Looney Labs continues its expanding universe of pyramid gaming with Pink Hijinks. After the review of Ice Dice, it is intriguing to see a similar set up take on a very different game. While the rest of the world has dice, cards, and boards, LL continues to pioneer the land of pyramids.
Pink Hijinks is a game for two players, fourteen-plus years old, and takes only a few minutes to play. It begins with a standardized setup ala chess or checkers, with all of the pyramids stacked in “tree” formation with the small on top of the medium with the large at the base in the middle row of the three-by-three grid. From this position, the pieces may move, as per the instructions, “one space orthogonally (non-diagonally),” which gives us a great new vocabulary word. Players take turns rolling the die, featuring images of the pyramid sizes, and moving the pyramid shown. The goal of the game is to get all three of one size of pyramid onto the home row of the grid or to force all of the pieces onto the opponent’s side.
The first reaction to seeing Pink Hijinks might be, “It’s tic-tac-toe!” On some level, that may be accurate with its simple set-up, but its strategy goes much, much deeper. There are multiple possibilities for each move, again bringing to mind chess and checkers. The board changes with each move, making players rethink each action. With the two potential goals of collecting a trio of like pyramids or giving all of them to the opponent, a player will constantly need to ponder whether to hoard pieces or work to get them away from his or her home row. An additional rule states that a player may move a piece into the opponent’s home row, but, once there, only the opponent may move it. Further, there is no “capturing” of pieces to bring the game to a clearer conclusion, meaning that the players will need to keep up their attentive strategies continuously as pieces change sides.
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