Funforge | £37.85 | Dexterity/betting | 3-6 players | 30 minutes | Age: 6+ | funforge.fr
Opening the box, I had no idea what to expect from Hop!, the airy dexterity game from Ca$h ‘n Guns designer Ludovic Maublanc. At first glance, the cover artwork depicting blue skies, clouds and chubby-cheeked cartoon kids floating about on balloons brought to mind Pixar’s modern movie classic Up, while the name itself recalled simplistic roll-and-move children’s titles relegated to toy – rather than game – shops. Ultimately, Hop! ends up straddling the line between becoming a more accomplished tabletop experience and an accessible kids’ hit – with surprisingly engaging results.
The first thing to note is the game board, a multi-tiered construction you’ll need to piece together each time you play. It’s a little unnecessary for what is a very simple title at heart, but the verticality of the stacked layers helps to capture the joy of the race to climb through the clouds and reach the seventh space first. The space is itself a clunky white cap that slots on top of the crossed main pillar and the side clouds are loose-fitting bits of card that seem thrown in for the heck of it, but the board is otherwise nicely decorated with dreamy blue skies.
God rays and fluffy clouds.