World travel is now just a game night away.

Kerala is one of the newest editions to Thames & Kosmos’ collection of fun, educational games. The game is based off of Kerala, the festive elephant celebration in the Indian province of Kerala. Packed into the decorative box, Kerala immerses players into the colorful celebration where they must create the most elegant platform for their elephants.

Throughout the game, each player tries to create the best platform with at least one tile of each color. During each round, players will move one of their two elephants in order to draw a new tile and expand their platform. The game ends when the bag filled with tiles to draw is empty. The player that collects the most points—based off of tile placement—wins.

Each player begins the game with a Start Tile in their own color and the two matching elephant figures. The first player draws the same number of tiles from the bag as the number of players and leaves them face up in the center of the playing area. That player then chooses which tile they want to add to their platform and places it either vertically or horizontally next to their two Start Tiles and moves one of their elephants.

The next player then follows the same steps. This continues until each player goes and there are no tiles in the playing area. The following rounds continue in the same steps, where players choose and place their tile and move their elephant. Players can only place a tile down in a spot that is adjacent to one of the elephants. Special Move Tiles are mixed into the draw bag. When a player picks on of these, he or she can move their elephant to any tile on their board during that turn.

There’s a method to the madness. Placement comes into play at the end of the game when there are no tiles left to draw. As opposed to randomly placing tiles throughout the game, players must strategically place them in order to score the most points at the end of the game. For example, a main objective of the game is to try to place all the tiles of one color continuously adjacent to each other. When a player’s festival platform is filled with colors in different sections, only one section can be counted as points when tallying up the score. In order to keep the same color tiles in one area, players can stack tiles as long as that tile is being placed next to an elephant figure.

Kerala also features special tiles and different ways that players can place tiles in order to gain the most points and avoid the subtraction of any points. Players use their score cards to tally up their points. The player that earned the most points from their festival platform is the winner of the game.

Kerala is a vibrant and fun game that kids will be drawn to instantly. While they place their tiles and expand their festival platform, they will also get a look inside a cultural celebration that takes place across the world.

About the author

Stephanie Grassullo

Stephanie Grassullo

Stephanie Grassullo is an associate editor at Adventure Publishing Group. In addition to handling toy and licensing news and updates for The Toy Book and The Licensing Book, Stephanie also writes toy reviews and commentaries for the Toy Insider. When she’s not binge-watching old episodes of Gossip Girl, Stephanie is always game for Boggle tournaments—she’s the titleholder Boggle champion in her family, and proud of it! Stephanie firmly believes that there is no awkward moment that can’t be remedied with the help of Bop It. To get to know her better, follow her on Twitter @steph_grass.

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