Customers are lining up for gelato, and they’ve got some wacky orders. Serve up the scoops in this fast-paced dexterity game—score by completing the order first. Go Go Gelato!
At a glance: Go Go Gelato! is a dexerity game from Blue Orange Games for 2 to 4 players, ages 6 and up, and takes about 15 minutes to play. It retails for $19.99, and is available in stores and online this month. The game is definitely family-friendly and can be a challenge for both kids and adults, though you do need two hands to play the game and expect those who are less dextrous to be chasing after the gelato scoops often.
Components
- 16 Cones
- 12 Gelato Scoops
- 54 Cards
The cones are plastic flat-bottomed cones, so they stand up on a table (though they are easy to tip over, too). The “scoops” are hollow rubber balls, slightly smaller than ping-pong balls and not too bouncy. Everything is brightly colored: pink, green, yellow, and blue. I’m not sure how well this works for color-blind players, but there does seem to be good contrast between the pink and green.
The cards themselves are square cards, each depicting the four cones and three scoops that a player would have, in some configuration.
How to play
The goal of the game is to score points by correctly (and quickly) getting your cones and scoops to match the cards. The rules say you play until somebody has scored 5 cards, but usually we just keep playing until everyone’s had enough gelato.
Everyone starts with a set of four cones and three scoops—the scoops start in the three cones of matching colors, with the blue cone left empty. The top card of the deck is flipped over, and everyone simultaneously tries to get their cones and scoops to match the picture. The trick, though, is that you’re only allowed to touch the cones with your hands, not the scoops. (Health department rules, you know.) If you drop a scoop, you’ve got to pick it up with just the cones.
When you’re done, you shout “Go Go Gelato!” and everyone stops to check if you’re correct. If so, you take the card as a point. Otherwise, everyone else continues until somebody gets a match. Not only do the scoops have to be in the right cones, but the cones need to be in the right order from left to right (or reversed).
After a card is completed, each player may either leave their cones and scoops as-is or reset them back to the original setup before the next card is flipped.
For an added challenge, you can also specify that the cones must also be positioned closer or further from you, as shown on the cards.
The Verdict
Go Go Gelato! is in the same vein as some of the other titles from Blue Orange Games like Top That! and Dr. Eureka, both of which combine observation, logic, and manual dexterity. It’s not just enough to be fast (though, of course, that helps)—you also have to be able to figure out what order to move the scoops back and forth in order to get to the desired outcome. Since you only have one free scoop at a time, you have to juggle the scoops (not literally) into the right cones.
Some of the cards are fairly simple—just a line of four cones, with some of the scoops rearranged. But some are really crazy, involving stacking cones on top of each other, placing cones upside-down on top of scoops, and so on. You might think you’re done, but then your whole tower comes crashing down while you’re triumphantly shouting “Go Go Gelato!”
The age rating says 6 and up, but my almost-4-year-old has enjoyed playing it, too. It takes her a while, of course, and she’s not great at the stacking challenges, but if I give her a card that just has mixed up scoops, she’s able to pour the scoops back and forth and arrive at the solution. My 10-year-old (seen in the video clip above) has gotten good enough to challenge me at it, though I still have a slight edge… for now.
One tricky factor is that, unless everyone is sitting in a row on one side of the table, the card is always going to be upside-down for some players, and sideways for others. I usually recommend mixing up the orientation of the card just so that everyone is equally disadvantaged there.
All in all, Go Go Gelato! is another fun title in this line of games. It’s a little more forgiving than Dr. Eureka when you have a spill, because the soft rubber balls don’t skitter away quite as easily as the plastic molecules, but still requires a similar sort of dexterity. It was a hit at the recent GameStorm convention, too. I do wish it accommodated more players, but I guess you could always just pick up a second copy and combine the two.
If you like silly fun games and cool treats, it might be time for a taste of Go Go Gelato!
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this game.
