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Games Session

This week, there were only three of us and I decided to try one or two of the lighter games from Essen. First up was Goldieber’s Piranha Pedro, which I’d tried with the family the previous weekend. The game is about playing cards to direct Pedro around the board without him falling in the water and getting munched on by the piranhas.

The board shows a central island covering about 8 squares, while the rest of the board is sea in which the piranhas live. Each player has a set of movement cards which show a direction and how many spaces Pedro must be moved with that card. They also start with a set of ten stepping stones made of … stone actually. On each turn, everyone plays a card face down and then, in turn, players reveal their card and move Pedro accordingly. If he moves onto a sea space, a stone is first placed there so he doesn’t get his feet wet. Players going later in the turn-order, therefore, have to predict where Pedro might be when it comes round to their turn so that they don’t waste their stones. Once all your stones have gone, a step in the wrong direction will mean falling in the water, ending the round and giving the player one piranha figure as a penalty. Also, if you would move into a space where a piranha is sitting, you don’t get to place a stone but pick up the piranha for your trouble. Once the round has finished, players get some stones back depending on what cards they have left and a new round starts. The first player to gain two piranhas loses the game and everybody else is declared the winners.

In our game, Mark G and John quickly depleted their piles of stones making for some very tense turns. We all managed to get bitten by one piranha but, eventually, John took the plunge and claimed a second. This is a very simple game which is ideal for families and the theme makes it good fun. There is a bit of second-guessing going on but it’s not going to keep gamers entertained for more than the odd game when they’re looking for something simple at the end of an evening. For what it’s aimed at though, the family group, it works very well.