It never bothered me, that sometimes things were lying on the ground. When I get up from the couch, I simply cross them. It doesn’t limit me. But when an object you are looking for is wandering among all the cluttered things, it’s not easy to find it. Then I have to remember, where I might have thrown it away. But I believe, that if someone is smaller, zigzagging between all those items may not be easy at all. You need long legs.
Fortunately, the title hero Hugo Hempel of Hempel’s Sofa (Hugo’s Hodge Podge) has grown pretty long legs. So for him, navigating the garbage spread by designer Marco Teubner is no problem. The illustration of this unique game was taken care of by Timo Grubing. And everything was in the name of the publishing company HABA, which released the game in 2019.
The novelty is one of the big boxes, which is really above the standard sizes. While you do not discover as many items from the perspective of fullness, dimensions of components did not give publishers any other choice but to choose this type of storage. There is a big board split into quarters, divided by lines into a pile of small spaces. There are colored starting fields in the corners and several holes in the middle. Here, the players in front of the game place three cardboard buildings – a couch, a table and a chest of drawers. It is precisely the third named construction, where a shuffled deck of chaos cards needs to be placed.
Each of the opponents will receive six or eight (based on the number of participants) of cards and they place them in the wooden stand. He must do it, so that others do not see pictures of the items, he has received. Each illustration corresponds to one area on the board. They will also prepare a figurine of the lamp and especially the figure of Hugo. He gets a blue cone to his head for easy handling and is equipped with plastic pointed shoes on his feet.
At the beginning of the round, one of the players reveals the top card from the deck, finds a spot showing the same picture on the board and places a lamp here. His task will be to get to that space with the Hugo character, but his opponent’s will choose the starting corner of the board. Definitely, a player cannot count with the shortest possible way to arrive to the item. Why would rival choose such corner, right?
The player then grabs the Hugo figurine by the cone on his head and rotates it gradually, swinging from right to left like a compass, tiptoing between the objects on the plan. However, they must choose the places to enter with Hugo carefully. This is because each participant is guarding his or her interests, and as soon as the foot piece touches the space, whose card the player has in front of him, he must shout „stop“. Not only is the player’s turn broken, but everyone should remember this position well for the following moves.
The subject of interest does not change. Gradually, opponents alternate, their zigzags always have to start in the same corner and try as long as one of the participants succeeds. The one, who can do it, can take a card and also reveal one of his items as a reward. And its location is now publicly blocked for everyone. The game continues with further turns until someone gets a fourth card. This player becomes the winner.
Hempels Sofa is all a memory game with a little emphasis on skill. But even though the path to victory itself is similar to other games, the experience is completely different. The zigzag between the objects on the plan is great fun and it is equally exciting to watch others try to do it.
In addition, everyone has their own interest in constantly tracking the progress, as it is the subject of the game, that can block the opponent from succeeding. At the same time, each turn also reveals a map of safe and blocked patches for the player’s memory. But with each round, the starting and finishing positions change and nothing is easy to keep track of.
Players need to demonstrate the quality of their memory, because there is a lot of items and they are easy to confuse. As the game progresses, the differences between those, who remember them in the game grows. Sometimes a bit of luck comes in handy.
The figure is handled really well and accurately. So there is no significant hole between children and parents in the chances of winning. And that’s good, because the box has been recommended since the age of five, which is really true. But above all, everyone will be pleased with the game time, which is usually only slightly above fifteen minutes!
The very top is the actual processing. The Hugo figurine is superbly designed, but the three-dimensional elements, that act a little bit differently, blocking the players in their efforts, are also involved. There are also wooden stands.
Hempels Sofa is a great children’s game, that offers zigzags between danger. It’s all exciting and full of constant surprises. Players all use the game indiscriminately and in two opponents, there is a variant, which provides enough blocking positions. Hempels Sofa is a great box, where free air sparkles with fun.
| Designer | Marco Teubner | |
| Artist | Timo Grubing | |
| Publisher | HABA | |
| Year Published | 2019 | |
| # of Players | 2 - 4 | |
| User Suggested # of Players | Best with 4 players Recommended with players (1 voters) | |
| Playing Time | 20 | |
| Mfg Suggested Ages | 5 and up | |
| User Suggested Ages | 5 and up (1 voters) | |
| Language Dependence | No necessary in-game text (1 voters) | |
| Category | Children's Game, Memory | |
| Mechanic | Memory, Roll / Spin and Move, Set Collection | |
| Primary Name | Hempels Sofa | |
| Alternate Names | Hugo's Hodgepodge, El Sofá de los Pérez |
Infos courtesy of boardgamegeek.com. More Infos.
