Princesses! There’s something singular about the popular archetype of the princess. Carefully cultivated by a succession of heartless monarchs over thousands of years, the idea of the princess and the glamor, beauty, helplessness, and innocence associated with them, is so deeply embedded in our culture that it feels like a fundamental aspect of the human psyche.
Though the influence of royal families around the world has declined, the fairy tale archetype of the princess has been kept alive by corporations eager to make use of that illusion of timelessness, so the image of the princess survives to saturate modern popular culture. If your little girl (or anyone else in your life) is a fan of this idea, here are some board games that feature it heavily.
Pretty, Pretty, Princess
Put on royal jewelry
This classic dress-up game invites two to four princesses to move around a board hoping to put on every piece of clothing they need to get themselves fully decked out like a true princess!
Pretty Pretty Princess is an older game, dating back to the nineties. There are multiple versions, but we’re showcasing the classic one here. (There’s also a Disney Princess version.)
This simple board game has players using a spinner to move around a board, hoping to land on the various pieces of jewelry they need to put on in order to win the game. This game is pure luck. The winner is just whoever lands on the right squares first. However, it’s elaborate enough to carry some tension, and the fact that you physically put on jewelry as you play means it can be quite fun for a child whose interests align with it.
Cinderella
Can you find everything you need?
A cooperative spin on a common kind of memory game, this title has players working together to get Cinderella all dressed up for the ball before the clock strikes midnight.
Part of a set of fairy-tale related titles by Foxmind Games, this cooperative memory game works similarly to the memory/matching games you’re probably familiar with, but with a cooperative spin. Instead of having players race against each other to make as many matches as possible, it has them working together, racing against the clock, to find everything they need to prepare Cinderella for the ball.
As they do, they roll a die each turn to add additional twists, some good, some bad, to their play. This is a small, simple game, but it can have exciting moments, and is a nice way to build memory and teamwork skills.
Princess Heroes
Fighting well and looking good
This cooperative game casts the players as a group of heroic princesses, and tasks them with reaching the tree of life on the far side of the board before its last leaf falls.
Deliberate subversions of the archetype of the princess as a helpless damsel are thousands of years old. For example, the original folktales regarding Mulan date as far back as the 4th Century. This makes warrior princesses nearly as old as princesses themselves. Shifts in cultural perceptions of gender have made many modern storytellers and consumers self-conscious about the princess archetype, many of which are quite fun.
This simple cooperative board game tasks a group of princesses with reaching the far side of the board before the last leaf on the tree of life falls. To do this, they’ll have to work together and share resources, and engage in a bit of strategic thinking. The princesses in this game have no trouble being both beautiful and powerful.
Enchanted Forest
Be the first princess to find everything and reach the end
A variation of a pre-existing fantasy board game adds a Disney Princess theme to an existing game. It casts the players as Disney Princesses and charges them with finding various objects and reaching the end first.
Well, we managed to make it halfway through the list before getting to the Disney products. Hope you enjoyed that while it lasted, because the sheer popularity of the Disney Princess brand makes it impossible for itnotto dominate this list, starting with a princessy spin on a fantasy board game.
This version of Enchanted Forest is a shortened and simplifiedspin on an fantasy board existing game, with the memory task simplified for the sake of younger players. In it, players roll dice to move, and must remember the locations of princessy artifacts so they can recount them when they reach the end.
Disney Princess Pop Up Game
Rolls can be nail-biting
Reminiscent of the Hasbro game known as Trouble, this legally distinct product has players using the die at the center of the board to move around it, hoping to hit the end before they get hit by their enemies.
This “Pop Up Game” is mechanically identical to the Hasbro game known as Trouble, which is a dice-rolling movement game itself reminiscent to the same manufacturer’s Sorry. This game has a similar appeal. While there’s not much strategy involved, there’s a lot of interaction between players and some fun social dynamics. This game preserves all of that, while adding a neat Disney Princess theme.
Top Trumps Match Game Disney Princess
Fight to assemble a row of five
Reminiscent of Connect Four, this two-player game of strategy and memory tasks players with assembling five matching princesses in a row before their opponent can do the same.
This clever little matching game has the players using cubes to push out and replace other cubes in an attempt to assemble a row of five. Reminiscent of Connect Four, this strategy game has a tug-of-war dynamic that forces players to think ahead and, crucially, remember which princesses each cube has if they’re going to come out ahead.Making a row requires genuine strategy.
The game’s card mechanics, where card draws have a 13% chance of randomly reversing the result of any game, are bad, but that aspect of the game is easily ignored. You can also spice it up by looking at your cards ahead of time, which complicates the game by making it possible to win by goading your opponent into making the row you want them to make.
FAQ
What is the most loved board game?
In terms of sales, the most successful board game in history is Monopoly. Some might dispute whether it’s really the “most loved” game out there, as plenty of those buyers do not love it (to say the least) but, at that point, the question becomes much more subjective. Chess is loved by many, as are some moderngames like Settlers of Catan.
What is the board game with pretty cards?
There are a couple of board games you could be thinking of. Our first guess is Dixit, a game defined by the surreal beauty of its cards, thoughthere are many other games with beautiful artwork.
