Jungle Smart

An original game for people who like fast brainy games

December 9, 2007 This game requires you to think under pressure in ways we are not used to. The rules are simple, 3 animals, a lion, a bear and an elephant, are placed on 2 tree stumps as illustrated on the first position card one of the players has drawn. The animals are presumed to understand 5 commands (4 commands in the ‘expert’ version of playing) which allow players to move the animals from one position to another. Then a new position card is drawn at random and all players compete at the same time to find the shortest sequence of jumps that will make the animals move from the current position to the new position depicted on the card. The first player that shouts the right sequence wins the card, and a new card is drawn. The player with most cards at the end wins the game. Sound simple – well, sometimes it is, other times you feel your brain really stretches. The game requires logical thinking, but above all the game requires visual imagination as you need to move the animals in your internal mental screen. It is really a great exercise in visualization. As the previous reviewer mentioned, my kids left me in the dust initially. But one tends to improve quickly if played for a short while. The game tends to create some chaos when everyone tries to shout their solution, so we placed a candle in front of the animals and the player who thought had the right solution, grabbed the candle and got to give his/her solution. It helped in restoring order. We enjoyed this game a lot. It fits well our family taste for fast, brainy games.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

Jungle Smart is a great game to play in pairs or a small group like a family game night! The game has cards that show many different ways that a polar bear, lion, and elephant "woden figurines" can be stacked on 2 tree stumps. The game starts by pulling one card and stacking the animals the way the card shows. Then someone pulls another card with a new arrangement of animals. Everyone's job is to rearrange the animals so that they look like this new arrangement in the smallest number of moves. THIS IS THE CATCH ... there are only 5 types of moves you can make "and 4 at the expert level", each of the moves has a name "like Ni, Ma, So, etc", AND you must say the solution "Ni-So-So-Ma" before you can put you hands on those animals! When I first played it, my brain began to hurt! It engages a muscle that we just don't use! I feel obligated to warn the adults out there - your kids will leave you in the dust on this one!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great entertainment for friends and family alike.

Don't let the graphics fool you into thinking this game will be a cake walk. It ends up being a lot of fun and forces you to think outside of the box. The lion, polar bear, and elephant will have you playing with friends and family in a game of wit, fast thinking, and overall good times. I highly recommend this game to bring your family back together on a Friday night for quality entertainment.

No text was provided for this review.