SNAP Review – Octo Grabbo

We usually review family games here at The Family Gamers. But some of you watching may know the publisher Chip Theory from their premium games like Too Many Bones and The Elder Scrolls.

But now they’ve also got kids games! We’re going to be reviewing three of them over the next couple of weeks.

First up, is Octo Grabbo.

Game

Octo Grabbo is a chopstick dexterity game for 2-4 players, designed by Wesley Zhao and published by Chip Theory, as I mentioned.

The box says it’s for ages 4-99 and plays in about 10 minutes.

Art

Let’s talk about the art in this game. These bright colors and large pieces make it very obvious that this is a game for kids. The colorful chopsticks fit into these super cute octopus holders, turning them into tongs that will be easier for little hands to use.

There are five types of food that players will grab in the game. They all look super friendly everywhere they show up – they’re on the wooden tokens, the player boards, the cards, and even on this big 8-sided die.

Everything fits very nicely into the box, with no need for plastic bags or anything – and the box lid has this fun undersea design on it!

Mechanics

With chopsticks, wooden pieces, and player boards, you’ve probably already got a pretty good idea of how we play this game.

There are actually two modes to play, but the set up is the same for both of them.

Yup! You dump all the food tokens into the box lid and make sure everyone has a shell board and a pair of chopsticks. Younger players use the octopus holders, older or more experienced players should use the chopsticks normally – but it doesn’t really matter.

In Basic OctoGrabbo, players take turns. On your turn, roll the die to find out what you have to do. If you roll a food symbol, use your chopsticks to pick up a matching food token and put it on your shell. If you roll a food you already have, you don’t do anything, you just move to the next player’s turn.

Roll a net? Pick up any food token you want and add it to your shell.

If you roll a shark, return a food from your shell to the ocean box. And if you roll the “sneaky octopus”, use your chopsticks to steal a piece of food from another player’s shell board and move it to your own.

In Basic OctoGrabbo, the first player to fill their shell wins. Shout “Grabbo is full!”

Now, for kids and parents who want a faster challenge, you can try TurboGrabbo.

For this one, instead of using the die, you use the deck of cards. When everyone is ready, the oldest player flips the top card from the stack so everyone can see it. Then they say “ready, go!”

Now, it’s a race for each player to put the matching foods in their shell. When someone thinks they have it, they shout “I’m full!” and everyone stops. Check to see if the player ACTUALLY matched the items on the card. If so, they take the card and score a point – but if not, the rest of the players pick their chopsticks back up and restart play with another countdown. (nom nom nom)

Once someone has scored the card, pass the deck to the next player and start another round. Once someone has five cards, they shout “Grabbo is full!” and they win the game.

Expectations

So what did we expect from this game?

When I saw a quick demo of Octo Grabbo, I knew immediately it was going to be a hit. These octopus grabbers are very cute. And in my experience, kids want to try using chopsticks if they’ve seen older kids and adults using them.

I kind of expected to be, like, grabbing fish before a big octopus ate them? Because on the cover, it looks like – I mean, the octopus is eating the little guys! So, it makes sense!

But when we opened the box…

I went straight for these little octopus guys. They’re so cute!

They’re very cute.

In addition to being very cute, they’re also very helpful!

Surprises

So Elliot, what surprised us about this game?

What surprised me was pretty small, but these chopsticks are plastic! I’ve never seen plastic chopsticks before.

There wasn’t much that surprised me about Octo Grabbo – this game was exactly what I thought it was going to be. There were some small surprises, like Elliot and the chopsticks. I didn’t expect just how cute the tokens were and how hard it would be to pick them up sometimes.

Yeah, the hole in the middle sometimes made it HARDER to grab a piece instead of easier!

On that note, I was actually really surprised at how easily this game accommodates different skill levels. You can have less-experienced kids use the octopus grabber-helper. More experienced chopsticks users can ditch the helper, and avoid using the middle hole on the food pieces, or even require every food item to be placed precisely in the right spot, on the right orientation, on their shell dish in order to count.

EVERY kid under 12 years old that played this with me loved it and couldn’t get enough. They wanted to play it over and over again. That was pretty surprising, too.

It’s a good game!

Recommended?

So Elliot, would we recommend this game?

I would recommend Octo Grabbo to families who want to teach people to use chopsticks – this is a great way to learn how to use chopsticks.

However, I think we disagree with the box saying this is for all ages 4-99. This is a very simple game and it’s really targeted at kids, probably topping out around age 10 or 11. The adults we played this with, played it once and never needed to play it again.

If you’ve got kids in your life who want to use chopsticks, this is a great choice.

We’d give it 4½ tentacles out of 5.

And that’s Octo Grabbo, in a SNAP!

Find OctoGrabbo and other quality kids games at Chip Theory Kids website, or ask for them at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Octo Grabbo from Chip Theory Games for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?