BoardGameGeek.com
Jason Little
August 2007
USA

I received a copy of Wallamoppi (Out of the Box Games) in a recent game splurge and it was the one game that caught the eye of both my wife and my son Ben - so it saw immediate table time. Here's a brief review based on several plays with my wife (generally a non-gamer) and my son (a gamer in training).

Overview: Wallamoppi is a manual manual dexterity game for two players. Players take turns removing wooden disks from a wall they helped to construct, then balancing these disks on the top of the structure to form a tower. A marble timer adds tension and forces quick action on the part of the players - if the marble makes it all the way down to the end of the timer during your turn or if you knock over the growing tower of wooden disks, your opponent wins the match.

Components: The components are great. The game box is wooden, with a beveled top that slides off from the rest of the box. Inside the box is a large pleather bag to hold the wooden disks used to create the wall and tower. The disks come in dark and natural wood finishes, and are slightly larger than a typical Crokinole disk. The finish is smooth and the pieces have a nice heft to them. There are also two marbles, which are used as a timer.

And the timer is the niftiest part, for me. There's a small round hole on one end of the box. Before play, after you remove the disks and rules from the game box, you stand the box on its side, with the hole at the top. At the back of the box, a series of wooden ramps form a chute the marble will follow when the marble is dropped through the hole in the top. A small wooden "bridge" connects to the bottom of the chute, with a hole for the marble to drop into should it make it all the way down the chute and all the way to the end of the bridge.

Rules: There are some simple rules in addition to the overview above, which basically restrict or define the player interaction with the disks. You can only use one hand to remove or place a disk, for example. The rules are clear and well written, and fit on the front and back of a glossy 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, folded lengthwise.

The rulesheet includes a few nice visuals to clearly indicate how the disks are stacked and how the tower is built. There is also a nice "low stress" variant that eliminates the marble timer. I like the timer myself, but it was a bit too stressful for Ben and he preferred playing without it.

Gameplay: This is not a difficult, taxing game. It plays in about 5-10 minutes, but that's a pretty tense, fun 5-10 minutes.

The game is actually comprised of 2 phases -- during the first phase, you and your opponent take turns placing the wooden disks to form a "wall" which is essentially a pyramid of stacked disks with a base 8 disks wide.

Placement of the disks is fairly important, because during the second phase, on your turn you need to extract a disk of your color (light or dark) from the wall to place on the tower. So there's a wee bit of strategy in initial disk placement, to try and get some disks on the edges for easier extraction, or keep some disks in place to block an easy play by your opponent.

The countdown timer adds a nice element. Initially, you'll finish early moves with plenty of time to spare. But as the tower gets taller and your safe moves start to diminish, it can be a real race against the clock to grab a disk, balance it on top of the tower and grab the marble off the ramp before it falls off the edge.

It's playable without the timer, but I think that makes the game too easy. For playing with kids, though, I think having the adults play with the timer and kids playing w/o the timer may be a good balancing mechanism.

The Bottom Line: Fun, light dexterity game. Great wooden bits. Simple rules. Adding the marble timer is a nice touch of tension, so you may rush ever-so-slightly-more than otherwise, which could lead to disaster. Engaging and makes a great night starter or ender. Only downside is it's strictly 2 player. Good alternative to Jenga, with enough novelty to stand on its own. Acromegaly sufferers or twitchy people need not apply.

7.5/10

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