Game: Wallamoppi

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WatchmanX2000 — 2008-03-12T16:04:44+00:00

Before the crash

Thread: Re: [Review] Wallamoppi

Cadfan — 2007-11-26T19:06:26+00:00

The best thing about Wallamoppi is that technically you can work your way until you have a stack of disks one disk wide reaching straight up into the air for 36 disks.

Its... really hard.

My girlfriend and I play it non competitively. No timer, just stacking to see how high we can go.

Thread: Re: Wallamoppi >> "Aboriginese" for Fun?

ced1106 — 2007-07-19T01:25:48+00:00

If one player doesn't like the setup phase, just have the other player set up the "wall" and the other player select the color he wants to play. We've also tried building a wall *without* tearing down the previous one. Pretty amusing.

aka. Washu! ^O^

Thread: Re: Wallamoppi >> "Aboriginese" for Fun?

swaits — 2007-07-18T22:16:00+00:00

Another downside I've experienced is that the game can take longer to setup than to play. Now, "setup" here is really playing since you're supposed to be building the pyramid in your own favor.

Otherwise I agree, it's fun enough, and gimmicky, and nicely built.

Thread: Wallamoppi >> "Aboriginese" for Fun?

ynnen — 2007-07-18T16:13:05+00:00

I received a copy of Wallamoppi (Out of the Box Games) in a recent game splurge and it was the one game that caught the eye of both my wife and my son Ben - so it saw immediate table time. Here's a brief review based on several plays with my wife (generally a non-gamer) and my son (a gamer in training).

Overview: Wallamoppi is a manual manual dexterity game for two players. Players take turns removing wooden disks from a wall they helped to construct, then balancing these disks on the top of the structure to form a tower. A marble timer adds tension and forces quick action on the part of the players - if the marble makes it all the way down to the end of the timer during your turn or if you knock over the growing tower of wooden disks, your opponent wins the match.

Components: The components are great. The game box is wooden, with a beveled top that slides off from the rest of the box. Inside the box is a large pleather bag to hold the wooden disks used to create the wall and tower. The disks come in dark and natural wood finishes, and are slightly larger than a typical Crokinole disk. The finish is smooth and the pieces have a nice heft to them. There are also two marbles, which are used as a timer.

And the timer is the niftiest part, for me. There's a small round hole on one end of the box. Before play, after you remove the disks and rules from the game box, you stand the box on its side, with the hole at the top. At the back of the box, a series of wooden ramps form a chute the marble will follow when the marble is dropped through the hole in the top. A small wooden "bridge" connects to the bottom of the chute, with a hole for the marble to drop into should it make it all the way down the chute and all the way to the end of the bridge.

Rules: There are some simple rules in addition to the overview above, which basically restrict or define the player interaction with the disks. You can only use one hand to remove or place a disk, for example. The rules are clear and well written, and fit on the front and back of a glossy 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, folded lengthwise.

The rulesheet includes a few nice visuals to clearly indicate how the disks are stacked and how the tower is built. There is also a nice "low stress" variant that eliminates the marble timer. I like the timer myself, but it was a bit too stressful for Ben and he preferred playing without it.

Gameplay: This is not a difficult, taxing game. It plays in about 5-10 minutes, but that's a pretty tense, fun 5-10 minutes.

The game is actually comprised of 2 phases -- during the first phase, you and your opponent take turns placing the wooden disks to form a "wall" which is essentially a pyramid of stacked disks with a base 8 disks wide.

Placement of the disks is fairly important, because during the second phase, on your turn you need to extract a disk of your color (light or dark) from the wall to place on the tower. So there's a wee bit of strategy in initial disk placement, to try and get some disks on the edges for easier extraction, or keep some disks in place to block an easy play by your opponent.

The countdown timer adds a nice element. Initially, you'll finish early moves with plenty of time to spare. But as the tower gets taller and your safe moves start to diminish, it can be a real race against the clock to grab a disk, balance it on top of the tower and grab the marble off the ramp before it falls off the edge.

It's playable without the timer, but I think that makes the game too easy. For playing with kids, though, I think having the adults play with the timer and kids playing w/o the timer may be a good balancing mechanism.

