It’s the first Looney Saturday review of the summer. Summer is a great time for games, the kids are out of school, and holidays are primed for holiday-ing. And what better way to spend a holiday than with a game! Oh sure, you could “go outside,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t also play games. You just need a game you can play outside. While you can arguably play any Pyramid Arcade game outside, there are only a few that travel well. Jinxx is one of those few. Jinxx is the most recent release of the individual Pyramid games from Looney Labs.
A little history. Jinxx’s genealogy can be traced back to Pink Hijinks: a standalone, single colour, Pyramid game. For the release of Pyramid Arcade, this two-player game was renamed simply Hijinks, to reflect the lack of pink in the Arcade box. Eventually, Andy Looney decided to adapt the core ideas from Hijinks into a 3-4 player game and came out the other side with Jinxx.
In Hijinks, setup begins with three trees of pyramids (a stack with a small, medium, and large pyramid) in the centre row of a 3×3 grid. On their turn, a player rolls the specialty pyramid die. The die will show one or two pyramids of different sizes, and the player then orthogonally moves a pyramid of the shown size. Any pyramids on top of that pyramid move with it. Pyramids can only be stacked on top of other pyramids of the same size or larger. The goal is to move all three pyramids of a given size into the row closest to a player (their “home row”), one per square, with no extras.
The basic mechanic of rolling the pyramid die and moving the shown pyramid is where Jinxx begins. From there, the game is very different than its predecessor. Each player starts with a trio of trees in their own colour. In the standalone Jinxx, those colours are clear, white, grey, and black. On a player’s turn, they roll the die and move one of their own pieces, along with any pieces on top of it. Pyramids can be stacked on top of larger pyramids, but never a smaller one. If a pyramid is moved onto another pyramid of the same size, the bottom piece is destroyed and removed from the game. If a legal move can be made, it must be made. If no legal move can be made, the player may roll again or make the appropriate move with an opponent’s pyramid. The goal of the game is to have the topmost pyramid in a three-in-a-row line, including the centre square.
While the mechanics and gameplay of Jinxx and Hijinks are straightforward, the strategy is real. They are games simple enough to teach to kids, but with enough teeth to be enjoyable for adults. I actually taught Hijinxx to my young nibblings and lost. In my defence, it was the oldest of them, even the younger ones enjoyed it, and anyone can have an off game. But don’t underestimate kids, kids.
