Before we left Washington on our big adventure (over 3 years ago!), a friend gave me the game Tunnel Time. It’s been sitting on my windowsill since then, and I can’t even say untouched. We have to move it to the floor every drive day. We finally tried it today and I have to say: we should have tried it a lot earlier. Tunnel Time is a great game for a toddler or a preschooler, and my kids are 10 and 12 now.
Ways to Play Tunnel Time
There are four ways to play this game. The first way is only single-player. Games two and three are only multiplayer, while game four can be either single-player or multiplayer.
Game 1 has the single player draw 20 face-down cards and make the longest tunnel they can. In Game 2, each player draws 10 cards. Players race to see who can use all 10 of their cards in one tunnel from a start to end character the quickest. They call Game 3 Tunnel Dominoes. Each player draws 8 cards and takes turns adding on to the tunnel. (There’s an alternate gameplay that has players draw a new card every time they play a card, and you play until you use all the cards in the whole deck!)
Finally, Game 4 can be played with 1-10 players. Each player draws 16 cards and builds a 4×4 grid with the cards upside down. Players turn over one card at a time, rotating it to create a tunnel from their start character to their end character.
Safe For Young Kids
Cards are a little flimsy for use with very young kids but they are large and unlikely to hurt your little one. The tunnel pieces actually remind me a lot of the path pieces in Labyrinth. If your family enjoys that game and you have a toddler, Tunnel Time may be the perfect game to distract them with.
Tunnel Time reminds me of an easier version of Where the Wild Things Are. If you are eager to get your little one playing, or they’re eager to join your game-playing ways, this is an excellent, gentle introduction. You really can’t go wrong with Tunnel Time—as long as your kids haven’t outgrown it!