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Diana Doert / DER SPIEGEL
The classic – »Halli Galli«
What was it again?
A metal bell, as you know it from the counter of a reception from the past, a stack of cards with different numbers of fruits and a game table - that's all it took to get on my family's last nerves.
Today, a good 30 years later, I have to say: If I had been in my parents' place at the time, this game would have "disappeared" secretly, quietly and inexplicably from the game cabinet.
But one after anonther.
When »Halli Galli« came onto the market in 1990, there were already a number of such reaction games.
However, most were played with normal playing cards.
The cards were distributed evenly to all players, and it was in turn revealed from the face-down stack.
As soon as cards or symbols doubled, you had to hit the middle of the table quickly.
Because if you were too slow, you got all the cards from your fellow players.
It's not much different with »Halli Galli«.
As soon as you have a total of five identical fruits on the table, you have to hit the bell in the middle.
Yes, exactly.
Loud and clear on the metal bell.
Whoever rings the bell first gets all open discard piles.
Whoever has no more cards in front of him flies out, and in the end, whoever was able to pocket the most cards wins.
Is that still good today?
Really not much has changed with »Halli Galli«.
Well, the bell is now almost entirely made of plastic, cards and box have received minimal layout changes - but that's about it.
Even if there are now a lot of new similar reaction games, »Halli Galli« is still very popular.
Children especially love the excitement and the loud "ding" of the bell.
And it could be that we will soon have one less game on our game shelves.
Maybe it secretly, quietly moved to the basement for a while.
Hasbro; 2 – 4 players; from 8 years
Your ears are also ringing from the tinkling of the bell, and one or two new "punch-on" games would do the collection and family peace quite well?
Here is a small selection of alternatives:
»Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza«
What's the matter?
In this game, too, you have to be fast and hit lightning fast.
As the name of the game suggests, the cards feature tacos, cats, goats, cheese or pizza.
All cards are face down and distributed evenly to all players.
When it is your turn, you turn over the first card and say “Taco” out loud.
If there is anything other than a taco on the menu now, nothing happens.
Whoever is next turns over another card, puts it on top of the previous one and now says "Cat" out loud.
And as long as what is said does not match what is pictured, continue with goat, cheese and pizza, then start again with taco.
But if the spoken word matches the revealed card, i.e. Taco really shows a taco, then you have to hit the card stack in the middle with lightning speed.
Whoever hits it last must take all the cards and put them back under their own stack.
Whoever gets rid of all cards first wins.
That alone would be a nice mechanism if there weren't troublemakers like the marmot, the gorilla and the narwhal sneaking under the cards.
If they appear, you have to do completely different things before you can finally strike.
Is that any good?
A great idea to take five completely unrelated items and make them the core of a game mechanic.
The weird combination of what you have to say and what you see can really keep the brain cells busy.
Even if you've already played the game umpteen times - at some point your brain gets stuck again and you look around in confusion as to why the others are already hitting the middle again.
With the younger board game offspring, you simply leave out the three special animals at the beginning, then they come into play well.
blue-orange; 2 – 8 players; from 8 years
»Tarantula Tango«
What's the matter?
The dance-mad tango tarantula is looking for an animal that would like to dance with her.
But they are anything but enthusiastic and scream just at the sight of the eight-legged dance partner.
Well, that'll be fun.
First, the pentagonal tarantula card is placed in the center of the table.
The remaining playing cards are shuffled and distributed evenly.
On the cards you will find a number of animals, sometimes alone, sometimes in a double pack.
There are dogs, cats, cows, donkeys, goats and parrots.
On some of the cards you can also see one, sometimes two small tarantulas.
If you turn over the first card, you only have to place it on one side of the tarantula card, nothing happens yet.
The next player has to see if there is a tarantula on the animal card she just placed before she places her cards on the next free space.
If it is actually depicted, you must make the sound of the last animal before discarding your own card.
Should even two animals be seen, twice.
For example, if the player placed a cow with two tarantulas in front of you, you have to say "Moo Moo" before you place your own card, and then it's the next player's turn.
If you do something wrong, you own all the cards on display.
Whoever runs out of cards first wins.
The basic concept can soften the brain cells a bit.
But when all the special rules are added, it gets really exhausting.
The parrot is gifted with languages and imitates the animal in front of it, the cow is a herd animal and does not come alone, so it needs more space and you have to leave a field empty when laying it down.
You guessed it, there is much more to come!
Is that any good?
It has definitely become a classic for us.
There is hardly a game that I have given away to family friends more often than »Tarantel Tango«.
The rules are quickly explained, the layout is great, and with a bit of imagination you can invent additional house rules until you drop.
For example: If a dog is revealed directly after a cat, the direction must be changed because the dog wants to chase the cat.
With newcomers you can start with the simplest rules first and then gradually tighten the thumbscrews and make the game more and more complex.
Three Magician Games; 2 – 5 players; from 7 years; Author: Jacques Zeimet
»Blast of Inspiration«
What's the matter?
The small packaging comes with a stack of cards and five beautiful wooden figures.
There is a white ghost, a red armchair, a green bottle, a blue book and a gray mouse.
Two of these objects are always depicted on the cards, but usually not in the original colours.
The cards are shuffled and placed face down in a pile in the middle of the table.
When it is your turn, you reveal the top card, and then everything has to happen very quickly again.
The item that is correctly depicted must now be grabbed.
But since this is rarely the case, you now have to grab the item that is neither visible on the map nor has its original color.
If you see a green mouse with a white book on the revealed card, the object you are looking for is the red armchair.
Whoever reacted correctly and fastest gets to keep the revealed card as a victory point.
When the deck of cards is empty, whoever has the most points wins.
Is that any good?
So you can still get by with a single rule.
But if you then realize that this very rule is only very, very rarely applied, then you'd rather concentrate on rule number two.
And you're in trouble.
I don't know how many times we thought that a card had to be "wrong" when we did "Geistesblitz" when we forgot what we were actually looking for.
A very enchanting brain-hand game in which the younger ones once again have a clear advantage.
ZOCH; 2 – 8 players; from 8 years; Author: Jacques Zeimet
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