[Ad- gifted product] When it comes to silly board games and toys, John Adams has a fantastic range. Recently, the sun has been shining and it feels like the perfect time to play a little game that might actually get things a bit wet! Soggy Doggy is a very simple game where you have a little floppy dog inside a bathtub, with a board along the outside. Thankfully, this board is made of plastic and can get wet, as the doggy does shake off tons of water everywhere.
Soggy Doggy does have a little set up that needs to be done. The dog’s base needs to be put into the bathtub, the bathtub needs to be filled with water (there is a small hole in the tub that needs to have quite a bit of coverage) and the outside of the dog itself needs to be put on the base. The toy also needs batteries, which aren’t included! Once you have the tub set up, you can place it on the guide of the board. This board is a circle around the tub, kind of like a bath mat so you don’t slip. Each player can then pick a token that represents them; a dog bone, a paw print, a soap bar, etc. These are also different colors so that children can easily see which one is theirs.
On your turn, you must role a die. Many of the sides have a color which matches one of the spots around the board. If you roll a color, you must move to that spot, then do the action. Actions are primarily around twisting one of the bath taps or pushing down on the other bath tap. If you roll the question mark side of the die, you get to re-roll to try again. The goal of the game is to get back to your dog bed on the board. In Soggy Doggy, as you are twisting and pushing on taps, you have the chance to make the dog shake! Pushing down on the tap showers the doggy with more water, making it’s fur wet, but we noticed that the dog only starts shaking when the spinning tap is used.
If the Soggy Doggy does start shaking, you must return to the starting spot, but you do get a token that can be played the next time it happens on your turn, freeing you of going back to the beginning. It’s a simple game, very visual, but when the dog does start to shake and splash water everywhere, it’s quite fun! Robin and Amelia enjoyed how easy it was to play and how on-edge it feels waiting for the dog to start moving off it’s water. We do feel the game could have been more wet – the dog didn’t shake off nearly as much as you would think – but maybe we’d regret that choice if it was to happen! Either way, Soggy Doggy feels quite different and fun from other games we’ve played, and we very much enjoyed it.