Animal Upon Animal Junior: HABA's Newest Game for Toddlers
Don’t look now but HABA has done it again. They’ve just put out another excellent choice for baby’s first board game into the world. This time it’s Animal Upon Animal Junior, and it’s our Game of the Month for September.
HABA is following a very successful formula as of late, and I am here for it. Just like the recent Rhino Hero Junior, HABA is once again looking back at a popular existing property and junior-izing it for their My Very First Games series - their wonderful collection of games for ages 2+. And who am I to argue with their plan? So far it has worked out fantastically.
You take a board game the whole world already loves, add chunky components that are easy for little hands to grab onto, and simplify the rules for the little tykes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love junior games. I think simplifying the rules of games people already love and making the games accessible to little ones is genius - and it makes for really easy buy-in for the adults too.
But it would be disingenuous to suggest that all it takes for a successful kids game is to simplify the rules. There are clearly a few things HABA always keeps in mind for the My Very First Games series:
Choice - HABA has been putting a clear focus on optional ways to play with their toddler games, and it always starts with simple, imaginative free play with the beautiful wooden components. After that, there are usually multiple ways to play the actual game - generally ascending in difficulty, and allowing for great accessibility as well as growth.
But the choice in how to play is not merely dictated by skill level by any means, because games like Animal Upon Animal Junior also feature a choice between competitive play or cooperative play, and I can’t emphasize enough how important that is. I don’t often want to play competitive games against my 8-year-old or 5-year-old, let alone a 2-year-old. Cooperative play for toddler games is basically a necessity as far as I’m concerned.
Storytelling - For some, the short stories in the rulebook that set up Animal Upon Animal Junior and all of the recent games in the My Very First Games series might be easy to overlook. But not in our house. Theme and immersion are always important to us, and I appreciate that HABA values that. My kids want to know that the crab’s name is Carl, and that he bets them he’s faster than they are. They want to know the whole story, and I’d be willing to bet they aren’t the only ones.
Learning - No doubt about it, gameschooling is clearly on HABA’s mind with the My Very First Games series, and Animal Upon Animal Junior is no exception. And it goes even further than the dexterity and fine motor skills kids get to practice stacking the animals. HABA clearly always considers their opportunities to reinforce educational concepts with little ones.
In previous games in the series, it’s clear to see that topics like colors and numbers are often being reinforced. And in the case of Animal Upon Animal Junior, it’s obviously another childhood staple that is a natural fit - naming your animals. And indeed the rulebook itself encourages you to let kids name the kinds of animals as they stack them.
As I mentioned before, Animal Upon Animal Junior has a few ways to play, and if you’re already familiar with the classic Animal Upon Animal, you likely know exactly what to expect. This is a game of stacking wooden animals on top of each other, hoping that they don’t fall down.
The major differences, of course, are the easier to stack animals, and the aforementioned different ways to play. There is one version where you must stack the animal on the back of the token you draw, and another version where you first roll a die and add your animal to either the meadow or the waterhole stack - but both of these versions are competitive.
If you enjoy competitive games, it can be fun to stack the animals as complicatedly as possible - making it as difficult as you can for the next player to place their animal. It’s nice to offer some variety in the box, and this certainly spices things up and is probably the best way to stretch the age range as far as possible.
But by far my favorite version in this game is the cooperative version, where all of the players are working together to stack all of the animals before Carl the crab makes it to the snail at the end of his path. Even our 5-year-old still loves to play this way, and excitedly asks to play again each time we finish.
There are just enough animals to stack to offer moments of excitement and challenge every time we play. And quite frankly we have so many extra HABA games and wooden animals around the house at this point, we could easily add even more difficulty whenever we need it. And it will absolutely never get old seeing that nervous smile on her face!
The My Very First Games series is clearly becoming a real point of emphasis for HABA, and I think it’s pretty clear at this point that they’re dominating the market for toddler games. At this pace, it won’t be long until we have to rename our article of The Best Board Games for 2-Year-Olds and just call it Our Top 10 Favorite HABA Games. And Animal Upon Animal Junior is going to be high on that list for a long time.
What do you think? Do you think your kids would enjoy this newest addition to HABA’s collection? Have you tried any of their My Very First Games before? Let us know in the comments!
