Junior Ticket to Ride on mobile

A game that I have had on my iPad for years now is Ticket to Ride, a game that I’m sure many of you already know as it’s been on the iPad since 2011. It’s a modern board game made by developer Days of Wonder, that also made the original real board game back in 2004. In the game, that’s all about trains, players attempt to connect two cities together by purchasing a variety of different routes on a map. To do this, they will collect different colored cards that are the in-game currency. For instance, a green route with four links in the chain will require 4 green cards to purchase, see? Connecting cities in this way and buying routes gives the player points, and the one with the most points win.

Though the rules are simple, you have to take care to buy the right cities, cutting your opponent off when you can and it’s generally fun to play. The tablet version is beautiful, as is the Ticket to Ride Pocket that came to mobile a while later. It also features multiplayer mode and some social interaction to share your triumphs and play against people online. There are additional expansion maps to buy, and new ones are getting added regularly.

If you have young children, for whom the game was too complex to play, there’s good news. Days of Wonder has made a child friendly version called Ticket to Ride First Journey. The gameplay is somewhat simplified while it keeps the spirit of the original game alive. The kids can play it alone to get some good practice in, but there’s also the Pass & Play multiplayer up to 4 players. Meanwhile, your young one learns a bit more about the different cities and their iconic monuments. And whoever wins, gets a golden ticket and gets their reward picture added to their collections.

Each city is depicted by a symbol that reminds you of it, like a Russian Doll to Moskow and a Saxophone to New Orleans. And every time a ticket is completed and a route is claimed, these little symbols come to life, accompanied by lots of bells and whistles. The graphics are beautiful and all the animation will certainly appeal to younger kids. There is no online play, so no worries of exposing your child to the big world, multiplayer is solely aimed at family and friends. Can you picture a fun family game night with it?

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