Before being made into the well-received 2021 Disney movie, Jungle Cruise was made into a board game by Ravensburger. Themed after the original 1971 premiere attraction ride at Walt Disney World and Magic Kingdom, this board game is a mini-adventure for up to four players. The question is, does the game hold up to the entertainment value the rest of Jungle Cruise’s appearances do?

Gameplay

The initially set is a bit confusing, as most board games tend to be, but once you get it figured out it is easy to understand. Good board games tend to hold this quality as they should be easy for players to understand before the end of the first game session. While this one has a handful of different pieces to figure out, it is ultimately not too difficult after the first sorting.

Here’s the setup for each game. Each player will have their own boat which is split into four sections of three seats. Only one piece of cargo OR one passenger can fill that seat at a time. Each player takes the handful of passengers that fit the family of their boat color and fills in all of the slots leaving three passengers left out. Each player then draws a Snipper Specialty card, which acts as their personal bonus throughout the game - this can be done randomly or selectively. Take all of the ‘Lost & Found’ tokens and mix them up in a pile, shuffle the deck of cards, and put one of each cargo item on each of the four Outpost locations (it looks like a tent on the board). Finally, shuffle the four clue tokens and randomly place them on the board; three tokens go next to the mailbox icons and one token goes on the house at the end of the game and place the five tip coins together on the side of the game. Once this is all set up, put all the player’s boats at the start of the game and let the adventure begin!

To play, you simply roll the six-sided die (that only goes up to 4 by having two 2’s and two 3’s on it) and move your boat that number of spaces. Then you draw four cards from the deck and pick a number of encounters equal to your movement (if you rolled a 2 then you pick two encounters from the four cards). Now, play out each encounter with the three danger dice by rolling them, and for every exclamation point ( ! ) you get you must toss a passenger or piece of cargo overboard! Before your turn is over, you pick one ‘Lost & Found’ token and choose whether you want to add it to your boat or not. Tip: if you have space for it, take it!

There is one thing that can save you from your encounters though - a Warning Flare. Each player is given a Warning Flare token and this can be used one time. Once you reach an Outpost, the Warning Flare is reloaded and good to be used again. Seeing how you naturally pass by Outposts and you absolutely have to stop at them, giving a slight change to your turn (instead of grabbing a ‘Lost & Found token, you either take one of the cargo’s at the Outpost or pick up a passenger), you will be able to use the Warning Flare a total of five times.

Along the adventure, you will have the option to take a longer route in exchange for gathering clues. These clues will tell you which family is NOT the chosen family by the people in the house at the end of the game. This will help you choose who to lose when it comes to tossing a passenger overboard. The purpose of this is that passengers of the chosen family will be worth an extra point each.

Which leads us to scoring. At the end of the game, players figure out who won by counting up their points. Passengers are worth 9 points, chosen family Passengers are worth 10 points, a single piece of cargo is worth 1 point, and a full set of cargo (all 3 different types) is worth 10 points. When a player is the first to arrive at the final home, they are given the first tip of 3 points. For each turn they wait, they get the next tip but once another player arrives they get the next tip. There is a total of 8 tip points to give out.

There are a few different strategy options with a game like this, but you really want to roll low numbers. This gives you the best chance to avoid the more dangerous encounters and lets you pick from the ‘Lost & Found’ stash way more often. Given that the ‘Lost & Found’ stash can either be a random piece of cargo or the chance to save a passenger, it is worthwhile to grab from there! It may not have been an official rule, but when we played, we agreed that we can toss cargo overboard to put a passenger in its place instead - it just makes sense!

Artwork

Honestly, the artwork in this game is pretty well done. The map on the board has a lot of details that fill out that Jungle Cruise atmosphere, the cards each have an illustration on them which does get reused on other cards but there are still a lot of variations to go through, the boat cards for players is pretty well done and easy to understand, and the character art for each of the tokens and even cargo boxes are nicely done. While they did maintain a somewhat cartoon-like style, it is very fitting artwork for a Disney-associated board game. Not to mention that the dice have a unique art style on them to make it look like they’ve hit the jungle dirt and mud a few times.

Replayability

There is a lot of chance when it comes to this game. The number of movements on each turn determines the amount of risk that you have to encounter and the amount you encounter can change the number of cargo and/or passengers on your boat. With so much left up to chance, there is definitely some replayability. Plus, it’s a game that is fun even after you have gone through it before!

What It Could Have Done Better

The point system is pretty weak in design and ultimately makes the clue system a complete waste. Each clue trip means you will be going over at least three more encounter spots, which is a hefty threat, to say the least. In return for this raised threat, I can know just one single family that is NOT the chosen family… That isn’t a fair trade and I would rather just hope that the family on my cruise boat is the chosen family at the end, because a one-point difference for each passenger isn’t even enough to change the outcome of the game. Honestly, if the point system was different, then maybe that would be fine, but even if I manage to save 8 passengers and my opponent saved 10 passengers, but my passengers are the chosen family the point difference becomes 80 to 90 for the final score. A one-passenger difference is the only way this extra point thing would even matter, making it a factor of luck.

It sucks that this is the case because I like the idea of a side quest in a board game, something to do a little extra and get a leg up on your opponent for the extra effort, but that isn’t what this side quest does. It just gives you information that ultimately won’t change the game in the majority of circumstances.

Verdict

Disney’Jungle Cruise Adventure Game is a fun way to take a handful of friends on an adventure! This game is where the strategic choice of loss and a hopeful mix of luck can be the blend of a winning trip or the less-than-peaceful fun cruise through the dangerous jungle. It has all the aspects you love to see in a board game and only a handful of downsides that are easy to overlook. For that, I have to say that I recommend this one to those looking for a game that is just as fun with two players as it is with four players.

Disney Jungle Cruise Adventure Game is available in retail stores, such as Amazon, Target, Barnes & Nobles, and more.