Rhino Hero

Quick Word I got this game a few years ago when my son was three because my wife and I were amazed at the towers and such he would build out of his crates of wooden blocks. He would make towers so tall and elaborate he had to stand on a stool to stack them and so I thought he would enjoy a game with a similar mechanic. Plus, he enjoyed Animal Upon Animal but I was getting a little burnt out on it. Brief Game Synopsis Players take turns building up a tower hoping to play the right cards to make another player knock the tower down. Players achieve this goal by carefully using bent cards as walls and then playing a card from their hand to act as the roof on top of the wall piece to challenge the next player to “build up” from there. These roofs have a variety of rules and affect to change up gameplay including requiring the titular Super Rhino to fly in from a different card and land on the newly laid roof (often causing the tower to come crashing down). The game ends when a player wins by playing the last card from their hand or when a player loses by knocking the tower down. Toys With Rules The rulebook itself is a standard Haba rulebook – plain but sufficient enough to thoroughly explain the minimal amount of rules in a wide variety of languages. It is a children’s game so it is not complicated and easy to teach. When I taught my son who was three we treated it more like Jenga and just randomly pulled the cards from the top of the stack and only concerned ourselves with not knocking it down. He enjoyed somewhat but a month or so later turned four and asked to play the game again. This time he wanted all the rules and has been playing with them since. Boards ‘N Bits So when I first heard you had to bend up the cards to play I nearly wept. I am a bit on the OCD side when it comes to my games so this was a horrible idea. Once I got over that I was still worried my son would somehow break them when folding so I folded for him (and for my wife and my friends and…okay…I have trust issues). However, the cards have not torn or scratched after many plays so I took a mental laxative and learned to chill out. My son now bends and throws the cards around after the Super Rhino flies into them (something that happens multiple times each time we get it out) and you know what? Nothing is broken or scratched. So the components are of sturdy quality. My only beef is that the cards are shiny and tend to slide a bit but I suspect that is intentional to add to the challenge. The pictures on each of the cards is amusing the first time you look at them and it is fun to see a tall house of cards swaying under the weight of a chunky wooden Super Rhino. My Thoughts Having played Super Rhino with the kids and with friends as a fluff filler about the highest praise I can give it is that it beats Jenga and anyone who sees it wants to play it. It is a quaint cocktail of charming, cute, and silly. Like a young John Cusack in board game form (maybe more fitting then I meant to because I think I remember a movie form the 80’s in which he drew a rhino not unlike Super Rhino…or maybe my mind noodles is betraying me again). The base game falls pretty flat with the over four crowd and can get frustrating when playing with five or so people because if you go last odds are you do not go again. This is where variants come in to give it a little more playability. We usually play using a point system where if you knock any part of the tower over the fallen cards go to the player who made the previous successful stack. They keep these fallen cards and they count as a point per card. Game ends when the first person plays their last card successfully. We usually combine this with another variant requiring the Super Rhino to then be placed on top of the roof. If they successfully make it the game ends and they get three extra points. If they cause it to fall the person who went before them gets the points and the game is still over. The last bit of spice we use is adding a five minute timer to the game as a countdown clock which gives it a more frenzied time element because if the clock goes off on your turn you lose five points. I will say, it made me try to make my own Die Hard prototype where we are building the Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard and different floor icons or cards cause traps, victims, or terrorists to show up. Players could play coop as John McClane or utilize a Hans Gruber deck to play against the McClane player as the villain who is setting traps or trying to steal stuff or keep hostages. I feel like that is a game I might play a little more. Son’s Thoughts Here is what my five year old said regarding his thoughts on Super Rhino: My thoughts on Super Rhino are, well, I really like it. Because there are cards, you know? And all of the cards make different things happen to the game and sometimes if people build the tower too high – because it can be built too high and get knocked down – you can play the right card to skip their turn or make them have to move the Super Rhino. So if they built it super high you can super frustrate them and make them super knock it down which is super funny to me. I also really like that whoever built the tower lays the roof card down and makes the next person play off what they put down. Pro’s + Quick and easy mindless filler + Same adult set that likes games like Jenga are cool with a round or two of this + Very adaptable to House Rules Con’s - Not very deep - Only good for a few games before it gets dull - Hard to play with more than 3 players as most do not get to go a second or third time. Purchase, Play, or Pass If you have dexterous kids and you don’t mind the silly then I could justify purchasing this. I have played it quite a bit with groups as a filler and loads more with my son. However, Animal Upon Animal (or Stack-imals as it is called in my house) hits a similar itch but has less rules to explain. I would suggest Play first unless you are certain your kids would be into it. As soon as my youngest is too old for it, my copy will become a Thrift Store

