Happy Salmon, published by North Star games and designed by Ken Gruhl and Quentin Weir, is a super simple to learn frenetic, family party game for three to six players.

The colour of the case is noticeably different, but inside that you have six sets of the same cards, with the same actions on. For a frantic game with players holding their whole deck and tossing cards all over when discarding them quickly, the cards have to stand up to the beating. Happy Salmon is a party game that you’ll learn how to play in seconds, but you’ll keep playing for hours. When I went to my first boardgame night with all new people, they suggested I play one round of this before I left.Has no one else noticed the remarkable similarity to Hilarium, which was published by Mattel back in 2001? Since up to 6 people can play, it’s a great game to take along with you get together with extended family as well.

It’s a somewhat disappointing change, but one that potentially makes sense in the light of efforts to reduce plastic use and boost sustainability across the tabletop industry. I must confess it got me intrigued as I had this game down as a cheap kid’s novelty that I was unlikely to ever try.Happy Salmon is a real-time game in which players are trying to get rid of a deck of cards by performing the actions on it together with another player. Happy Salmon is a cute little game, contained on a deck of cards, and cleverly packaged in a neoprene Salmon-shaped pouch.

The eponymous publisher of Exploding Kittens, Throw Throw Burrito and other party games announced that it had landed Happy Salmon over the summer, acquiring the 2016 title from original publisher North Star Games. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Not necessarily because it (used to) come(s) in a fish, or because its mechanics are revolutionary or because you'll be challenged mentally and spiritually while playing; it's so good because it makes some of the best use of the players that are standing around the table. The only recourse for being partnerless is to save the card for later, dropping it to the bottom of your deck.A player can almost always find a partner in Pit, and even when they can’t there are plays to be made (splitting a set, changing the collected suit). Our artists, game designers, and sometimes even the founders all use it, as well as a collection of people who post house rules, custom cards, tips, and strategy. The card names are slightly revised from Happy Salmon’s earlier release, with the excellently-titled Fish Bump replacing Pound It! To entertain kids and adult alike, Happy Salmon should be carried in your bag for almost all occasions. Subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority.

And even though the game is still loud, the loudness is hyper-condensed to a brief two-minute burst where people just mostly shout the name of an action before quickly moving on.The aim is to match the card at the top of your deck with another player, performing the shown action to discard the card - high-fiving, fist-bumping, swapping places and slapping each other’s forearm like a flapping fish. However, they do have different coloured backs, so you can take the craziness of Happy Salmon from six to twelve players. At the start of the game, all players flip their stack over so that they can see the top face up card. Happy Salmon gets around both of those by being very, very brief and by inherently being about cooperation.