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Official Hungry Hungry Hippos Rules

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"Hungry Hungry Hippos" is a fast-paced, action-packed game where players control colorful plastic hippos to gobble up as many marbles as possible. Here are the detailed rules for playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos":

Components:

  • Game Base: The board with four hippos and the marble holding area in the center.

  • 4 Hippos: Each player controls one hippo (typically colors are pink, orange, yellow, and green).

  • 20 Marbles: Small white marbles that the hippos will try to eat.

  • Marble Release Handle: A mechanism to release all marbles into the playing area at the start of the game.

Objective:

The objective of the game is to be the player whose hippo collects the most marbles by the end of the game.

Setup:

  1. Assemble the Game:

    • Place the game base on a flat surface.

    • Attach the hippos to their respective slots on the game base.

    • Ensure each hippo’s lever mechanism (mouth and neck) works properly.

  2. Distribute Marbles:

    • Place all 20 marbles in the marble holding area in the center of the game base.

  3. Assign Hippos:

    • Each player chooses a hippo and sits behind it.

Gameplay:

  1. Starting the Game:

    • One player or an adult releases the marbles by pulling the marble release handle, spreading the marbles across the board.

  2. Catch the Marbles:

    • Players rapidly press the lever on the back of their hippo to make it lunge forward and open its mouth to catch the marbles.

    • The hippos’ mouths will open and close as they lunge forward.

    • Players continue pressing the lever until all marbles are captured.

  3. Collecting Marbles:

    • As the hippo catches marbles, they will move down the hippo’s throat and into the player’s collection area.

  4. End of the Game:

    • The game ends when all the marbles have been captured by the hippos.

Winning the Game:

  • Once all the marbles have been captured, each player counts the number of marbles their hippo collected.

  • The player with the most marbles is declared the winner.

Special Rules:

  1. Ties:

    • In case of a tie (two or more players have the same number of marbles), the tied players can play a tiebreaker round with a subset of the marbles.

  2. Rules for Younger Players:

    • For younger children, you can reduce the number of marbles or play until a certain number of marbles have been captured.

Strategy Tips:

  1. Rapid Pressing: The game is all about speed, so rapidly press the lever to maximize your hippo’s chances of catching marbles.

  2. Timing: Watch the marbles' movement and try to time your presses to catch multiple marbles in one go.

  3. Positioning: Slightly angle your hippo towards areas with more marbles to increase your chances of collecting them.

"Hungry Hungry Hippos" is a fun and frantic game that can be enjoyed by players of all ages. The simple rules and fast-paced gameplay make it a great choice for family game nights and parties.

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