The Bottom Line: Fun, light dexterity game. Great wooden bits. Simple rules. Adding the marble timer is a nice touch of tension, so you may rush ever-so-slightly-more than otherwise, which could lead to disaster. Engaging and makes a great night starter or ender. Only downside is it's strictly 2 player. Good alternative to Jenga, with enough novelty to stand on its own. Acromegaly sufferers or twitchy people need not apply. 7.5/10

Thread: Vegatarian turkey day wallamopi frenzy

Jpwoo — 2006-11-24T06:32:42+00:00

I picked this game up at Gencon for an astonishingly low price of 16 bucks. The components are really nice, with piles of wooden pucks and a rolley marble timer device which has been explained in reviews.

This is a kind of strange game to find time to play. It plays short and only two players. This is the kind of game that would be great to take camping, or fun to play when there are easily distracted kids around.

Jim and Kathy are always nice enough to host what is alternately called cruelty free thanksgiving or anti-family thanksgiving. Being vegatarian they aren't that interested in going to their parents place to eat turkey, so they have been having their own vegatarian thanksgiving for a few years now, generally many of the displaced friends who live far away from family come to it, and usually board games are on the menu along with delicious food.

The food menu: cheesey paistry goulet thingy, stuffed roasted pumpkin, polenta with mushroom sauce stuff, sweet potato mash with nuts and brown sugar, lumpy cheesey potato thing, cranberry sauce, green bean caserole, rolls, lemon layer cake, and cheesecake.... I'm sooo full right now.

The game menu: Hey that's my Fish, Wallamopi, Bohnana, Carc Hunters and gatherers. Travel Blokus got a lot of looks but didn't get played in favor of HtmF which is was pushing a little.

People seemed to like Hey that's my fish, which is good because I bought it almost specificily for this crowd which likes simple rules.

Bohnanaza and Hunters are both classics for this group, only not everyone likes hunters! the fools. So Hunters wasn't that fun as one person was drunk and the other one didn't want to play. Oh well. Bohn went pretty well, fun as usual.

Wallamopi is what you are here for, you clicked on the link! Mainly Melodie and I played this with Allen watching us. He refused to play because he doesn't have a steady hand. Or so he claims. This game plays quickly and is a fun dexterity game. Melodie gets fixated on games that she likes so she and I played a pile of games in a row. Usually splitting them. We were playing with lax rules on the marble timer, generally we just tried to get our peice in before the marble fell in, but if it did, not a big deal. Loosing a game to the marble falling is a bit anti climactic anyway, you want something to come crashing down.

Madmike played the game once and he said he hated it, but that is the kind of person he is. I think if you aren't a fan of dexterity/balancing games, this game isn't going to win you over. But if you are looking for an alternative to jenga, this is a very nice choice.

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heccubus — 2006-11-16T01:05:50+00:00

2006 BGG.con Twilight Games demoes Wallamoppi for us

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fenwic — 2006-09-24T20:31:24+00:00

Done with the pre-stack.. About to get the good part going.

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toulouse — 2006-09-06T21:11:13+00:00

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toulouse — 2006-09-06T21:09:54+00:00

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toulouse — 2006-09-06T20:44:39+00:00

The marble heads down the timer

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toulouse — 2006-09-06T20:44:13+00:00

Post-play

Thread: Re: [Review] Wallamoppi

tsukata — 2006-08-17T03:53:48+00:00

I second everything in the original review.

In the games I played of this, the timer was often a factor. The more strategy you are able to use in building the triangle, the more you can influence the tower at the end.

There's also great possibilities for variants using the second marble. Oh, and it smells nice.

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Boomer — 2006-08-13T21:46:44+00:00

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Boomer — 2006-08-13T21:45:49+00:00

Thread: Re: [Review] Wallamoppi

gschloesser — 2006-02-07T04:29:59+00:00

While I actually enjoyed Wallamoppi, I find the game actually offers LESS choices than many dexterity games. In Wallamoppi (just saying that name makes me smile!), when a disc is removed, you have exactly one choice on where to place it: on top of the disc currently at the top of the tower. In games such as Jenga, you have several placement choices.