Quick Word I got this game a few years ago when my son was three because my wife and I were amazed at the towers and such he would build out of his crates of wooden blocks. He would make towers so tall and elaborate he had to stand on a stool to stack them and so I thought he would enjoy a game with a similar mechanic. Plus, he enjoyed Animal Upon Animal but I was getting a little burnt out on it. Brief Game Synopsis Players take turns building up a tower hoping to play the right cards to make another player knock the tower down. Players achieve this goal by carefully using bent cards as walls and then playing a card from their hand to act as the roof on top of the wall piece to challenge the next player to “build up” from there. These roofs have a variety of rules and affect to change up gameplay including requiring the titular Super Rhino to fly in from a different card and land on the newly laid roof (often causing the tower to come crashing down). The game ends when a player wins by playing the last card from their hand or when a player loses by knocking the tower down. Toys With Rules The rulebook itself is a standard Haba rulebook – plain but sufficient enough to thoroughly explain the minimal amount of rules in a wide variety of languages. It is a children’s game so it is not complicated and easy to teach. When I taught my son who was three we treated it more like Jenga and just randomly pulled the cards from the top of the stack and only concerned ourselves with not knocking it down. He enjoyed somewhat but a month or so later turned four and asked to play the game again. This time he wanted all the rules and has been playing with them since. Boards ‘N Bits So when I first heard you had to bend up the cards to play I nearly wept. I am a bit on the OCD side when it comes to my games so this was a horrible idea. Once I got over that I was still worried my son would somehow break them when folding so I folded for him (and for my wife and my friends and…okay…I have trust issues). However, the cards have not torn or scratched after many plays so I took a mental laxative and learned to chill out. My son now bends and throws the cards around after the Super Rhino flies into them (something that happens multiple times each time we get it out) and you know what? Nothing is broken or scratched. So the components are of sturdy quality. My only beef is that the cards are shiny and tend to slide a bit but I suspect that is intentional to add to the challenge. The pictures on each of the cards is amusing the first time you look at them and it is fun to see a tall house of cards swaying under the weight of a chunky wooden Super Rhino. My Thoughts Having played Super Rhino with the kids and with friends as a fluff filler about the highest praise I can give it is that it beats Jenga and anyone who sees it wants to play it. It is a quaint cocktail of charming, cute, and silly. Like a young John Cusack in board game form (maybe more fitting then I meant to because I think I remember a movie form the 80’s in which he drew a rhino not unlike Super Rhino…or maybe my mind noodles is betraying me again). The base game falls pretty flat with the over four crowd and can get frustrating when playing with five or so people because if you go last odds are you do not go again. This is where variants come in to give it a little more playability. We usually play using a point system where if you knock any part of the tower over the fallen cards go to the player who made the previous successful stack. They keep these fallen cards and they count as a point per card. Game ends when the first person plays their last card successfully. We usually combine this with another variant requiring the Super Rhino to then be placed on top of the roof. If they successfully make it the game ends and they get three extra points. If they cause it to fall the person who went before them gets the points and the game is still over. The last bit of spice we use is adding a five minute timer to the game as a countdown clock which gives it a more frenzied time element because if the clock goes off on your turn you lose five points. I will say, it made me try to make my own Die Hard prototype where we are building the Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard and different floor icons or cards cause traps, victims, or terrorists to show up. Players could play coop as John McClane or utilize a Hans Gruber deck to play against the McClane player as the villain who is setting traps or trying to steal stuff or keep hostages. I feel like that is a game I might play a little more. Son’s Thoughts Here is what my five year old said regarding his thoughts on Super Rhino: My thoughts on Super Rhino are, well, I really like it. Because there are cards, you know? And all of the cards make different things happen to the game and sometimes if people build the tower too high – because it can be built too high and get knocked down – you can play the right card to skip their turn or make them have to move the Super Rhino. So if they built it super high you can super frustrate them and make them super knock it down which is super funny to me. I also really like that whoever built the tower lays the roof card down and makes the next person play off what they put down. Pro’s + Quick and easy mindless filler + Same adult set that likes games like Jenga are cool with a round or two of this + Very adaptable to House Rules Con’s - Not very deep - Only good for a few games before it gets dull - Hard to play with more than 3 players as most do not get to go a second or third time. Purchase, Play, or Pass If you have dexterous kids and you don’t mind the silly then I could justify purchasing this. I have played it quite a bit with groups as a filler and loads more with my son. However, Animal Upon Animal (or Stack-imals as it is called in my house) hits a similar itch but has less rules to explain. I would suggest Play first unless you are certain your kids would be into it. As soon as my youngest is too old for it, my copy will become a Thrift Store

We saw a family playing a game and we were very curious to know what a wonderful game was that everyone was loving it! We ran to find that game's name and bought a copy. It's one of our favorite games! Guaranteed fun.

We saw a family playing a game and we were very curious to know what a wonderful game was that everyone was loving it! We ran to find that game's name and bought a copy. It's one of our favorite games! Guaranteed fun.

Rhino Hero (also known as Super Rhino outside the US), is a fun card stacking game that very young kids can enjoy. The cool thing is that, unlike more basic games like Candyland, adults can play and enjoy Super Rhino as well. If you're not going to play with kids, Super Rhino is not the most challenging stacking game there is, so you might want to look at other games, though. It comes with a neat rhino animeeple that you have to move up depending on the card you play.

Rhino Hero (also known as Super Rhino outside the US), is a fun card stacking game that very young kids can enjoy. The cool thing is that, unlike more basic games like Candyland, adults can play and enjoy Super Rhino as well. If you're not going to play with kids, Super Rhino is not the most challenging stacking game there is, so you might want to look at other games, though. It comes with a neat rhino animeeple that you have to move up depending on the card you play.