sea creatures in its way. If a players sea creature is eaten, the player loses part of home base, possibly losing a special power along with it.

Its hard to fully imagine how good this game looks until it is completely set up on the table. And the gameplay is so fun and innovative it matches the quality of the production piece for piece. This is a game that belongs in every familys collection. Kids will beg to play it over and over again. There is nothing vulgar or suggestive in the content. This is what a perfect game looks like. Find out more at gamesalute.com/poseidons-kingdom-2nd-edition.