Matthew BaileyGame 6 of our “Fantastically Festive Christmas School Holidays 2023 Marathon” is “Hedgehog Roll.” (My copy is a European one where it is called Speedy Roll).
Played with Jack (.8.), Toby (5), and Henry (2).
Hedgehog Roll is a game where you either race through a forest against other hedgehogs or work together to race against a fox. Hedgehog Roll won the Kinderspiel des Jahres back in 2020, and as always (generally, I buy all three Spiel des Jahres winners each year), I picked it up, and it has become a firm family favourite since. Recently, it has gained a new lease of life thanks to Henry’s budding interest in getting more involved.
The game starts by setting out a map either with or without the fox, depending on whether you are playing cooperatively or competitively. Both variants are mechanically very similar, either racing against other players or trying to outrun the fox that moves 2 spaces each turn in an attempt to catch the players.
To pick up the tokens, you place Velcro tokens spread out on the floor/table and have to roll your hedgehog (a red tennis ball with eyes) over the pile and pick up what you can. This then lets you move to the matching spaces. What works well here is little ones can just roll, but for slightly older kids, there is an element of skill as you try to pick up the most efficient pieces and then move in the most efficient way.
The component quality is decent, and the ingenious use of a tennis ball always impresses me. It’s also adorable.
Back when I first reviewed this in 2021, I said how much I adored this, and while I still do really like it, we don’t pick it up to play as much as I thought I would. This game is ideal for really young kids, but for older kids, they are left wanting a little bit more. Actually, come to think of it, this is a perfect “older kids play with younger kids” game.
Rolling the ball and trying (and often failing due to the randomness of the Velcro) to get the pieces you need is fun, and sometimes you get 4 or 5 pieces but then realize they aren’t the ones you need. The fact this can be played coop or solo is fun & interesting, and there are a number of different boards to make up different tracks.
This gets a good recommendation but am not quite as high on it as I was when I first reviewed it 2 and a half years ago. As I go back and revisit a lot of my old reviews with Henry gradually over the next year or two, it’s going to be interesting to see which ones I am still as high on.
The UK version is not the easiest game to get hold of, but by all means, get a foreign version and print out the UK rules as it’s totally language-independent. Overall, though, it’s great fun and a bit different from anything else really out there.
The follow-up Hedgehog Roll & Friends is also out now that I have not played but its only available in Germany and seems to be even harder to get hold of.
