(Gifted) Seek & Find Flowers & Bugs is a matching game aimed at children age 4 and upwards. In this game for 2 to 4 players you have to spot 2 creatures on the game board before anyone else and in return you get a token. A twist with Seek & Find Flowers & Bugs is the token is a plastic insect (or other creepy crawly creature)!  We received this game to review, read on to find out what we thought.

Seek & Find Flowers & Bugs review

Seek & Find: Flowers & Bugs Matching Game Review

Getting Ready To Play Seek & Find Flowers & Bugs

In the box you get 12 double sided game board pieces, 50 cards, 4 flower boards, 17 bugs and 5 magnifying glass tokens. Before you play for the first time you need to remove the cardboard game pieces from the surrounds. While it doesn’t say on the instructions or box, the cardboard surrounds of the game pieces look like they can be recycled.  The game board is assembled as a jigsaw, but the pieces can go anywhere so it will be different every time you play. The large jigsaw pieces are double sided which means you can either play a version with a green summer garden scene or a slightly trickier snowy landscape version.

Each player gets one of the flower boards to start which is where you keep any creatures you win. Shuffle the deck of cards and place into two equal(ish) face down piles and you are ready to play.

Before playing for the first time you need to separate the pieces from cardboard surrounds

Playing Seek & Find Flowers & Bugs

To start playing the top cards of each pile are quickly flipped over by the youngest player so everyone can see the pictures. All players then need to find both pictures on the board and point to them. It says with your index fingers, but that’s just the normal pointing finger for most people and it doesn't matter which fingers people want to use. The important thing is you clearly point at both creatures at the same time, not one by one. 

Whoever points to both first wins that round and gets a bug to go on their flower. If there is a magnifying glass on both game cards the winner also gets a magnifying glass token. The winner is the first to collect 5 bugs or 2 magnifying glass tokens.

The bugs in this game (described as animal figures on the instructions and technically they aren’t all bugs) are creepy crawlies like: butterflies, beetles, ladybirds, spiders, grasshoppers and a scorpion, but the exact mixture might vary between packs.

All the pieces fit back in the box after play, however I would recommend using an elastic band to keep the cards together so none of them slide out of the window in the front of the box.

Turn over 2 cards at a time and everyone has to try and find the matching creature on the game board

Whoever is first to point to both creatures wins the round

Variations of Play

The winter side of the game board is more challenging because the creatures are all wearing winter outfits like hats and scarf. The cards show you what they are wearing in a thought bubbles to help, but it still takes a bit longer.

The instructions suggest that if you are playing with 3 or 4 players the person turning the cards doesn’t play in that round. Whoever wins is then the next person to flip the cards over. I think this is a great idea as it gives everyone else a chance to win and also ensures there isn’t an advantage to the card flipper. It doesn’t actually say in the instructions which player should flip the cards next in the normal version of the game so we just took it in turns clockwise.

If you have younger children you could also play Seek & Find for a matching exercise where you turn a single card over and they have to find it on the game board. My youngest was a big fan of the plastic insects and wanted to play with them. Luckily if any of these go missing it won’t be a major problem for the game you just need another way to get tally of who has won each round.

If your child isn’t a fan of bugs then Tactic currently have 2 other variations of the game: Farmyard and Safari.

On the reverse of the pieces there is a snowy scene and all the creatures have winter clothes on

What We Thought Of Seek & Find Flowers & Bugs

The difficulty of the game comes from the number of creatures on the game board (it is covered with over 50 of them) and that you have to remember where the first creature you spotted is while you look for the second without giving the location away. This makes it a memory game as well as needing to quickly spot the creatures. 

I think around 6 is the perfect age for this game as they can spot the animals and remember how to point at them correctly (ie both at the same time). By the age of 10 children will probably think it’s a bit babyish and easy so other matching games might suit them better. 

I like that as you can put the jigsaw pieces together in any variation the location of the creatures will change each time you play. Having an additional board on the reverse also means you can play the game more without getting bored. 

The game board is quite big when assembled so it will need to be played on the floor or a larger table, however you can choose the shape of the game board depending on how you assemble the pieces giving you the flexibility for it to be square, rectangular or a more peculiar shape.

This is a fun game for the right age children (and the adults playing with them). While it is essentially a matching game the variation in the game board, spotting 2 things at once and having toy creatures as tokens are all fun twists on other games we have played.

Seek & Find Flowers & Bugs is available to buy from the Range. 

Spot the creatures on the cards first and choose a creepy crawly to keep count

We recently reviewed another family game from Tactic where you become a monkey and try and steal a pirate Captain's treasure. Why not read our review of Treasure of Monkey Island.