Animal upon Animal – Boardgame

Today I’d like to introduce you to one of the most accessible (and possibly funniest) game we have in our collection.
Animal upon Animal (Tier auf Tier in German) is published by HABA, a company known for its extensive range of games aimed at children. Animal upon Animal is no exception to this but as the box states, it can be enjoyed by all ages up to but not exceeding 99 years. Sorry all you Centenarians out there!
This is a simple dexterity game of stacking different wooden animals on top of each other until one person manages to place their last animal successfully on the animal mountain and wins the game. Easy!
Well it is a lot harder, and funnier, in execution. The look of sheer concentration on someone’s face as their hand tremors while placing that giant sheep on top of the animals is hilarious. You would think they were trying to diffuse a bomb. When someone inevitably knocks all of the animals down, they have to take back 2 of the fallen animals and place the rest in the box. This helps to keep the game progressing towards its conclusion because if all the animals were kept in play, as you can see from the tiny crocodile base in the picture above, it gets very hard – very quickly!
 
There are some additional rules you can play with, such as rolling a chunky red dice at the start of your turn to determine what you have to do that round. Options include placing 1 or 2 animals, extending the base, giving an animal to another player to place or having the other players determine which animal you have to place. The dice is a nice addition but I don’t think its necessary at all to enjoy the game. For a game this light, I find its sometimes best to just give everyone their animals and stack them one at a time. It works just as well and you don’t feel like it misses anything for it.
All of the components in the game are made from painted, solid wood are a joy to play with. The only negative point I have is that the animals are not painted on both sides which is a shame and a real missed opportunity. My complaint is only a small one however, I highly recommend this game to everyone out there. It’s great fun for all ages and is always guaranteed to make everyone smile. Check it out!