Product Description

This delightful game is simple and easy to play, even for children who can't read. Fun pictures help kids understand the rewards of doing good deeds as they climb up the ladders-and the consequences of naughty ones as they slide down the chutes. For 2 to 4 players. Game includes: game board, spinner with plastic arrow and 4 pawns with plastic stands.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #828 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Hasbro
• Model: 4555 S5
• Dimensions: 1.60" h x 10.60" w x 15.80" l, 1.50 pounds

Features

• CHUTES AND LADDERS is the game of rewards and consequences. As kids travel along the game path, they encounter situations that reward them for good deeds by letting them climb the ladders or punish them for misbehaving by sending them down chutes.
• Chutes and Ladders is ideal for younger children who are still learning to take turns and just beginning to recognize numbers (the spinner stays in the single digits).
• No reading required.
• It's also a gentle introduction to the higher numbers as players climb to 100 at the top of the board.
• Family Game Night game for preschoolers!

Amazon.com
Be the first to move your child-shaped playing piece from square one to square 100 on the Chutes and Ladders game board--but watch out! If you land on the square that shows you ate too much candy--Ouch!--you get a tummy ache and slide down a chute to a square a few numbers below. But if you end your turn on a good-deed square, such as helping sweep up a mess, you'll be rewarded by a ladder-climb up the board.

A fantastic follow-up to Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders is ideal for younger children who are still learning to take turns and just beginning to recognize numbers (the spinner stays in the single digits). It's also a gentle introduction to the higher numbers as players climb to 100 at the top of the board. And, thanks to all those chutes and ladders, it's got enough excitement to keep your 7-year-old on the edge of her seat. English and Spanish instructions are included; no reading is necessary to play. Chutes and Ladders is for two to four players. --Julie Ubben

From the Manufacturer
It's the exciting up-and-down-again game for little people! Land on ladders, race ahead, but watch out that you don't chute back! Loads of family fun and no reading required so every child can play!

Customer Reviews

Flimsy pieces
We ordered Chutes and Ladders for our four year old. He enjoys the game, but there are a few things that we don't like.

1.The child needs to be able to visually recognize the numbers 1-100, so that they know where to move. If your child, like ours, can't do this yet it becomes frustrating with having always to tell them where to move. It feels like you are playing for them. So, we play lots more Candy Land that Chutes and Ladders. So, this game probably isn't good for preschool children - unless you are willing to give them considerable help (which means no games played among just the children themselves).

2.The game pieces are made of cardboard that fits into little plastic stands. After several times of putting the cardboard into the stand the cardboad becomes compressed and will no longer stay in the stand. So, you will need to try to leave the stands on all the time, or you'll have to glue the pieces into the stands. Considering how classic a game this is and that families will play it for generations and hand it down, it would have been nice if they could have come up with better pieces (like the nice plastic pieces in Candy Land's anniversary edition).

3.In the last row of game play there are three chutes with only a couple of spaces separating them, which makes it VERY difficult for anyone to win and the game to be over. This gets annoying after a while and frustrating to little people.

So, we like this game, but it isn't our favorite. Be aware of your child's ability to recognize numbers and handle game frustration.

Taught moral values so subtly...
The object of this game is to reach square 100 first, using a spinner numbered 1 through 6 to indicate how many spaces to move ahead on the board. Some of the squares are "rest" spaces -- nothing happens to the cardboard children that the players move around the board. Other spaces have chutes (more commonly known as slides) the character swoops down, back toward the beginning of the game, on which are depicted scenes of children behaving badly -- pulling a cat's tail, breaking a window, stealing cookies from the jar. Of course, there are also ladder squares, with illustrations of the children performing samaritin-esque good deeds (helping someone across a street, mowing the lawn). Each of these scenes is a narrative -- first the action, good or bad, then the consequence at the top of the ladder or at the end of the slide.

The scenes depicted are truly unobjectionable moral issues (who can argue that pulling a cat's tail is not such a good thing for a child to do?), but the randomness of the spinner removes the players a bit from the feeling that they're actually being rewarded or punished -- it's just a game, with a subtle golden-rule theme.

I played this game many, many times as a child, preferring it by far to CandyLand!

This is the second game most kids play for good reasons
I was interested in which games were popular in a particular decade, but of course "Chutes & Ladders" has remained popular for so long because it relates to young children, not the children of a particular decade. I would certainly go along with the consensus that "Candy Land" is the first board game you buy your kids and "Chutes & Ladders" is the second.

This game has three strong qualities which recommend it to small children. The first is simplicity, so that the child can easily understand it and start playing immediately. The second is luck, so that the child has a fair chance against older siblings, babysitters, parents, grandparents and the family cat. The third is repetition, so that the child can grasp the basic structure of such games and be prepared for those board games that are rites of passage down the road as they mature. As an added bonus, "Chutes & Ladders" certainly helps young children learn their numbers.