Further, in the games I've played, the timer was never really a pressure mechanism. There was plenty of time to remove a disc and place it atop the tower before the marble dropped into the chute. Psychologically the timer may put a sense of pressure on the players, but in reality there is sufficient time to accomplish your task.

So, while I enjoyed my playings, I don't see the game as anything terribly special. Indeed, I think there are many dexterity games which are more tense, more exciting, and just plain better ... including Jenga.

Thread: [Review] Wallamoppi

TomVasel — 2006-02-05T10:41:40+00:00

When playing the game Jenga, there is one thing about it that drives me utterly mad. It's watching "Greg" play. He'll begin to take his turn by walking around the table for several minutes. Then, after what seems to have been an indeterminable amount of time, he cautiously touches one block. No, not that one. He touches another - whoops, not that one either. This goes on for a while, as he gently caresses the entire structure. Finally, he's found the block he wishes to move. Slowly, with the speed of an anorexic sloth, he pushes the block carefully, ever so gently. Finally, he has the block halfway out. But perhaps another angle would help? So he treads carefully to the other side of the table and begins the process from that side, only slower. At this point, every nerve in your body is screaming, "Greg, just move the piece already!" So you go shopping, eat supper, and come back just in time for Greg to decide he really wants to move another piece. This, dear readers, is why I'm not a fan of Jenga.

This is not the case of Wallamoppi (Out of the Box Publishing - 2006 - Garrett Donner and Michael Steer)! My personal name of it is "Fun, speed Jenga". With incredibly high quality components, a nifty and gimmicky marble ramp, and short playing time - Wallamoppi has replaced Jenga forever for me, giving those blocks to my children to play with. Wallamoppi is a simple dexterity game for two people and fills that niche quite well, also being a fun game to observe.

The wooden box that Wallamoppi comes in opens up to form a marble ramp, which holds two black marbles at the bottom. A pile of thirty-six disks, half a dark brown, the other a light tan, are mixed into a bag, and a chute is connected to the end of the marble ramp. Players now set up the "wall" of the game and determine which player plays the dark pieces, and which plays the light pieces. One dark and light disk are set aside, and then the two players take turns randomly pulling a disk from the bag, and placing it next to another disk on the wall. The wall is made up of eight disks on the bottom, then seven, then six, etc. The last two spots of the wall are taken up by the two disks set aside, with the light disk on the top, forming the bottom piece of the "tower". The dark player then prepares to take the first turn.

To start the dark player's turn, the light player drops the marble into the top of the marble ramp. The dark player must then pull a disk from anywhere in the wall and place it on top of the tower. He then grabs the marble before it falls into the hole at the end of the chute and drops it into the top of the tower. This signals that it's the light player's turn, and they must place a tan disc on top of the tower before the marble reaches the end of the ramp.

Turns alternate, as players drop the marble into the top of the tower, and the other player frantically scrambles to place a disk at the top of the tower. Players may only use one hand and may knock other disks off the wall with no retribution. If, however, a player causes the tower to fall or allows the marble to drop in the hole at the end of the chute before they finish placing a piece, they lose the game. The other player wins!

Some comments on the game…

1.) Components: Excellent, tremendous quality of game components - I'm amazed that the suggested retail price is only twenty dollars (can be found cheaper!). The good-sized wooden box just manages to hold the very nice black "leather" bag, the rules, and the marble chute. The disks, while not always the same color (different wood grain and all), are very easy to distinguish between light and dark - the darker ones looking like chocolate. Each disk has a diameter of about four centimeters and a width of a little over a centimeter, making them nice and chunky to deal with. There's some flamingo artwork on the game, which is nice; although I'm not sure what in the world that has to do with the game. Great, beautiful components.

