Penguin Trap Activate Game Review. Don’t let the penguin fall

Let’s talk about a game that came into my hands the other day, namely Penguin Trap Activate by Ummi.

From time to time, my wife and friends and I are interested in playing board games. But more often it is some kind of card games. At the same time, games where you need to do some actions were more often sent to my nephews, because in my opinion, children are more interested in playing games where something happens. So at one time I sent them a similar game, but like any “adult child” – we always buy and give as gifts what we would like to have ourselves. And then a miracle happened.

A person approached me and offered to help her spread the site. I asked what kind of site it was. As it turned out, it was a store with various goods, one of the varieties of which was board games . The topic is familiar to me, so I decided to find out what games they had. Most of them are various puzzles and interactive games – exactly what I like. I will say more – while working in the library, I noticed that middle-aged children (age category 7-15) also like games that require some action. The main games they played in the space were billiards, air hockey, table football. So this section interested me not only as games for myself or as a gift, but also, in the future, as a place where you can find something to diversify the games in this very space.

This blog has never made any money, so I offered a trade-off – I get a game to review, and in return I share where I found the game. Fair? Absolutely, in my opinion. So let’s get to the game.

Penguin potatoes

The game kit includes:

• playing field
• two plastic hammers
• four legs
• dial with action
• “ice” hexes of two colours

There was one more hex in the set, and there is an opinion that this is in case it happens that one gets lost somewhere. There is a QR code on the box with the game. When you click on it, you get to the YouTube channel, where there is a video with a description of the games. And, in my opinion, this is not correct.

Once I came across a book by the Ukrainian satirical poet Sasha Obry. In his book of poems, there was a QR code under each one. It sent us to a YouTube video in which the author read the same poem. Drawing parallels, it would be great if there was a video with the gameplay behind the code. There are no instructions included, so first of all you have to figure out the rules yourself.

The rules are printed on the back, the process is shown in detail.

Regulations

The main idea of ​​the game is very simple. It consists in not destroying the playing field under the penguin during your move. The order of the game is as follows. First, we collect the field:

We place the hexes in random order. Although in the future this will slightly affect the course of the game.

We place the penguin figure in the center of the field. I did this on an extra cell, but in general it is better to do it without it.

The game begins with one of the players spinning the spinner. There are four fields on it – blue, white, with blue and white hexes, and crossed out. Accordingly, in the event of a color falling out, the player must knock out one of the hexes of a certain color. When landing on a two-color field, the player chooses the color to knock out on his own. In the event of landing on a crossed out circle, the player misses his turn.

Knocking out is done with special plastic hammers. They have a fairly comfortable handle, I would advise knocking out the hexes with the sharp side.

With each new move, the number of hexes decreases and the structure becomes more fragile. So you need to accurately check the reliability of the platform and carefully decide which hex to knock out next.

The field can be quite porous, but this is the most important rule of the game – you should carefully choose those elements that will not affect the construction. And in this sense, this game allows you to develop a child’s thinking, to think ahead about how you can make it harder for your opponent to knock out the hex and not lose.

The game ends when the field collapses and the penguin falls under the ice. In this case, all that remains is to hope that the water is not cold and he will be able to swim to the shore 🙂

Nuances

I have already mentioned some points above, I will dwell on a few more. One of them has two sides. The first is the packaging of the game. And here the fault of the manufacturer/seller is 50/50. The fact is that while searching for information on the game, I came across this video:

It shows a child unpacking the game and it has a crumpled box. I also received a slightly deformed box

This is not critical, but if someone is getting the game as a gift, I think it’s better to pack such things in cardboard boxes. The game will arrive more intact, and unpacking will be more pleasant.

The second point is more up to the manufacturer. If you look at the picture with the spinner, you can see that the sticker is glued unevenly. Those who have read my posts about puzzles know how critical I am about the quality of the parts. It was easy to fix this flaw, but it had to be there.

I still didn’t like the quality of the penguin’s performance. Why? Well…

Sorry, but he literally didn’t come out of the box. It seems to consist of two parts. There was the same figure in the English-language video, so the question is more to the manufacturer than to the seller.

Thoughts on the game

At the time of writing this post, the price of Penguin Trap in the store where it came to me is $10. Is it worth the money? I think so. Absolutely.

Despite the fact that there are only two hammers in the game, up to 4 players can play it. So the game will prove itself perfectly in a small company of children. The playing field is easy to assemble, there are no too small parts in the game, although, again, it would be great if the manufacturer included some kind of bag for hexes in the kit, so that they would be easier and more reliable to store. The execution of the game is also 5+, if you do not take into account the slightly crooked penguin figure. But… is this surprising, considering how many times it fell through the ice? 🙂

As for the store, it would be great to see an increase in the variety of games in the assortment, because nowadays a good game is a great way to get away from everyday life and have some fun.

Author: Sa Crea

Hellmin