Steve Donohue
United States
Allen Park
Michigan
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Giro Galoppo is a horse-racing game for children ages 6 and up. The basic mechanic is a fixed deck of movement cards revealed simultaneously but chosen individual. The player whose horse is in the lead once they cross the finish line is the winner.
Components
The game comes with a brightly colored board, 5 wooden horses, 5 wooden riders, 5 wooden obstacles, 30 cards, and instructions. The wooden bits and the board are all very nice to look at and feel comfortable in the the hand. The pieces are large enough that children would have trouble swallowing them.
They are very festive and definitely add to the fun of the game.
Gameplay
Players first lay out the gameboard, choose a horse and get their 6 cards. The cards are numbered 1 to 6 and all 6 must be played before any are returned. The cards are selected each turn.
The play begins by placing the five obstacles on the board, these are in addition to couple of fixed obstacles. The rules for placing obstacles are simple, they have to go on brown squares and can’t be adjacent to an existing obstacle.
Once the obstacles are placed, each player picks a card, then all are revealed. The player who plays the lowest number moves first and if there’s a tie, whoever is further behind moves first.
The movement is fairly simple. If your move would land you on an obstacle, then you don’t move. If you move and land on another horse, that horse goes back to the next unoccupied square.
Play continues until each player has exhausted his stack of cards, then starts again with all values available once more.
This continues until at least one person crosses the finish line. In the event that two or more players cross on the same turn, whoever is further past the finish line is deemed the winner.
Picture courtesy of Werbaer
In this example, green has a number of options open to him. If he plays his 1 or 3, he wont move, since those would make him land on obstacles. Playing a 2 would effectively make him swap with yellow, since landing on a piece sends it back to the closest unoccupied square. If he plays a 4, he'd land between the green hedge and the blue rider. A 5 would put him where the blue rider is and push blue back one space. A 6 would put him between the blue and white.
Of course, action choice is simultaneous and the lowest number moves first, so those decisions are more difficult than they might appear.
Intelligences
This review is part of a series of reviews I’m doing as I evaluate games my wife may use in her classroom or that I’m using with my Boy Scouts. Apart from the normal review, I try to identify the kinds of intelligence that the game will use. For an explanation of multiple intelligences, see: my blog post at: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/786097
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
Counting spaces is important in this game, as is being able to remember which numbers others might have played and which are available to them.
Spatial Intelligence
Being able to visualize your next board position is important.
Interpersonal Intelligence
The game allows ample chances to land on someone else’s horse and force them to move back at least one square, sometimes more. Being able to handle this is important for enjoyment of the game. It can also be helpful, if you know your opponent, to guess which cards he might play and then play counter cards of your own.
Intrapersonal Intelligence
In any game where players can choose to directly attack others having the maturity to not take it personally is a key skill.
Naturalist Intelligence
Naturalists may have a slight edge in remembering which cards have been played from the other player’s sets.
Age Appropriateness
The game is recommended for ages 6 and up and there is nothing about the game to offend anyone in that age range. Truthfully, I think younger children could play the game with a minimum of help. The game can be handicapped by giving yourself fewer moves or even selecting your move card randomly.
Recommendation
Giro Galoppo is a great game for kids and adults. It is not a deep thinker, but there is enough strategy to make it fun to play with kids or adults. My wife and I have had a great time with it and so have her first grade students.
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Larry Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
Way to go, Bubba.
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Thanks for the reiview. I'm considering this for my two children, ages 7 & 5.
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Steve Donohue
United States
Allen Park
Michigan
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My wife's students are mostly right in the middle of that and they enjoy it.
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JL San Miguel
Spain
Cantabria
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¡Timely review! Also thinking about getting it for a 6 years old kid.
Many thanks, sdonohue.
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Yoki Erdtman
Sweden
Södertälje
Handsome devil huh?
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Wonderful review, makes me regret putting this back on the shelf in Essen.
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Chris Snyder
United States
Selinsgrove
Pennsylvania
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Great review. I just bought this game last week, and your review helped me catch a rule that I read wrong the first time. I look forward to playing this weekend.
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