What Big Teeth You Have: A Review of Little Red Riding Hood

Each new installment in IELLO’s line of Tales & Games fairy-tale inspired board games offers something unique and different—and Little Red Riding Hood is no exception.

Gameplay

Little Red Riding Hood is unique in that it is essentially two games in one. You can play it cooperatively as a press-your-luck card game, or you can play it with one player taking on the role of the wolf and it suddenly becomes a game of bluffing and deduction.

To win the game, Little Red Riding Hood must reach Granny’s house at the end of her path before the wolf reaches it along his much shorter path. In the cooperative version, a player draws cards one at a time from the deck on her turn. Each card has a value. If the value is greater than or equal to the number of cards already drawn this turn, the player may choose to either keep drawing or end her turn. Otherwise, all cards are discarded and Little Red Riding Hood makes no progress. Each card also shows a number of flowers. Each flower shown earns the players one facedown token. If a player chooses to end her turn, she flips over these tokens and moves Little Red Riding Hood forward one space for each token that is not a pebble. After a player’s turn, the wolf moves forward one space, the next player takes the deck, and a new turn begins.

In the semi-cooperative variant, one player is the wolf. He chooses which card will be next drawn from the deck and lays it facedown. If the player whose turn it is chooses to end her turn, this card will be the first card drawn by the next player. The wolf also selects the facedown tokens.

Additionally, each of the players controlling Little Red Riding Hood gets a special character card which, when activated, gives them a unique power. Once a power has been used, however, the character card is flipped over and given to the wolf who now has access to his own special power. If the wolf uses this power, the character card will once again be flipped and returned to the player who it originally belonged to.

Review

The fact that Little Red Riding Hood contains two games offers some fun variety and makes it more flexible for game groups. Whether you’re more in the mood for press-your-luck or social deduction and bluffing, the game can fit both moods.

It’s the most fun when a player takes on the role of the wolf, however. Both sides offer unique challenges and it is fun to try to second guess each other and predict what the other side is going to do. There’s also an additional layer of intrigue as the Little Red Riding team is certainly allowed to talk amongst themselves, but with the wolf listening you have to be careful what you say.

The co-op variant is a little less enjoyable. Since each player has the exact same actions and you are both controlling the same character, your turn doesn’t really feel that special. Also after a few games, you quickly get a strategy down and there’s not too much variety after that. With the wolf variant, the player interaction tends to mix things up and always ensures that no two games will be exactly the same.

The rules are very simple to teach and learn and that does make this a great family game. There’s enough to interest adults while also being easy enough for children to both grasp and play. The artwork and components are lovely and do a great job of making the game feel like a fairy tale.

With a quick play time, and flexibility on age groups, player number, and even the rules themselves, Little Red Riding Hood can fit nicely into just about any game collection.

Pros: Good family game, accessible for children, two games in one

Cons: The co-op gameplay quickly becomes repetitive, gameplay may be too simple for some adult groups

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.