It’s Amigo week this week as we award Haim Shafir and Amigo for several games that we received recently. Although the games have some very similar features (for example they are all games of speed and quick reactions) each one has its own idiosyncrasies and charm. They are all very clever and, more importantly, fun.

Major Fun.

Today I’m going to focus on the two games for slightly older players. Later this week I’ll look at a couple of the games that are suited for even younger players. Keep in mind that all of the games from Shafir and Amigo are fantastic family games that are enjoyable for a wide range of ages.

Speed Cups (2 – 4 players. Ages: 6+)

Let’s start with a game that is most similar to one we have already given a Major Fun Award to. If you remember from a few weeks back, we loved Finger Twist—another game designed by Shafir and produced by Amigo. Speed Cups has a lot of similarities to Finger Twist. Both are speed games, both involve matching color and order combinations on a card, and both have a bell. Whereas Finger Twist uses colored hair bands, Speed Cups uses colored plastic cups.

Each player has a set of five cups, each of a different color. To start play, a card is flipped over and the players race to arrange their cups to match the pattern on the card. One tricky aspect is that the card does not show cups, instead the card shows a picture of five flowers or five cars or a five-story apartment building. The second wrinkle is that the players must not only match the color order but also the horizontal or vertical orientation of the items. If the items on the card are arranged vertically, the cups must be stacked. If the colors are arranged horizontally then the cups need to form a line on the table.

That’s it. Each player rings the bell when finished. The first player to ring the bell and have the cups in the right order wins the card.

One of the things I found most interesting was how differently each player performed depending on the orientation of the card. I was much better at cards that were vertically oriented. I was competitive when asked to stack the cups. But when it came to horizontal arrangement, I was almost always dead last. Everyone who has played with me has made similar comments. One orientation is much better than the other.

Like all speed games, some people are just better than others. Of the quintilogy of games from Haim Shafir, Speed Cups and Finger Twist are perhaps the most unforgiving in the sense that someone who struggles will get frustrated if forced to always compete against those who are naturally (or in the case of my daughter seemingly preternaturally) dexterous. Then again, pulling out an unexpected win feels really good.

Halli Galli (2 – 6 players, Ages: 6+)

First produced in 1990, this is actually the first of Haim Shafir’s “Bell Quintilogy” of games (“Bell Quintilogy” is not an “official” title. And “Major Fun” knows that some of the “quotes” are misplaced but it’s just so “addictive.”) You can see the DNA of Halli Galli in the more recent games like Speed Cups and Finger Twist, but Halli Galli is more about building tension than raw speed.

The game comes with a bell and 56 cards. The cards depict 1 to 5 pieces of fruit (plums, strawberries, limes, or bananas). These cards are shuffled and dealt face-down to all players. These piles of cards are arranged around the bell.

When play starts, players take turns flipping over one card from their deck so that one card is showing in front of each player. Players continue to flip over cards (covering up the previous card if no one has rung the bell) until exactly five of any fruit are visible. The first to ring the bell when exactly five of a fruit are visible wins ALL of the cards that are face-up on the table. These cards go to the winner’s deck. If a player runs out of cards then that player is eliminated from the game.

If a player makes a mistake, that player must give one card to each of his or her opponents.

The pace of the game is uneven but instead of being a flaw in the game, it turns out to be a major source of excitement. Sometimes you will find yourself ringing the bell every second or third card, but there are times when you can play 10 or 11 cards without revealing a set of five. In those rounds the tension becomes almost unbearable. When the critical card finally drops the explosion of sound and activity is bone jarring.

Even though this is an elimination game, the rounds go very quickly and the amount of down-time is minimal. There are also lots of ways to adjust this game to accommodate for different ages and ability levels.

You might find yourself flinching every time you hear a bell but Haim Shafir and Amigo have provided us with a lot of ways to have fun—Major Fun—while exercising our fast-twitch reflexes.

Speed Cups & Halli Galli were designed by Haim Shafir and © 2013 by Amigo.