The old ones are often the best. That was a term I heard often when I was growing up and people were listening to, watching, playing or otherwise entertaining themselves. 
Jump forward 35 years and I can see some of that charm in Laurence King games new release of a classic, BEEHIVE MANCALA. We know that LK invest in their games. Broadly speaking they always look good. They often as you will know from my reviews, are unique in a crowded market and then they also give us something when it comes to playability. But what about a game that is
BEEHIVE MANCALA
2 Players / Age 6+ / 10 minutes
GAME
Mancala is a strategy game that is certainly based on the traditional game of Mancala but more so, draws from the climate crisis and our ways of combating it. Players move their bees around a board to flowers that help them to collect pollen. You then take this back to the hive to make honey for feeding and growing your very own bee colony. Simple enough. Play is turn by turn and you have to keep your wits about you. Have the most bees at the end and win. But be clever and make a series of moves that will reward you to grow the hive not leave the door open to lose to a rival!
REVIEW
So let me reflect. Many must take on board that this is not a heavy game. Nor is it setting out to be time consuming game with players having to spend time factoring. 
This might frustrate some and leave others with a very expensive dud that they really are annoyed with. I felt it very much delivers. BEEHIVE MANCALA excels in three very clever points. It allows a conversation, with game play that is soft but geared to a very pertinent issue for a current audience. The box and contents, is a quality product. Light weight but warm, colourful illustrations on the packaging and engaging kids. But the real selling point is that there are details on the honey-making process and the importance of bees from the beekeeper at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This is almost worth the money alone!
