Noah's Ark Card Game

I bought this cheap as chips card game for us to play after Christmas lunch today, we had mixed results.

We started playing the game it was intended for, Noah's Ark.
The aim of the game is to get all the families of animals (mum, dad and baby) into the ark with Noah.

There are 17 families and one Noah card.

The cards are all dealt out and players can look at their cards. If players hold a complete family then it is laid down in front of them face up.  This animal family has "entered the ark".

The player on the left of the dealer holds all their remaining cards face down to the player on their left.  This player selects one of the cards shown.

If this card completes a family then it "enters the ark", otherwise this player now offers their card to the next person on the left.

Game continues until all animal families have "entered the ark".

If a player has the Noah card then they can complete the game by "closing the ark".

Scoring:
When the ark is closed then the players all total the scores of the cards in front of them in families.  They then take off the value of any cards still in their hands.  The person who closes the ark with the Noah's card scores 50 points. The winner is the player with the highest score.

There were five of us playing and the game didn't work with that many, after an hour we'd got almost no where and Rachel had wondered off from boredom.

Determined to try and get a game for us all out of my purchase I convinced everyone to play Happy Families with the cards instead.

The object of the game is to collect complete families. 

The cards are all dealt out.  The players can look at their cards and make any families they have.  When a player has a family of cards they lay that family down in front of them, face up.

Game starts when everyone has looked at their cards.

The first player asks another player for a specific card from a family they already have one of. 

If the asked player has the card, they gives it to the requester and the requester can then ask any player for another card. 

If the asked player does not have the card, it becomes their turn and they ask another player for a specific card. 

Play continues in this way until all cards are grouped into families.  The player with the most families of cards wins.

This was much more interactive, fast paced and exciting to play. It got us all talking and laughing and Rachel loved it.

Despite not being great in it's original form, this card game is definitely worth getting hold of if you can. The best £2 I've spent in ages.
Happy Christmas