Under license from Hasbro Inc., Winning Moves Games has brought back the original Candy Land board from more than 65 years ago. The bi-fold game board features the original artwork, and the game includes the gingerbread game pieces and a 64-card deck from the game’s early days.
For those who are not familiar with Candy Land, the object of the game is to move your gingerbread piece from the starting point through the land of sweets to Home Sweet Home. Two to four players ages 4 and up take turns drawing cards from the deck, and may move their gingerbread piece to the next square on the path that matches the color shown on the card (if the card shows two colored squares, the player moves ahead twice). If a player draws a treat card, he or she must move to the square on the path that matches the sweet. When a player lands on a colored square with a black dot, he or she must remain stuck there until that color is drawn again. If a player is lucky enough to land on a space at the beginning of a shortcut, they may bypass all of the spaces in between.
Candy Land has had several makeovers througout the years. I had the 1980s version as a kid, and my family wore that poor game out. We played all the time, and it even inspired my mom to create a (now family-famous) Candy Land cake for my sister’s third birthday. She made it look incredibly similar to the game, and used Sugar Baby candy for the Molasses Swamp, real gumdrops and candy canes, lollipops, and more. The end of the path, Home Sweet Home, was a real gingerbread house that she made and decorated elaborately. Best. Cake. Of. All. Time.
By resurrecting the original look of this classic, cross-generational game, Winning Moves has given today’s kids a glimpse into the past with its old-fashioned illustrations, color scheme, and throwback playing pieces. Despite the revamps the game has seen, it’s still, as the board declares, “a sweet little game for sweet little folks.”
