Game review 81: Rhino Hero
Maybe our eponymous hero/deluded oaf will run out of towers to knock down, but we’ll be here to build them again
At Chez Generations Games, we love the most idiotic super-hero ever created.
Haba’s Rhino Hero, a, caped, horned megafauna, only job appears to be scaling perfectly liveable residential skyscrapers, only to make them collapse due to his sheer chunkiness.
It’s a format adopted successfully in another Haba game, Rhino Hero Super Battle, in which RH is joined by three other backfiring anthropomorphic peers in a larger game. At least in that they at least have the excuse that they attempted to stop some nefarious monkeys from destroying the building before they ruin it themselves. A bit like when the Avengers save some megalopolis by turning it into an unsurvivable inferno.
Here, Rhino Hero slims matters down. Rather than its aforementioned companion game, which sees a building grow from several foundations to create a more free-form building, this one sees players build up from a single source, stacking up in a straight line.
There are further differences and therefore both games have unique selling points, as well as the shared joy of players working together to create the highest stack of cards possible. Whereas in RHSB, play continues until the building falls (at which point whoever’s hero was highest on the tower wins), in RH whoever runs out of cards in their hand (each player starts with five) wins. Though in both, whoever causes the building to fall with their big, fumbling mammal hands and feet, automatically loses.
In addition, in RH, certain roof cards force special actions and required moves, such as changing the direction of play, or getting to play two roof cards at once.
Both games are simple. Although the more free-wheeling escapades of the larger game (not to mention the easier-to-wield cards with grown-up hands) are more enticing to adult players, this is more compact and a great idea as a travel companion. E, being a kid beyond the age of three and therefore very in to anything that involved creating an object taller than herself, is equally as thralled with it as she was with the Rhino Hero Super Battle.
There are more Rhino Games out there and presumably more in the future. Maybe our eponymous hero/deluded cretin will run out of towers to knock down, but at least we’ll be here to build them back up again.
Game facts and stats
Age
5+
Year first published
2011
Publisher
Haba
Designer
Scott Frisco and Steven Strumpf
Player count
2-5
E’s review
What do you like best about the game?
“Dada just keep on winning and I just really want to win. But do you want to play this game? Yes you do. I just love it. Get this game cos it’s so wow. This goes in a straight line but there is another game [Rhino Hero Super Battle] where we can put it wherever we want.”
Is it tricky?
“Yes. It’s really tricky for children.”
“25 and a hundred out of 10.”
My review
Set-up time
A bit of shuffling and that’s about it. Components, apart from the cards, are minimal.
Price
You shouldn’t be looking to pay anymore than £10.
Practicality
A small box means this is a great game to take on holiday. The only issue? The destroyed tower at the game’s end will mean cards are everywhere, and you’ll have to ensure you’ve found them all before you pack things away.
Fun for parents
A joy. A game that truly spans the generational divide.