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toulouse — 2008-03-14T15:43:34+00:00

A single fish starts the game...

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toulouse — 2008-03-14T15:42:57+00:00

Further along in a game of Piranha

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toulouse — 2008-03-14T15:42:33+00:00

The Piranha Monkey hanging on for dear life

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toulouse — 2008-03-14T15:41:57+00:00

Piranha in progress

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toulouse — 2008-03-13T23:02:01+00:00

A whole lotta fish (and a monkey!) fell into the pool.

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toulouse — 2008-03-13T23:01:32+00:00

A whole lotta fish hanging on

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toulouse — 2008-03-13T23:01:11+00:00

Front of the English Box

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toulouse — 2008-03-13T23:00:55+00:00

Back of the english box

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gantrell — 2007-08-30T06:00:55+00:00

rules book cover

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holepuncher — 2007-03-28T03:08:18+00:00

close up of components and fish shapes.

Thread: Review

HappyProle — 2005-07-11T17:33:57+00:00

I had a chance to play this child-oriented dexterity game with several of my nieces and nephews over the weekend.

The Skinny
The winner is the first player to get rid of all his piranhas by attaching them either directly to the suspended safari hat or to the tails of other piranhas hanging from the hat. It's purely a dexterity game, and the rules recommend that adults play with their off-hand.

The Bits
The game comes in a large box, roughly 12x12 inches (30x30 cm) and 5 inches (12.5 cm) deep. The box is filled with a blue, molded plastic "whirlpool". Hanging over the whirlpool is a plastic safari hat. It is suspended via a curved, plastic rod and a string. There are six sets of colored piranhas: blue, teal, yellow, red, orange and purple. Each set consists of one large, one medium, and four small piranhas. The piranhas are cleverly designed with a trapezoid-shaped mouth that allows them to either be precariously attached perpendicular to the safari hat's brim or interlocked with another piranha's tail.

Gameplay
Each player is trying to get rid of all of her piranhas. On her turn, a player must attempt to place one piranha on either the hat or a piranha hanging from the hat. If any piranhas fall into the whirlpool during this player's turn, her turn is immediately over and she takes all of the piranhas that fell off, regardless of their color. These are now her piranhas to get rid of.

There are two basic rules to placing piranhas:

1) There can only be one of each color of piranha attached to the safari hat
2) No piranha can be attached to a piranha of the same color.

While mostly an exercise in dexterity (especially with the younger set), the older kids (and us adults) definitely found some strategy in it. Because of the rules determining piranha placement and the fact that the piranhas can be attached with varying degrees of surety, it's possible to leave the next player with a very difficult play.

Fun Factor
As with any similar dexterity game, a lot of the enjoyment comes from anticipating and then experiencing the inevitable collapse of the delicate balance. Kids of all ages seemed to enjoy this, and no one got very upset when they were the one who knocked the piranhas in the water. There's very little downtime and due to the sense of impending disaster, the other players' turns are as fun as your own.

Conclusion
I don't typically play a lot of dexterity games, but I quite liked this one. We played it with kids aged 4 to 12 and also some adults, it worked well with all of them. For the older kids and the adults, it can be a pretty good test of one's dexterity (especially if played outdoors so that a slight breeze spins the safari hat around!). It feels very similar to Hamsterrolle, but it's much more reasonably priced for those in the US. If I had kids of my own old enough to play it, I would definitely buy it.

Game: Piranha

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Thread: Review