Magick1's Full Review: Hungry Hungry Hippos By Hasbro
Well, finding games for the 4 year old set is difficult. If you have shopped for items this holiday season, you might be finding the same thing that I have been finding. Plenty of games for the 3 and under crowd and then 7 plus, or 8 plus and very little for the 4 – 6 year age group.
Hungry, Hungry Hippos by Hasbro states it is for 2 – 4 players and for the 4 plus age group. We were looking for something fun to help my daughter play some games and learn how to be a gracious team player, whether losing or winning. Hungry, Hungry Hippos seemed perfect. Our whole family could play; it was easy to understand and would get us all a little play time.
Pluses or Pros
As just mentioned, it’s an easy game for everyone to play.
It’s colorful, with an orange, green, yellow and pink hippo, you cannot help be brightened up by the colors.
The board game stated on the box that it is made in the U.S.A. (Lately, with all of the recalls, this has become a factor for us in shopping. We have been checking out all of the boxes for the manufacturer and where it was made.)
Everything is included in the box and NO BATTERIES are needed. This meant no sound issues with the game being too loud for the toddler, no costly battery replacements and being in the middle of a game when the batteries died, etc.
Drawbacks or Cons
This game really appears to be cheaply made. It’s all plastic, including the hippos, the board and the marbles. The marbles are poorly “cut out” of the molds that made them, giving rough edges on the marbles and they don’t roll very well.
The game board is not very helpful for the marbles to roll around. It has a slight decline to the center to allow the marbles to pool there. The hippos don’t all reach to the middle, and if you play one of the ways suggested with only one marble on the playing field and it doesn’t get eaten by a hippo or moved around by the hippo’s head, it basically just lays in the middle of the playing field unless someone sticks their hand in there to get it moving again.
The marbles don’t have much weight and unless they are getting moved by your hands or you get lucky and one of the hippo’s heads hits it, it doesn’t move around much.
The plastic mechanism for the handle and the hippos’ heads is rough. Putting it together wasn’t too bad. But, the actual movement of the hippos when you push down the handle on the hippos’ backs trying to capture a marble is rough, gets repeatedly stuck and is not very fluid in movement. I don’t know if you could really find some lightweight oil to loosen it up and give the handle better movement or not.
You also have channels for each player to put in five marbles that they can launch during the game. A lot of time, the launchers don’t get the marble going. They need a little more oomph to get the marble kicked out of the chute into the field of play.
Overall Impressions
I will base the game play on my 4 year olds reaction….It’s a terrific game. She cannot get enough of getting the hippos game out to play with all of us. It can help her with her counting, as she will count how many marble she has, compare it to how many her dad or I have and tell us who won and by how many.
It’s teaching her ways to win without bragging and making someone else feel bad that they lost and it allows us to show her that even though you might lose a game or two, how to lose graciously. For those reasons, it’s a great game.
From a parent’s perspective, looking at how much the game cost, the way it plays and the overall performance, what a waste of money. If you can find a version of this at a garage sale somewhere, grab it. If you are buying it new, watch for a great sale, if you can. Paying full price, I believe, is a waste of money.
~Thanks for spending time with me today!~
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 20.00 Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
These four hungry hippos want to munch a bunch of marbles! The faster you press their tales the more marbles they try to chomp! If your hippo gobbles ...More at Boscovs.com
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