2.) Marble Tower: The marble ramp, of course, is the main attraction of the game. As a kid, I loved to set up complicated marble ramp setups with racecar tracks, cardboard tubes, etc. This marble ramp isn't quite that complicated in Wallamoppi, but it's enough to create tension. According to my watch, the entire process of the marble dropping takes about four seconds. Each time the marble drops down to another level causes the tension to ratchet up, as the marble clinks down, down, down. I guess a timer could have been used, but would that have been as cool as the ramp? The marble occasionally comes off the ramp at wrong points, especially if the floor or table isn't level; but by using the rules leaflet, I was able to tilt it correctly each time. The game rules suggest that for a "light" version, players can simply take turns without the timer. See my initial paragraph of this review to see if I've ever done that. The tower makes the game.

3.) Rules: Besides being used as a tower adjustor, the three pages of rules are clear, giving specific details on exactly how to move disks. The game is very easy to teach, although the setup phase might not make sense to new players the first time they play. When teaching a new player, or playing for the first time, I would recommend just randomly pulling the disks out of the bag. This might make the game slightly lopsided in one player's favor, but the game is so quick it doesn't matter.

4.) Dexterity: Speed dexterity is something I can handle, because I'm fairly bad at games that require a player to move very slowly (Hamster Rolle, etc.) If you dilly-dally at all during the course of a game, the marble drops, and you lose. That is what separates the game from other dexterity games. The disks ARE easier to pull out than the blocks in Jenga, but with the short time limit, things are much tenser, and much harder.

5.) Fun Factor: There's not much more I can say about the game. Deciding which block to pull out is important, but you really don't have that much time to think about it - just pull one out already! The fact that the game ends quickly (setting up takes longer than the actual game) is a good one, and it's a great game to pull out when two players are waiting for the rest of the group to show up at game night. Teenagers and adults that I've taught the game to enjoyed it greatly.

Is Wallamoppi the best dexterity game I've ever played? No. But it does have a bit of uniqueness, namely the marble tower. The fact that the tower is the box for the game is pretty impressive, and the components are great to handle, use - and just look quite nice when set up on a coffee table. It's a good deal for a good, quick game. And with the ability to whip this game out, I'll never be subjected to playing Jenga again.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com

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markmist — 2006-01-20T18:21:15+00:00

from Rick Thornquist / Gamefest

Thread: Quick Review of Wallamoppi

seanabrady — 2006-01-14T13:40:57+00:00

Wallamoppi is similar to Jenga in that you have a stack of wooden objects which you must remove and replace on your turn. Wallamoppi adds a twist on this though using a 2 part game, and a very unique timer. A quick look inside the nice wood box reveals a black draw string bag with 18 dark and 18 lite colored wooden disks and two marbles inside. You also get a very short and concise rulebook, as well as the timer which is built into the box itself. The components of the game are very well done, and certainly worth the price.

The game itself is divided into two phases. This is a tow player game, and players can either be the lite or the dark player. They represent their selection by taking one disk of the correct color from the bag and placing it in front of them. Starting with the dark player you draw a tile out of the bag and begin building a wall. This wall is the stack from which you grab pieces in phase two. You draw disks to play from the bag randomly, so you might play either a lite or a dark disk on your turn. The wall you build will have 8 disks, always in a single line, on the bottom. The next level will have 7, then 6 etc until the lite player caps off the top with the last remaining disk that theypulled out to begin the game. With the wall built, you set the box on end, attach the included chute and move to phase two.

In phase two of the game, players alternate taking turns grabbing a disk from the wall and stacking on top of the single lite disk at the top of the wall. If you played well in the first round it should be fairly easy to pull your pieces from the wall. You can only use one hand to remove pieces, and you can only remove pieces of your own color (unlike the first phase where you played whatever you drew from the bag). Your goal is to be the the player to last successfully stack a disk without knocking over the whole tower. If a few pieces fall out of the wall when you remove your disk that is fine, those pieces are still playable, and the game continues. So what about the timer? The timer adds just a little bit to the game, and really helps to make it fun. In addition to grabbing a disk and placing it at the top of the tower, you must also grab the marble rolling down through the box before it reaches the end. If you fail to grab the marble in time you lose.

Wallamoppi takes about 10-20 minutes to play. It is a simple two player game of dexterity that is a great time filler. I recommend this game to anyone interested in dexterity games, and if you like playing Jenga, you will likely like Wallamoppi.