Customer Reviews

Haba Animal Upon Animal

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We ordered Animal Upon Animal (Tier auf Tier) for our 4 year old's Christmas present. It seemed like a solid dexterity game and we wanted him to work on his hand skills.

From the moment he opened the box and picked up the chunky wooden animals he has loved this game. He pulls it out at any opportunity.

Animal Upon Animal is a simple game, and other than 2 symbols on the die (the question mark and the hand, neither of which seemed immediately obvious for us and we had to check the rule book for several plays before we learned what they meant) the rules are quickly understood by all players. Players roll the die and either balance 1 animal, 2 animals, give an animal to another player to place, allow other players to chose the animal they place, or place an animal to the front or rear of the alligator.

The pieces are chunky and well-made (although I think detailing on 2 sides instead of just 1 would be better). Children can easily handle them. They also have bumps and curves which make placement interesting for older players (matching the snake humps or the bristles of the hedgehogs, curving the beak of a toucan around the leg of another animal).

Play continues and often the pile falls. One thing I like about this game is that you only keep 2 of the fallen animals no matter how many fall. This encourages a fun game where younger players don't feel beaten down and where older ones feel free to experiment.

This can even be fun as a solo venture, seeing how many pieces you can add to the tower of animals. We also added a rule ourselves to make a more even game when adults and young children are playing. The adults simply don't allow themselves easy moves like placing an animal in front of or behind the alligator or handing off pieces for a younger player to place.

Perhaps not a game for adults or older children, but a very fun dexterity game for young children. Easy to set up on their own (unlike Break the Ice or Jenga) and encouraging fast play.

We bought three Haba games for our four-year old this Christmas; this one, Socken Zochen, and Zitternix. This is my favorite, and my two-year old is dangerously crazy about the pieces, but my four year old says that although she likes this game it's not as cool as Socken Zochen.

The game consists of 7 different small wooden animals. There are four sets of animals for a total of 28 pieces plus a die and a wooden alligator that forms the base of the stack. They are all quite small, something I realized before ordering, but it really is hard to get the idea of size from the picture, so here are the measurements:

The die, which is larger than standard dice is a .75" square.
Aligator: 4" x 1"
Penguins: 1.25" x .75"
Frilled Lizards: 1.25" x 1"
Hedgehogs: 1.3" x 1.2"
Snakes: 2.8" x .4"
Toucans: 1.4" x 1.25"
Sheep: 1.75" x 1.4"
Monkeys: 1.75" x 1"

The gameplay is as follows:

Seven animals per player, for up to four players. Each players receives one of each kind of animal.

First player rolls the die which has a number of options: A single dot commands you place one animal of your choice, a double dot is two animals of your choice, a crocodile image means you add to the base of the stack, a hand means you give another player your piece to stack (thus meaning that other player will incur the penalty if they knock the tower down), and a '?' which means another player chooses which piece you have to stack next, which means they can of course do you in by choosing a difficult piece, like the sheep who is larger, heavier, and has less grippy edges.

Of course, he who brings down the whole pile is the loser. The winner is the one who uses all their pieces without bringing about animal catastrophe, and if you just knock a couple of pieces down, they just go back in your pile, setting you behind a bit in your mission.

I haven't had the opportunity to attempt to pile the animals on my own (although I'm dying to), but because of that silky-smooth Haba finish and the range of shapes, this game proves to be a bit more difficult than you might imagine. The smallness of the pieces adds to that difficulty, as well. And of course the die adds an unpredictability that ups the challenge as well.

I think this is a great game. The pieces are endlessly appealing, and a very open-ended plaything, as my two year old demonstrated when she dubbed the monkeys 'howler monkeys' and continued to generally disregard most of her other presents to tote these four monkeys around in her new Uncle Goose wagon, and put them to 'bed' on her new Uncle Goose blocks. The monkeys watched her eat lunch, and she would have taken them to bed, but as these pieces are really quite small and a definite choking hazard. They are absolutely a high supervision item with a child under three, or more of an item to keep on a high shelf.

While this game could easily be replicated without actually purchasing it (my kids already stack their animal figurines) the structure of having an actual game to play on this premise is extremely fun. It's a refreshing change in pace for preschool games. So many rely on the *yawn* Candyland luck and chance, roll the die and move forward, boring, boring boring. I like a game that requires skill and planning, and maybe just a touch of luck to mix things up, and this game does all of the above.

I love that this game is made in Germany.

I would highly recommend it to preschoolers well past the mouthing stage; with my only caveat being you might want to hold off if you have younger (below age 3) children, as the appeal is too great and pieces definitely too small.

As a whole this is a very cute and enjoyable game. My boys are 4 and 2 1/2 and they have easily grasped the point of the game. The only negative thing I can say about the game is that the animal pieces are alot smaller than I thought they would be...but other than that, it's a fun little game that doesn't last very long and is challenging enough to be fun!

I'm a pediatric occupational therapist and absolutely love this game. Anyone can play, it's not too difficult, and it's lovely to look at.

The box to Animal Upon Animal has printed on it that this game is for ages 4-99. Reading the reviews, you would think you could only find this game interesting and challenging if you were under the age of five. Not so. My children, over the age of 12, received many board games for Christmas. This one is their favorite out of all of them. The game pieces are adorable, wooden animals that you need to stack on an alligator. Because the animals are small, it makes the game challenging. They have followed the rules to the game and have also made up games to build the tallest animal tower. I love Haba products and am thrilled that they love this game so much! Another game that they love is Haba's Twiddle Turtle. Check it out.

I got this game for my 3 year old game loving girl for Christmas based on the good reviews but have been sadly disappointed. The game itself is good but the pieces are too "slick" to really work; they have no "gripping" power. The animals are too hard to stack and keep stacked thus causing much frustration with little ones because of them falling so easily. We didn't even really finish one game because the kids were too frustrated with it. =( IF the pieces were NOT shiny and slick it would be a great game, nice idea poor design.

My 4 year old loves Animal Upon Animal (Tier auf Tier). A fun, but simple balance game that is made in Germany of sustainable wood and is lead-free. The pieces do challenge little hands when it comes to balancing them, bu not to the point of frustration. I actually bagged it up so we can take it with us to restaurants, doctors, and etc. The colors are bright, the pieces well made from sustainable forests, and no worries for lead paint. Cute pieces and and little ones stayed entertained while working on finger dexterity (a parental plus). This game would also be a big hit in the OT setting. I would say it is appropriate for the 4-6 age group.

My 5-year-old son loves this stacking game. He usually keeps stacking for awhile after the game is over. The game teaches one to be very careful and exact in their hand movements.

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my 4-year-old son in 2010. I agree with another reviewer, that the shiny finish on the pieces, while pleasing to the eye and touch, makes this game a bit difficult to stack. The pieces are a bit hard to stack even for myself sometimes. I do also think they should have painted the details of each animal on both sides, not just one. Overall, this is a good game, but a bit frustrating for little ones who are still improving their fine motor skills.

This is a great toy for young children, however, some of the older kids were having with it too. I like that the pieces are of high quality! It has kids using their sense of logic and they don't even realize it because they are having so much fun. Plus, it's a unique gift that isn't sold at the big box toy shops!