Flowers? Check. Box of chocolates? Check. With all that and a mixed tape in hand, what could possibly go wrong? If you’re playing the new expansion for Happy Little Dinosaurs, then the answer is a whole lot! There’s the impending apocalypse, sure, but there’s way more to worry about than just the end of the world this Valentine’s day.
Happy Little Dinosaurs was originally released in 2021 by Unstable Games. Since then, there have been several expansions as well as an “Exclusive Edition” added to the line. From the first time we played this easy-to-learn, “take that” style card game, we were hooked. The TeeTurtle art combined with a sad-yet-humorous apocalypse scenario where players compete to escape one disaster at a time proved to be exactly our cup of tea. Later, we added the expansion forcing them to go through the horrors of puberty and we picked it up again. Then, not so long ago, we caught wind that these cretaceous cuties were about to find a whole new doom as life threw its wonders at them again, via Dating Disasters, and with just enough time to get the content mailed out and played before Valentine’s Day.
Ramy Badie is not only the founder of TeeTurtle but the designer and artist for each of their games! Badie has been releasing games since 2017 with the debut of Unstable Unicorns and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon based on Unstable Games’ rapidly expanding catalog. When it came time to write this review, we were a bit surprised to find we hadn’t actually reviewed the base game or any of the corresponding prior releases in our collection, so we recommend checking out BGG or your local game store if you want to see more. For now, we are focusing specifically on Happy Little Dinosaurs: Dating Disasters, our thoughts on it, and what it brings to the game.
As with previous expansions, adding Dating Disasters to the game doesn’t change set up or even the basics of play. However, this 54-card expansion does add a new mechanic: ongoing effects for certain disasters. When these new calamities are collected, they grant their prehistoric proprietor an advantage for the rest of the game. Other new inclusions are more thematic than game-altering; love bugs, awkward first kisses, cold feet, and, of course, more disasters of each type can be found within the expansion. You can add them straight into the cards you already own or even swap them with equivalents to increase their frequency depending on how strong you want to make the theme! If only playing with loved ones this holiday, the latter is definitely recommended by us here at the Cantina.
Unstable Games really hit it on the horn again with their humor in this expansion. We are always interested when we find out that they have new products coming out: whether they are new games or expansion content. Dating Disasters was no exception to their system and style. This little box brought us so many laughs that we truly recommend it to anyone looking to expand or even begin their Jurassic journey with Happy Little Dinosaurs. It should be mentioned that bundles are available at www.unstablegames.com for the uninitiated, and if you fall into that family then absolutely go grab a copy today! Don’t miss out on all the pain and tragedy: revel in the roaringly adorable hardship humor and let us know what you thought!
All photos of Unstable Games products were taken and edited by Krista.