Game review 90: Coconuts
Who doesn't want to try out a grinning monkey catapult?
‘Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head,’ once sang Freddy Martin with his Orchestra about some showman’s wares down the English fayre.
So enraptured with this fun-filled situation that having a lovely bunch of coconuts has spiralled down the lexicon through the ages – White Christmas comic legend Danny Kaye picked up the mantle across the Atlantic with a top 25 hit of the tropical-fruit-inspired song in 1951.
Ringo Starr, Nicholas Cage and Mr Bean’s Rowan Atkinson are among other stars through the ages who have continued the theme since, singing their enthusiasm on film, demanding we give those hairy, juice-filled hardened balls ‘a twist, a flick of the wrist’.
And now while Korea Board Games’ game-component monkeys have neither the adjustable jaw nor the sentience to vocalise their approval of such matters, we only have to look at these smiling, beaming faces to get a sense of joy that the old-school carnival coconut shy can bring.
And Coconuts is a joy-spreading game. A great start-without-stress basis for a good family product is to be able to give it one look and know what the main objective is without even having to bother to look at the instructions, one that can be picked up and played with your own house rules. Catapult poo-looking objects into pots via monkey paws, all for points.
Easy. Away you go.
If you really must have your rules formulated for you though, each player takes a monkey, a mat and eight coconuts, represented by a very satisfying-to-the-touch lump of rubber. Your grinning primate is positioned behind the mat and the coconut is flung with its trebuchet mitts toward a central field of red-and-yellow cups.
Get a coconut in a pot and that pot is then transferred on to one of the three tree stumps on your mat, with the aim of stacking them up a six-cup pyramid to win the game.
A ‘take-that’ strategic element is drawn into proceedings as other players can then target pots in your ‘home’ stack, either to steal a cup by getting the coconut in it, or knocking the whole pyramid down. Thus, any lead you get is never really safe and secure – but rather than drawing on the luck that many family games deploy to ensure runaway leaders are pulled back, players do at least have to deploy some skill to peg things back.
Once in the cup, coconuts remain there, so if the supply runs out during the game, things immediately end and whoever has the most coconuts in their personal stack of cups is the winner. Therefore, with two win conditions, games shouldn’t ever become long-drawn-out affairs.
The red cups? Score one of them and you immediately get to take another go.
A few optional action cards add strategic elements to the game. Each player gets two drawn at random, which can be played at anytime during the match – for example, to force an opponent to throw from twice the distance away, or to miss a turn.
But at it’s heart is a dexterity game drawn to its simplest elements: chuck thing in other thing. But with a massive toy appeal in its favour – who doesn’t want to try out a monkey catapult?
Sure, we can definitely quibble with the over-reliance with plastic for the components, but both E and I love this game right out of the box, and with its simple skill demands encouraging further games to get good and its allowances to get one over the grown-ups with the take-that mechanics ensures its family-favourite status.
Yes, I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts. And it’s pure joy.
Game facts and stats
Ages
6+
Year published
2013
Publisher
Korea Boardgames
Designer
Walter Schneider
Illustrators
Charlie Bink, Robert Islas and Vincent Kim
Player count
2–4
E’s review
What do you like best about the game?
“It was so fun and we had to try to throw it. I liked it when we had a red cup and we got to have two goes and we got to stack it.”
Is it tricky?
“A little bit. We have to throw in and we get another go.”
100/10
My review
Set-up time
About three to four minutes, even on a first go.
Price
It’s out of print so individual copies are going for about £70 on eBay. While it’s not worth spending that much out for it, hopefully it’ll get a reprint at some point in the future.
Practicality
A standard sized box, no issues with storage. As with any dexterity catapult game, you may want to keep a note of where the ammo’s going.
Fun for parents?
Fun for all ages. A gateway game of the highest order.
9/10
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