“I never kill insects. If I see ants or spiders in the room, I pick them up and take them outside. Karma is everything.”

~ Holly Valance

In Spinderella, players race to get their three ants across the forest floor as quickly as they can, but spiders await in the branches above and — with a little help from opponents — one might swoop down to scoop up your ant and return it to the starting line. You can do the same to them, of course, so search for the right time to act and the right places to hide.

So as the blurb says you’re trying to be the first to get your 3 ants along the track and to safety…

At the start of your turn, you roll these 3 dice…

Dice

The brown die shows how many spaces you move any one of your ants, the black die is how many movement points you have to move the spiders. But, the other die shows you which of the two you move.

Roll the Ant, Move the Ant… Roll the Spider, move the Spider.

If you roll the Leaf, first move the tree bark then move either an Ant or the Spider. The tree bark can be moved onto a space with Ants, stopping them from moving but protecting them from the Spider.

When moving an Ant you move over other ants and over the tree bark, moving any Ant on top of your Ant with it.

The Spiders on top (called Parker and Peter) move on a grid of dots on the top of the board. They connect with magnets to a system under the canopy…

‘Peter’ moves the hanging Spider (Called Spinderella obviously) location while ‘Parker’ raises and lowers her depending on his location to Parker.

If you lower the Spider down onto an Ant you caught it! If there is a stack of ants, you only catch the top one…

But if you catch an opponent’s Ant you can move one of your own. You move it equal to the value of the brown die. The captured Ant returns to the start, as does one of your own Ants if you catch it by accident.

Then you pull Peter and Parker apart (by 2 red dots) to raise Spinderella up a bit.

The first player to get their 3 ants to the finish wins.

Spinderella Summary

This is fun and frustrating… It’s like the old game Frustration (or Trouble) where you roll to move and if you overtake someone you send their bit back home…

But the unique look and ‘fun with magnets’ part of moving Parker and Peter to move Spinderella is really cool.

Not a hugely re-playable game as an adult but one I’d suggest for families for sure.

Jesta ThaRogue