I got a copy of The Kookaburra Game yesterday. I’m supposed to translate the rules in Finnish. That won’t be a heavy task, because they’re just one A4.

We also tried the game yesterday. It turned out to be pretty much what I expected from the rules: a Pachisi variant. Players try to race around the board to return to their home base. This time, players have five different pieces. Crocodiles are the only piece who can eat other pieces, koalas can only move in multiples of three, kangaroos can carry other pieces, platypus can shortcut using water on the board and kookaburra can move anywhere on board. Kookaburra can be used to protect other pieces, because crocodile can only eat solitary pieces.

It’s slightly more interesting than Pachisi, but only slightly. It’s still plain old roll-and-move and thus can’t hold the interest of an adult gamer. That’s why I rated the game as 4 in the Geek. However, had I children, I’d probably appreciate the game a bit more. So, I’ll probably forget it in some remote corner of my game collection until that day comes.

The game looks pretty nice: the pieces are large, plastic depictions of the animals. The board isn’t that good, but it’s double-sided and while one side is boring and even ugly, the other side is rather psychedelic and actually pretty cool.