Sometimes, a popular board game will be followed up by some kind of stand-alone product that is both similar and different. “Settlers of Catan”, while having a ga-zillion expansions, had a Star Trek version that included a brand new card mechanic I had never seen before. “Carcassonne” has a Star Wars version as well as one that includes ghosts (“Mists Over Carcassonne”). In this case, “My Little Pony: Festival of Lanterns” is “Lanterns: A Harvest Festival” with a My Little Pony theme. Special thanks goes to Renegade Games for providing me with a copy for review purposes.
1-4 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes
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What’s New?
Normally, I’d briefly describe the rules and gameplay…but why do that twice? Go check out my review of “Lanterns: A Harvest Festival” for a good primer on the gameplay.
What I will touch on is what’s new, then direct your attention to the video review we published below.
“My Little Pony: Festival of Lanterns” retains the same gameplay, but introduces a new optional module that includes a deck of “friend” cards with different characters and abilities. If you decide to enable this module, you’ll pick 4 friend cards / characters (or randomly choose them) and include them in your game face-up for all to use throughout the game.
Rather than spend mooncake tokens (which you earn by matching icons on tiles with fireworks) on the Twilight Sparkle standard ability from the core rules (spend 2 tokens to swap one lantern card you own with one from the supply), you can spend them on the available cards for that game. Different cards have a different cost, some being more powerful than others.
There’s an eighth “wild” lantern card that comes into play using one of the above cards (Trixie) and new Celestia token if you include the Princess Celestia card.
There’s also a new solo mode, which pits the player against Moon Dancer, an AI bot who earns lantern cards as you play your own and then competes against you for Dedications like a normal player would.
Short & Sweet Review
I’ll opt to keep this brief since there’s not too much difference in the core gameplay loop between the original “Lanterns” and this re-theme.
Overall, we enjoyed our time with this title, more-so than the original “Lanterns.” If you don’t own the original “Lanterns” game and don’t know which to get, the “My Little Pony: Festival of Lanterns” offers more content / bang for your buck. If you do own the original, then it’s a much harder choice. The question becomes…do you mind paying for “Lanterns” again if it had a My Little Pony theme and a new module + solo mode? On my budget I could not pull that trigger as I’m not as invested in the MLP universe as my fiance’ is. That being said, if the theme and price is right for you, it’s an easy recommend.
Check out the Review Video below for more information!
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Final Verdict: 8/10 (Great)
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Website: https://renegadegamestudios.com/my-little-pony-festival-of-lanterns/
Amazon (Cheaper): https://amzn.to/4alAsIv
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