TOS Review- The Presidential Game

Today I am reviewing The Presidential Game.

Designed for players 11+, it literally gives a hands-on learning experience about the entire election process from campaigning and fundraising to counting up electoral votes.  This can certainly a bit confusing for most Americans, but this game helps clear up any confusion while having some competition in the process.  :-)

My children are familiar with both political parties.  We have also studied our Founding Fathers and the hows and whys our nation and its electoral system came about.  So, we were definitely excited about reviewing this game.  The only challenge was deciding who was going to play as the side that we tend to disagree with a lot of the time.  :-)

The game includes:

• 20" x 30" game board
• score pad
• 3 blue dice and 3 red dice
• 80 politics cards
• 40 "write your own" politics cards
• 150 Republican red chips and 150 Democrat blue chips (votes)
• Electoral Web Map Calculator access code

You, as a player, are literally thrust in the middle of a campaign and must plan and strategize how to achieve the 270 electoral votes.  They have to decide when and how to fundraise and when and how to go campaigning.

There is definitely humor scattered throughout with some of the politics cards that give electoral bonuses according to things like wardrobe choices, campaign promises and even platform issues.  You can write your own, as well.

The code that is provided allows for online tallying of your progress, complete with an electoral map.  You don't even have to keep tally on your scorecards since it keeps track for you.

My boys enjoyed playing this game.  It was not only fun, had them competing against each other (which they love doing anyway!) and learn about a process that can seem confusing.  They are at the age where they need to truly understand what is going on and how, they, as future voters (in only a few years!), have a civic duty to not only participate and vote, but to truly be educated about the entire electoral system and how elections take place.

We try to have a family game night each week.  We decided to play the game then, as a family, rather than during our school day.

The object of the game is to win 270 of the 538 electoral votes and become President.  The game is flexible, in that you can choose how long to play by deciding how many weeks are left until the election.  The first time we played, it lasted about 30 minutes.  Once we got the hang of it, it lasted upwards of 90 minutes.

Each turn is split into weeks.  There are three dice for each turn.  Before the team takes their turn, they must decide whether or not they will campaign or fundraise.  If you choose to campaign, you choose the state and the roll of the dice will give you votes in that state.  If you choose to fundraise, you can choose between 4 states (Florida, California, New York and Texas)  That began a whole discussion with our kids as to the importance of the larger states in presidential elections.  My sons became advocates for the smaller states, feeling like their votes and opinions are made to be not as important.  They learned quite a bit from this part of the game, that's for sure.

It may sound confusing, but it really is not.  It gets everyone thinking about strategy, planning and competition, which is right up my boys' alley.  :-)

Here is a video that introduces you to the game.

I even purchased another game to give as a birthday gift to a friend whose family is interested in Presidents and Presidential history, as well.  :-)

The game sells for $35 and will give your family much educational fun.

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