The best board games are a fantastic way to encourage your child to develop crucial skills like shape and colour recognition and have fun doing it. Dotty Dinosaurs is a game designed to do just that, allowing 2-4 players to match shapes and colours, encouraging learning and social interaction, especially when playing with friends. It's amazing how easily kids will engage with the bright colours and cute illustrations, and there are two different game modes for them to show their skills.
Pros
- Super quick and easy to set up
- Good quality materials mean this one will last
- Bright and colourful
Cons
- More suited for the younger age group
- Quite a few small pieces
| Suitable for: | Ages 3-6 |
| Number of players: | 2-4 players |
| Material | Cardboard |
- Double-sided dinosaur boards
Awards
The Orchard Toys Dotty Dinosaurs won Gold for Best Toddler Toy in the Mother&Baby Awards 2025. The design is really appealing to kids, and encourages the development of lots of necessary skills. With simple rules and an easy set-up, it's no wonder little ones love it! Still need to hear more? Read on below to see what our Mother&Baby testers had to say.
Testing
"The packaging is colourful and inviting. My two children were keen to play the game as soon as they saw the box," revealed a happy mum. A good design will encourage the kids to get involved - another parent told us "my daughter was excited to pop the game pieces out of the sheets and play the game," going on to say that "the game was brightly decorated and looked exciting to play".
The theming was a big plus too, with another mum telling us that "my son is 3 and is a big fan of dinosaurs, so this drew him in straight away! The product is colourful and bright, and the dinosaurs are really exciting for children". A different parent appreciated that "the pieces are a good size for little hands to move around. It’s a great game to teach turn-taking, patience, colours and shapes."
"The instructions are really easy to follow. I love that there are three different ways to play the game as this changes up the game and makes it more appealing to play over and over," revealed a mum when commenting on the ruleset. Another happy parent praised: "The game was easy to play and the rules were clear. We liked the fact that the game could be played with different aged children and made easier or harder to suit. We also played each game option from easy to hard to decide which version we preferred."
These varying rules also help make the game more educational, allowing kids to learn different concepts through the different rounds. "I would say the colour lotto game is great for even younger children to play as they can learn to colour match before learning the colour names. The shape version of the game has really helped develop my 4-year-old's shape vocabulary," reported a very satisfied mum.
"With a toddler I think it’s really important that you are able to clean toys/games!" said one tester, and we definitely agree! Thankfully, they found cleaning simple, telling us that "the board is wipe clean, and I love this feature for sticky fingers. So nice to know it won't get ruined if they play at any time."
Final thoughts
Overall, the simple rules, excellent theming and great design really impressed our testing team. A satisfied parent told us: "It was very easy to find the instructions and follow them, enabling us to start the game before my daughter lost interest. It was easy to glean an idea of what the game involved from the front and back of the packaging. This added to my little one's excitement". It's a great addition to a family board game collection, or a stellar way to start one!
Emily Dale is a contributing writer for Mother&Baby, passionate about finding the best deals for families and collecting real parent reviews to explore the highest quality products for the home. She has also contributed as a Content Optimisation Executive to a number of other Bauer brands, including Yours and What's The Best.