Candy Land

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Candy Land
A game of Candyland in Progress
Players 2 to 4
Age range 3 to 6
Setup time < 3 minutes
Playing time < 15-20 minutes
Rules complexity Easy
Strategy depth None
Random chance Very high
Skills required Color recognition

Candy Land is a simple racing board game. It has become a cultural icon in the U.S., where it is often the first board game played by children because it requires no ability to read or count.

Contents

[edit] Game play

The board consists of a winding, linear track made of 134 spaces, most of which are one of the rainbow colors (aside from indigo). The remaining few spaces are named locations such as Candy Cane Forest and Gum Drop Mountain, or characters like Princess Frostine and Lord Licorice.

Players take turns removing the top card from a randomized stack, most of which show one of the six colors, and then moving their marker ahead to the next space of that color. Some cards have two marks of a color, in which case the player moves his or her marker ahead to the second-next space of that color. Also, the deck contains one card for each named space, and drawing such a card moves a player directly to that space, either forward or backward (backward moves are possible only in the classic game, they are ignored in the modern game). Finally, there are three colored squares marked with a dot. A player that lands on such a square is stuck (all cards are ignored) until a card is drawn of the same color as the square.

The race is straightforward, woven around a simple story line about finding a lost king of candy land. The classic game takes longer to complete than one would expect, because the location cards can send players backwards.

[edit] History of Candy Land

The game was designed in the 1940s by Eleanor Abbott, while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California.

The game was bought by Milton Bradley Company (now owned by Hasbro) and first published in 1949. Hasbro produces several versions of the game and treats it as a brand. For example, they market Candy Land puzzles, a travel version, a PC game, and a handheld electronic version.

A December, 2005 article in Forbes magazine analyzed the most popular American toys by decade, with help from the Toy Industry Association. Candy Land led the list for the 1940-1949 decade.

[edit] Versions of Candy Land

At least three different versions of the Candy Land board game were made. A picture from the Elliott Avedon Museum, copyright 1962, shows a track layout different from the more modern versions. The next revision, from the 1980s and 1990s, has the modern track layout, and ends with a purple square. The rules specify that any card that would cause you to advance past the purple square wins the game, but many people play you must land exactly on it. In the most modern version, there is a rainbow-striped square at the end to make the rule visually explicit. The rules for the modern game also specify that a character card resulting in a backward move can be ignored, resulting in a much shorter game if desired. Finally, some of the characters are renamed in the modern version - Queen Frostine is Princess Frostine, for example.

Additionally, a VCR board game version of the game was made in 1986, although distribution of the game appears to have been limited. An animated 2005 feature Candy Land: The Great Lollipop Adventure was produced and later spawned a DVD game version of Candy Land.

[edit] Mathematics of Candy Land

Mathematically, Candyland is very nearly a Markov chain, and would be exactly such a chain if the deck were re-shuffled after each card is drawn. There have been several analyses of game play (see references below)

[edit] Candy Land characters

  • Mr.Mint
  • Gramma Nutt
  • King Kandy
  • Jolly
  • Plumpy (taken out of the most recent version of the game)
  • Mama Ginger Tree (replaces Plumpy)
  • Princess Lolly (renamed 'Lolly' after 2002 edition)
  • Queen Frostine (renamed 'Princess Frostine' after 2002 edition)
  • Lord Licorice
  • Gloppy the Molasses Monster

[edit] Candyland in Popular Culture

  • An episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 showed a few characters played Candyland with Brain Guy perpetually trapped in Molasses Swamp. His time there was apparently extensive as he referred to it as his "own personal hell."

[edit] Internet name

Candyland was involved in one of the first disputes over internet domain names. An adult web content provider registered candyland.com, and Hasbro objected. Hasbro was able to obtain an injunction against the use, and now owns the site.

[edit] External links

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