Buzz on over gamers, and get ready to learn about Bees: The Secret Kingdom! Can you gather up enough pollen to produce the most delightful honey around? Compete to be the busiest busy bee and collect as many buzzing points as you can! Let’s check it out …

What Is It?

A card game for 2 to 6 busy bees with some set collection and a bit of “hand” management, because you can’t have too much of one type of pollen! Players take turns gathering the different types of pollen and delivering it to produce honey (which might give them a one time special ability, or help their opponents) to collect victory points.

Once the last honey card is drawn, the end of the game triggers and players total their points from honey, leftover pollen, and beehive cards (if playing the advanced mode). Whoever has the most points is the winner!

Who Is It For?

The box says ages 8 and older, and I’d agree with that. It’s great for younger audiences and/or families with kids. I think that it is a great game to introduce kids to gaming, or just non-gamers because it’s light and easy to learn but very visually appealing and fun! If you’re not in need of a good introductory game, it also makes a good filler for any group!

Contents & Quality

Cards – The cards are big (tarot sized I think) which is nice and you don’t see super often. The symbology and abilities on all of them is very clear, and the art and colors are all really pretty as well.

Gems – Also really pretty colors. They’re your average small, plastic gems, fine quality. The game also comes with a few extras, just in case, which is nice.

Rules – Everything is clear, concise, and has good examples.

Box – Nice small box that everything fits in well, but gives you a little bit of wiggle room without being unnecessarily large.

PROS

  • Easy and light; can teach it to anyone
  • Cute theme
  • Aesthetically pleasing
  • “Advanced” mode adds more ways to score
  • Turns (and the game in general) move quickly because you get in  a groove and know just what to do quickly

CONS

  • Turns can feel repetative
  • “Advanced” mode isn’t really advanced in my opinion. It just adds more ways to score so there’s no huge reason not to add them in from the start
  • “Instant Win” beehive cards seem impossible to complete, at least at lower player counts, so they almost aren’t even worth aiming for

Difficulty

I would probably give this a 2/5 for difficulty. It’s very simple and light game, but does have a little bit of strategy at times (i.e. choose the “one of every color pollen” gathering card when your opponents can’t collect many) to keep it from being too dry.

Final Thoughts

It’s cute! I think the cards and gems are really nice to look at, and so create a nice table presence for the game. It’s definitely on the lighter side, so it’s something I would pull out or recommend for my non-gamer friends who only play with me occasionally, or as a filler or end-of-night game with my game groups. If you’re trying to game with your kids or other family just getting into games, I definitely think this is a good choice for that.

My Final Rating: 7/10

Happy Gaming~

Additional Information:
Designer – Kamil ‘Sanex’ Cieśla
Artist – Dagmara Gaska
Publishers – Van Ryder Games; Awaken Realms Lite
BGG
BGA
Website
MSRP – $24.99

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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