The overall concept of the game is great, and there is a lot of educational value in it. The "cutesiness" factor really takes it down though. There are so many ways this game could be improved upon. The game teaches state names, capitals (enough to be familiar with the names, not necessarily to connect states to capitals just through game play), state nicknames (again, to be familiar, not necessarily to memorize which goes with which unless you or your child are really studying the cards and trying to commit them to memory - but most kids won't play it that way), oceans, where the states are on the map (this is probably what it teaches best), and directions (north, south, east, west).

Issues:
1. The maps that come with the game are not great. On the game cards the states are the actual shapes that they would be on a regular map. However, on the game map, it is very cartoony which results in card shapes not matching up with map shapes, making it harder to find the states by shape. I have included a picture so you can see some examples.
2. There are 10 game cards that are useless in teaching anything. They ask you to find states that are different colors, have eyes closed, are wearing something, etc. Has nothing to do with learning states at all. Some examples provided in one of the pictures.
3. The colors are off. Red on the cards looks hot pink on the maps. Brown on the cards looks like magenta on the maps. These are very confusing to younger children as it's hard to tell exactly what color they are needing to look for. Picture provided.

Other ways to improve:
It would have been great to see the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, or the Gulf of Mexico on the map. I made a replacement map (picture provided) but will be tweaking it to add some bodies of water, and then I plan to create 10 "cards" to glue on top of the useless ones with questions like "Is west of the Mississippi River", "Touches the Gulf of Mexico", "Touches Lake Michigan", etc. It would add some educational value and not take anything away from the game.

Overall, this is a great game to help learn states without using screens. If you are ok with screen time, then invest in Stack the States instead. If you want to avoid screens a little more, then this is probably the next best thing, but it is a distant second. Feel free to save my map graphic and print it out to use with your game. I printed it out on card stock on a full sheet of paper and my 6 year old has had no trouble reading state names (Michigan is screwed up, I know). If I ever get around to finishing version 2 with bodies of water I will post the new map here. With a new map and taking out the 10 useless cards, it would be a solid 4 stars. Addition of bodies of water would be an out of the park 5.
The overall concept of the game is great, and there is a lot of educational value in it. The "cutesiness" factor really takes it down though. There are so many ways this game could be improved upon. The game teaches state names, capitals (enough to be familiar with the names, not necessarily to connect states to capitals just through game play), state nicknames (again, to be familiar, not necessarily to memorize which goes with which unless you or your child are really studying the cards and trying to commit them to memory - but most kids won't play it that way), oceans, where the states are on the map (this is probably what it teaches best), and directions (north, south, east, west). Issues:
1. The maps that come with the game are not great. On the game cards the states are the actual shapes that they would be on a regular map. However, on the game map, it is very cartoony which results in card shapes not matching up with map shapes, making it harder to find the states by shape. I have included a picture so you can see some examples. 2. There are 10 game cards that are useless in teaching anything. They ask you to find states that are different colors, have eyes closed, are wearing something, etc. Has nothing to do with learning states at all. Some examples provided in one of the pictures. 3. The colors are off. Red on the cards looks hot pink on the maps. Brown on the cards looks like magenta on the maps. These are very confusing to younger children as it's hard to tell exactly what color they are needing to look for. Picture provided. Other ways to improve:
It would have been great to see the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, or the Gulf of Mexico on the map. I made a replacement map (picture provided) but will be tweaking it to add some bodies of water, and then I plan to create 10 "cards" to glue on top of the useless ones with questions like "Is west of the Mississippi River", "Touches the Gulf of Mexico", "Touches Lake Michigan", etc. It would add some educational value and not take anything away from the game. Overall, this is a great game to help learn states without using screens. If you are ok with screen time, then invest in Stack the States instead. If you want to avoid screens a little more, then this is probably the next best thing, but it is a distant second. Feel free to save my map graphic and print it out to use with your game. I printed it out on card stock on a full sheet of paper and my 6 year old has had no trouble reading state names (Michigan is screwed up, I know). If I ever get around to finishing version 2 with bodies of water I will post the new map here. With a new map and taking out the 10 useless cards, it would be a solid 4 stars. Addition of bodies of water would be an out of the park 5.