Polar Dare! (1991)

About this game

Race your penguins across ice floes, while avoiding the hungry polar bear. The gameboard is a 4x4 array of movable ice floes; more exactly, each one is either on the right or left of its square, and this is critical for adjacency. You split your movement points between your penguins and moving the ice floes (which is good when you can shift several carried penguins), but sometimes the die has you move the polar bear instead. He chases after penguins, sending them back to the starting area. The game has some similarities to the German game Im Reich des weißen Bären that was designed by Charles Lerue and published by Schmidt Spiele in the same year (1991).

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 2 to 4.
• Rules load. At 1.2/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 6 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.