#22: Chip-Chip Hurra

Chip-Chip Hurra

• designer: Klaus Teuber
• publisher: Klee
• date: 2001
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 4283/5.35
• age: 6+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: OOP
• cost: there's one on the Geek for 14 Euros... and I found another one on ebay.it (Italian eBay) for 10 Euros (shipping will be expensive, though)

Why, yes, that IS two games by Klaus Teuber in a row... and two more are coming up real soon. He may be known for the 900 lb. gorilla known as the Catan franchise, but the guy has some really decent chops when it comes to designing kid games as well.

You wouldn't know that by looking at the Geek rating, though. I think this is yet another case of adult gamers rating a game for kids after playing it with a full complement of adults. (Note: my first playing of this was with adults - the RIGHT kind of adults who can enjoy the silliness. More on that game in a minute.)

Another problem occurred when the game was first released - the focus was on the memory aspect of the game (which is incredibly small) instead of the dexterity & silliness elements (which are the real focus). That scared a few more people away from a wonderful little game.

The robot designer (played in the game by a molded plastic flipping device) likes to see how well his robots (played in the game by some very detailed & aged molded plastic figures under which you place a d6) function - so he throws floppy disks (played by small molded plastic floppy pieces) into his lab (played by a board set in the top of the box with spaces denoted by raised plastic ridges) and sees which robot can get them. Yep, lots of plastic.

On your turn, you flip a floppy disk onto the board, then move one of your two robots in a straight line so that it will be adjacent to the disc. Moving the robot causes the die beneath him to "roll" as it moves over the ridges. Then the other players each get to move one robot in an attempt to contest possession of the floppy disk. After everyone has moved, all players pick up their robots & add the number on their die to the number of disks the robot already has... the highest number gets the disk.

Each robot has room for 4 disks... when they're full, they leave the gameboard. The objective, of course, is to fill up both your robots first.

I first played this at the 2002 Gathering of Friends with a crew of gamers who had a marvelous time trying to perfect our disk flipping aim while each of us taking on various robot voices: "Danger, Will Robinson!" "Beedy-beedie-beedie" and the clicks & whistles of R2-D2. 24 hours later when I arrived home, I began searching the Web for a copy of this game for my collection.

Kids as young as age 5 can play... though the pieces are unique and the game is OOP, so you need to carefully choose which younger kids are allowed to mess with the game. It will work with 2 players but is best with 3 or 4.