How good are your reactions? How sharp is your eyesight? Do you have fast hands? You can put them to the test in the ‘pick up and play’ tabletop grabbing game Grabolo from Ideal. Grabolo is a fast paced matching and grabbing game. A roll of the dice tells you what item to spot and grab before your opponents.
Grabolo is a game for 2-4 players, age 4 years upwards with a quick playing time of 10-15 minutes. The game consists of 36 plastic playing pieces (6 different shapes, each in 6 different colours), 2 dice and a set of instructions. Everything is contained in a clear plastic tube with a screw top. And the tube containing the pieces is small enough that it is a good size for a travel game.
Grabolo is a quick and simple game to set up and play. Set up literally takes seconds, just empty the contents out of the tube into the middle of the playing area. Spread them out a bit and you’re good to go.
The idea of the game is to roll the dice, find the matching colour and shape in the pile on the table and grab it before your opponents can. How do you know what piece to grab? Well, the game has two dice; one has different colours on each face whilst the other has different shapes. Roll the dice together and the colour and shape are the piece that you need to find and grab (yellow car, blue duck etc.).
The youngest player gets the game rolling by rolling the dice first. If the dice shows blue (colour) and a tree (shape) then the first player to spot a blue tree in the pile needs to grab it as fast as they can. Play then continues around the table. The winner is the first person to grab six pieces (this will change depending on the number of players). As one particular meerkat would say, “simples!”
Whilst the premise of what to do is simple, playing can be harder. Hand/eye speed and observation are an essential component of this game, other players can steal your pieces and if you grab the wrong piece you must put it back AND forfeit one of your other pieces.
Overall, Grabolo is a fast and fun ‘pick up and play’ game, although at times can be painful with over-eager kids (with sharp nails) smashing their hands down with the force of a jackhammer.
Initially we played the game on a table, but with all the exuberant grabbing, pieces kept flying off the table, so we switched to playing on the carpet and found that this worked much better for this game as pieces weren’t going everywhere. It is a very short game to play, taking around 10 minutes to finish which means that you can get a few rounds in and there is always a different winner (at least, generally there is).
With only observation skills and hand speed required to play, this means that the whole family, no matter what their age, can join it – although as I found out, watch out for those sharp fingernails and hammering hands from the kids (or even over-excited adults)!
Grabolo is a fast, frantic fun game to play with family or with friends. There is minimal setup needed, the rules are very clear and easy to understand, and the small footprint of the game makes it easy to store. The compact size also lends itself to be an excellent travel game.
Whether it is a rainy day or family game night, Grabolo is excellent, fast fun. Grab yours today!
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £12.99
For more information visit www.johnadams.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
