The Wobbly Wall, or Le Mur de Pise (French for “The Wall of Pisa”), from Canadian game companies beleduc and Kikigagne? is a new twist on stacking games, which are themselves twists on “deconstruct” models seen in Jenga, Break-the-Ice, or Pick-up-Stix.
Rather than carefully taking a set apart, the game involves players carefully piecing together a perilous structure. Some like Tumba have color schemes upping the ante, making players pick specific spots to attempt to build. Others such as Chairs have specifically misshapen pieces that become increasingly difficult.
Like Chairs, Wobbly Wall’s blocks are made in unique patterns, making it more difficult to determine how to stack them effectively than regular shapes. Unlike Chairs, however, Wobbly Wall does not have gaps or angular edges that can be cleverly used to wedge together a structure that otherwise would not hold.
Instead, the blocks for Wobbly Wall are vaguely rectangular with curves and missing notches. Some pieces are completely rectangular and others are semicircles and triangles, throwing off even the possibility of matching imperfections to imperfections, like the mortar-less walls of the Inca. Players must stack odd blocks one at a time until, eventually, it all comes crashing down.
The game play of Wobbly Wall is similar to dominoes. At the beginning, all of the pieces are spread out, and players pick them up one by one. When players have an equal number, the remaining piece starts as the first piece set up in the middle of the table. Players add their blocks with the stipulation that only four blocks may touch the surface of the table at the time as the foundation of the wall. From there, the players build up the inherently unstable wall until, eventually, it collapses. When the wall tumbles, the player who caused it must pick up whatever fell. Then the construction begins again until one player successfully uses all of his or her pieces to become the winner.
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