Hungry Hungry Hippos
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at
10:20 pm
Hungry Hungry Hippos
Average Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5
- 4 years & up
- 2 to 4 players
- No reading required
Product Description
These four hungry hippos want to munch a bunch of marbles! The faster you press their tails, the more marbles they try to chomp! If your hippo gobbles the most, you win! For 2 to 4 players. Game includes: Hippo game base, 4 Hippo heads, 4 levers, label sheet, 20 marbles, instructions. Color of parts may vary.Editorial Review
Four hippos try to eat as many marbles as they can–as fast as they can. This game is fast-paced and riotous for kids who get to take… More >>
Filed under: Board Games
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Why is it that companies who decide to reissue classic games from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s seemingly ALWAYS do so using the cheapest of plastics? Gone are the days of thick precisely engineered plastics, strong metal supporting parts and ready-to-play-out-of-the-box sturdy construction. Instead, we get cheap inferior versions (Spirograph) and flimsy “assembly required” thin plastic versions that don’t work properly (Hungry Hippos, Hands Down). C’mon folks, we’re talking PLASTIC here…the stuff is plentiful and inexpensive: spend an extra 5 cents on the manufacturing end and give me a better product.
My beef with this toy is that it appears no one at the manufacturer bothered to play-test it. The lightweight plastic pellets go flying everywhere (you can’t call ‘em marbles anymore), the hippos get stuck or they fall off during play, and you can count on a plastic piece eventually breaking off or cracking, leaving you with crying children and extremely disappointed adults. (However, there IS satisfaction to be had after it breaks…go outside, place it in the driveway and stomp on it until it’s reduced to nothing more than itty-bitty colored plastic pieces. Great for getting out the aggression this crappy toy provokes!)
Forget this rubbish, you’re better off getting an original. Thank goodness for eBay, second-hand stores, and flea markets. Happy hunting!
Rating: 1 / 5
Very cheaply made, hippos don’t stay attached.
This was a christmas gift for my kids (4 & 5)
and even though they play with it (rarely), it gets
frustrating when the hippos constantly fall off. And
when you wack the hippo a few times, it gets stuck and
won’t open to accept the marbles. Definatly not worth
the money. Too bad they don’t make it like they did a
generation ago.
Rating: 1 / 5
The nice thing about the hungry hippo game is that you don’t even have to say that anyone “wins” or not — I tell my daughter that her hippos must have been REALLY hungry if they eat more marbles than my hippos. This game works best if all 4 hippos are in action gobbling marbles (or else the marbles get stuck), but two people can easily operate two hippos, even young children. The hardest part about this game were the assembly directions of how to insert the cheap plastic marble flippers. It only takes two seconds once you figure it out, but be sure to just look at the picture on the box, not the damned directions which make it sound like a real production.
The game itself is easy to play, makes a good amount of noise (as the hippo heads knock the plastic) and entertains for long periods of time. It’s a silly game, but it does promote counting marbles to see who wins.
Rating: 5 / 5
There’s something deeply satisfying about this game: Is it the allure of pounding a hippo’s tail as fast as you can so that your hippo will eat more balls than its opposing hippos? I leave that to the psychologists…
This games provides a great release for toddlers and adults. Because of the intensity and noisy pounding, you may want to limit your own play to about ½ hour. Educational value? Well, the game helps with hand-eye coordination, learning how to be a good sport, and simple counting. But basically it’s just a good way to get in touch with your inner hippo–let the pounding begin!
Rating: 5 / 5
Me and my brothers used to play Hungry Hungry Hippos all the time when we were kids. Now that I’m grown, I play the game with my niece, and she likes it just as much as me and my brothers used to. The object of the game is to eat the most marbles to win. The game is fast paced and a lot of fun. It’s a way you can teach any kid to count (when they count the marbles) and how to play a game that they will enjoy. Like most Milton Bradley games, it’s a classic.
If you have any kids, a niece, nephew, etc. I recommend getting Hungry Hungry Hippos for them.
Rating: 5 / 5