Remo Rehder: Children Go Nuts

I have been asked to contribute to BGN with the occasional column about happenings in Norway regarding board games, and for this first column I thought I should write about a children’s game that I presume few of you have any knowledge of, the children’s game of the year for 2007: Jumbo Zoo (Tactic).

The theme in the game is that the players are out to get enough food (15 peanuts) for their baby elephants (an unusual diet I suspect). Each player has his own cute little plastic elephants. The board has an outside and an inside track, and the basic game dynamic is a simple roll-and-move affair.

Each round the player throws the die and moves the cardboard elephant according to the die roll or makes the action stated by the die. The die has two sides with different symbols that initiate an action; either move the zookeeper or grab a new peanut from the general supply. (This last action is open to all players – the first to “toot” gets the peanut.) The track where the players move the zookeeper and their elephants is the outer track, which consists of six different types of fields, each associated with its own action. The different actions are:

• Take one peanut from the general supply.

• Take two peanuts from the general supply.

• Lose a peanut to the general supply.

• Make a gamble with another player, with the active player hiding 1-3 peanuts in one of his hands while the other player has to guess which hand holds the peanuts: if correct, the player gets the peanuts; if incorrect, the guessing player has to give up the same amount as was hidden by the active player.

• Grab as many peanuts from the general supply as the die shows and shake them in your hand before dropping them on the board. (All peanut markers that land with the peanut side up are won by the player.)

• Throw the two additional dice (one shows a color and the other an animal). All the players now try to be the first to place their own elephant on the correct field, thus earning peanuts.

Jumbo Zoo is fun, surprising and intense for the children, and they seem to always want to play it again immediately. And that is a good sign for most games!

Lastly, the publisher also states that the game is a commercial success in Norway, with sales of 15,000 units so far – a total that’s expected to reach 20,000 by summer 2009! In a market as small as the Norwegian that is remarkable – remember there are only 4.5 million living here…

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