Page 50 - Spielbox_2_2020

FOR KIDS
Keeping Everything Flowing
Dealing with flowing water often makes game authors particularly creative – just think of the river disks in Niagara, by Thomas Liesching, the water pearls in Der Unendliche Fluss, by Guido Hoffmann, or even the real water in Fluss Der Drachen, by Inka and Markus Brand.
What’s crucial is the grizzly bears’ fishing action after each dice roll. The bears may move along and between the streams with almost no restrictions; it is only other bears and boulders that serve as obstacles. You aim for spaces with one or more salmon. After you have caught a salmon, you keep fishing or, provided the way is clear, run back to the big bear boul- der in order to secure your catch.
The delight for the bears ends as soon as the water supply peters out or there are not enough salmon left. The player who has caught the most fish by then wins.
Emotions are of particular importance in Grizzly. Children learn to take risks and to use their bears cleverly. They block the way for their opponents to get back to the big boulder, which forces them to keep chasing salmon at the edge of the waterfall, anxiously awaiting the next dice roll. Elementary school children are enthralled by the 3-D setup and by the suspense; however, they need to learn how to cope with the frustration when a bear falls down.
Grizzly
Anna Oppolzer and
Stefan Kloß send
bears out to catch
salmon. Five streams make
up their waterfall that runs
down to the valley; water
tiles, slid into the water, keep
it flowing. The levels of the
river course drape over the
top of the box, which gives
the children (two to four,
six years and up) an almost
realistic experience. Numer-
ous salmon are bustling in
the water below the water-
fall. Depending on the dice
roll, they jump up in certain
streams and are then caught
there by bears. The roll of the
five Waterfall Event dice not
only makes up to three fish
jump, but sometimes also
sees to it that the river keeps
running. With a probability of a third, the river disks thwart the salmon’s efforts and
Krasserfall
In Bernhard Weber’s Krasserfall also, everything revolves around a raging river. Unlike Grizzly, the oblong
puzzle game board doesn’t contain any three-dimensional water levels, but some optical two-dimensional ones, plus a net for the protagonists who embark on a rafting trip.
In Krasserfall, players are represented by pawns, sitting in four boats and trying to master the rapids. Weber’s new idea is the 80 centimeter long plastic strips with a rowing boat at one end and a fish on the other. The dynamics follow the laws of gravity. The fish is attached to the end of the strip hanging down at the end of the board that protrudes beyond the table, so that a boat approaching the waterfall suddenly starts swirling by itself.
even cause particularly greedy bears to fall down.
The acceleration of the move depends on the boat crew and their proximity to the waterfall. This determines what’s actually happening. Everybody has one large team captain and two lightweight sailors and distributes them on the boats at the beginning of the game. It is important that each boat has at least one passenger.
Like Grizzly, Krasserfall is driven by dice. A die determines which boat moves to the next water wave. Sometimes, the die causes a passenger to change boats or makes you use a lifebelt, which weighs the boat down so that it won’t drift off so soon.
If a boat starts swirling, the boat and its crew fall deep down. When this hap- pens, in most cases the pawns land in the
net – but occasionally also on the carpet or under the table. Once there is only one boat left on the river, the players who have pawns in this boat receive medals, two for the lightweight pawns and one for the large pawn.
The boat (including its crew) that has not fallen down stays in the race; but for the next round, an additional weight in the form of a little plastic buoy is attached to the fins of the fish. And the child with the fewest medals gets a big wooden token for compensation and can put it at any time on a water strip to secure the corresponding boat. Then the remaining boats start with a new crew into the next round. The game ends as soon as one child manages to accumu- late six medals.
Grizzly (Amigo) by Anna Oppolzer and Stefan Kloß; for 2–4 children, about 6+ years; duration: about 20 minutes; price: about 25 €.
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