CHENNAI: When deciding which game to play, the most common way of describing a game is to use an elevator pitch — a one-liner that sums up (or tries to, anyway) how a game feels like to play, and calls out other games that it might be similar to. Of all the games I’ve written about, Rhino Hero has the easiest, shortest and most accurate elevator pitch — it’s Uno crossed with Jenga.
In Rhino Hero (or Super Rhino, as it’s sometimes called), 2-5 players will take turns adding floors to a single tower made up of cards. On your turn, you’ll need to first place wall cards standing up on the previously-played roof, and then add a roof card of your own to the top of the walls you just played. Like Jenga, you’re trying to not knock the tower down; and, like Uno, the cards you play can mess with your opponents. The first player to play all of their roof cards wins the game or, if the tower falls, the player with the fewest cards in hand will win.
Many roof cards have an icon in a corner, and their effects may be familiar to Uno fans — skip a turn, reverse direction of play, draw one extra roof card etc. However, there’s one card that’s unique to Rhino Hero and it has a rhino symbol on it. When that card is played, the next player must put up the walls as normal but — before placing their roof card — they must pick up Rhino Hero from wherever he is and place him on that rhino icon. Now, Rhino Hero is a small wooden figure of a rhinoceros wearing a cape and so can easily destabilise a structure that’s already teetering in all likelihood. It gets better, though. The first time a rhino card is played, you take Rhino Hero from the table and place him. Every subsequent time, you’ve got to first remove Rhino Hero from wherever he is in the tower and then place him on a higher floor; which is exactly as precarious as it sounds.
For sheer hilarity, few games can match Rhino Hero. You’re building a common tower, which adds a somewhat cooperative feeling, but the roof cards bring back that competitive edge. Above all, people don’t want to have the tower fall on their turn — because that immediately disqualifies them from winning— so it becomes a laugh-out-loud game of hot potato where a player places their roof card and jumps back yelling ‘Your turn now!’ as quickly as possible. To show just how funny this game can be, there was one instance when the tower had reached an unprecedented height but was starting to wobble. The player whose turn it was managed to place his roof card successfully, and then sighed in relief — which caused the tower to collapse. The laughter went on for minutes and, to this day, we haven’t let him forget about this.
I started off by saying that Rhino Hero is Uno plus Jenga, but this is definitely a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I’ve seen eight-year-olds and 48-year-olds have a great time with this game, and it plays so quickly that multiple rounds are almost mandatory. All in all, Rhino Hero is a great, quick-playing filler that you’ll be able to play with just about anyone.
Arjun Sukumaran is a gamer, book lover and an all-round renaissance man.