Rio Grande Games fronted me a copy of their family-friendly board game Butterfly, where you help Hudson the hedgehog collect insects in the meadow. i’m pretty sure that hedgehogs eat all of the insects in question, but the back of box demurely hand-waves past it, claiming that Hudson just loves to collect things. i mean, to be fair, i like to “collect” things too. i think my favourite thing to “collect” is probably pizza. 

(click to view transcript)
Hi! it’s Ryan from Nights Around a Table, and Rio Grande games has sent me a game called Butterfly. What do i know about Butterfly? Zilcho! But i’m gonna unbox it for you really really quick. i was warned that while i like games that are a bit more euro, a little bit more heavy, Rio Grande Games had a couple of games in the queue that were neither. Little bit lighter, little bit more family-friendly, family-focused, and Butterfly, clearly, is one of them. Although some people – you know – judge a book by its cover, kind of, and they think “Oh, there’s cute animals on it – it’s not for…” You know. So maybe they’ll discredit something like Everdell because there’s cuddly animals on it? However, Everdell you can’t really teach to a three-year-old, i wouldn’t say. Here’s what it looks like. Honestly… euh… you know, i’m picky about art. These gigantic eyeballs, i’m not a huge fan of. And drawing a butterfly so that it looks like a caterpillar with wings? Butterflies aren’t caterpillars with wings. Caterpillars are caterpillars without wings, and butterflies are like…. have you SEEN a butterfly up close? They’re a little bit sketch. They’re kind of creepy. They’re basically spiders, and then you glue these pretty wings on ’em. So this, i guess, is an attempt to make the butterflies more cuddly. But i think this game is about this hedgehog, which i’m not sure if anybody gets to play, but there IS a hedgehog in the game, catching butterflies. In real life… Box Fart-O-Meter: zilcho. In real life, in nature, c…i’m not Richard Attenborough, but i… do… hedgehogs eat butterflies? Like, why is he catching them? Is it cuz they’re delicious? i don’t know. Off the top, this is the sum total of the rulebook. There’s a nice change of pace! It’s one slippery sheet, double-sided, that teaches you how to play. So very much geared towards family, and for grown-ups to teach to other players. A little promo, a little bit of a… thing… and here’s the board! Let’s crack open the board. What’s going on with the board? Board is double sided. Thickness that we’re used to. Feels decent. Hopefully will lay flat one day. And it’s got nuts, and it’s got leaves on it, and different grids depending on whether you’re playing with three players or with five players, and i assume four players is going to be on the back – look at that! i’m a genius! And two players right in there. Proviso: i am NOT a genius. i’m required, i think, by law to mention that in every video i do. This is a stack of punchable card that has on it… tiles. i think this is a tile laying game. So here are some of the butterfly tiles that you get, and… hmm. Hmm! i’m assuming a scoring sheet right here. You know what? i don’t know why, but can probably read the rules to you right now, and it wouldn’t make for a much longer video. Here’s another… these look like player boards, because i think there’s gonna be about five of them. i believe this plays up to five, as we saw from the board. Wasps. You don’t want to run into them. And this is gonna be more butterfly tiles, presumably. Yes! More butterfly tiles, and we got some cricket or grasshopper tiles. A couple of those are… daisies? i don’t know my flowers. i’m no botanist. And glow bugs, and dragonflies… a couple more butterflies. What else is in the box? You’ve got the standard, by now Rio Grande Games well, and you just throw your stuff in there. So that’ll house all the tiles when they’re punched out. A drawstring bag – black drawstring bag – (poosht!) the kind of draws on either side, with – i hope – nothing… ack!! No. Nothing in it. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s empty. Don’t worry, kids: nothing in the drawstring bag. And this little hedgehog meeple. A little piece of wood hedgehog meeple. (indiscriminate possibly-hedgehog muttering)”Meh… i’m a… hedgehog.” Is that how they talk? i don’t know. DO they talk? Just – again: i’m no botanist, and i’m no hedgehogologist. But there he is, and i assume you’re directing him to run around collecting various butterflies, depending on which tiles they end up on. i could almost teach this game without even reading the instructions, and i bet you could too! That is the sum total of what you get in the box with Butterfly from Rio Grande Games. They recommend… it’s gonna be 2-5 players, and the age range goes from… it’s not recommended for children under three, because these guys are delectable and fun to swallow and choke on. This, interestingly… the only other thing i think i can manage to say about Butterfly is that weirdly, this is the second board game now in my collection that has hedgehog meeples in it, and i mentioned the other one earlier in the video. See if you’re smart enough to figure out which game that is. As for this video, thank you so much for watching! Did you just watch that whole thing? Oh – hey! To 100% this video, click the badge to subscribe, and then click the bell to get notifications when i’ve got new stuff! [Music – Board Game Boogie by Ryan Henson Creighton]

Get Your Own Copy of Butterfly

Need more games to play with the kids? Or do you just adore hedgehogs and every little thing they do? Add Butterfly to your own board game collection using the Amazon link below, and i’ll receive a small commission.