Hungry Hungry Hippos

Hungry Hungry Hippos (or Hungry Hippos in some UK editions) is a tabletop game made for 2–4 players, produced by Hasbro, under the brand of its subsidiary, Milton Bradley. The idea for the game was published in 1967 by toy inventor Fred Kroll and it was introduced in 1978. The objective of the game is for each player to collect as many marbles as possible with their 'hippo' (a toy hippo model). The game is marketed under the "Elefun and Friends" banner, along with Elefun, Mouse Trap and Gator Golf. The game has been referenced in The Simpsons, Mystery Science Theater 3000, the 2010 Disney/Pixar movie Toy Story 3, the 2017 movie My Little Pony: The Movie, the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko, and the 2020 Netflix series Space Force. There is also a battle level based on the game in the 2016 Micro Machines game.

Hungry Hungry Hippos
Hungry Hungry Hippos being played by four kids
Other name(s)Hungry Hippos
Publisher(s)Milton Bradley, now a subsidiary of Hasbro
Players2–4
Playing time10 minutes
Random chanceMedium
Skill(s) requiredDexterity
"Hungry Hippo" redirects here. For the Tierra Whack song, see Whack World.

Gameplay

The game board is surrounded by four mechanical, colorful, plastic hippopotamuses operated by levers on their backs. When the lever is pressed, the hippo opens its mouth and extends its head forwards on a telescopic neck. When the lever is released, the head comes down and retracts. Colored plastic marbles are dispensed into the board by each player, and the players repeatedly press the lever on their hippo in order to have it "eat" the marbles, which travel down from under the hippo into a small scoring area for each player. Once all marbles have been captured, the player who has collected the most is the winner.

Advertising

Television ads for the game memorably featured a series of brightly colored cartoon hippos dancing in a conga line and singing, "Hungry Hungry Hip-pos!" to the beat. The older theme offered a mini song:

"It's a race, it's a chase, hurry up and feed their face!
Who will win? No one knows! Feed the hungry hip-ip-pos!
Hungry hungry hippos! (open up and there it goes!)"

The 1980s-era advertisement featured a different song:

If you wanna win the game you've gotta take good aim
And get the most marbles with your hippo
Playin' Hungry Hungry Hippos
Hungry Hungry Hippos

As of 2009, the song in the commercial is now the Elefun and Friends theme song that appears in the first five commercials.

Characters
Happy Hippo (pink), Henry Hippo (orange), Homer Hippo (green), and Harry Hippo (yellow)

There were four hippopotamuses in the original version of the game: Lizzie Hippo (purple), Henry Hippo (orange), Homer Hippo (green), and Harry Hippo (yellow). A later edition of the game replaces the purple hippo, Lizzie, with a pink one named Happy. Although this passage states there was a purple Hippo named Lizzie, games that are stamped with a 1978 copyright have a Pink Hippo named Happy. In some versions of Hungry Hungry Hippos, Henry is replaced by a blue hippo of the same name. The fall 2009 North American edition of the game has a lighter blue base with pastel-colored versions of the Hippos: Sweetie Potamus (pink), Bottomless Potamus (yellow), Veggie Potamus (green), and Picky Potamus (orange). The 2012 re-release has a slightly darker blue base and goes back to regular-colored versions of the Hippos: Sweetie Potamus (blue), Bottomless Potamus (yellow), Veggie Potamus (green), and Hungry Hippo (orange).

Video games

In 1991, ICE (Innovative Concepts in Entertainment) created a redemption arcade version of the game, a supersized resemblance of the board game version. The amount of marbles consumed was displayed at the top of the dome for each player. The more marbles a hippo consumed, the more tickets that hippo's player received.

The previous year, Sinclair User published a game called "Piggy Punks", written by Hellenic Software for the ZX Spectrum,[1] which was inspired by the board game. The game showed an overhead view of a board with four pigs, each controlled by a separate player, in place of the four hippos.

Film adaptation

In 2012, film studio Emmett/Furla Films announced that they were working on an animated film adaptation of Hungry Hungry Hippos, along with Monopoly and Action Man.[2] The movie's plot and other details were being kept secret. Production was originally scheduled to start in early 2016.[3]

Tournaments

Rogue Judges,[4] a volunteer judging group at Gen Con,[5] ran a "1st Annual Hungry Hungry Hippos World Championship" in August of 2015 and have continued to hold one every year since at the Indiana Convention Center.[6]

A Hungry Hungry Hippos Tournament was also hosted at Smash the Record 2017.[7]

References
  1. "Piggy Punks - World of Spectrum". www.worldofspectrum.org. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  2. Hungry Hungry Hippos, Action Man, Monopoly headed to big screen at the Los Angeles Times; by Ben Fritz; published October 4, 2012; retrieved November 24, 2013
  3. Studio page
  4. Roguejudges.com
  5. Gen Con
  6. "5th Annual Hungry Hungry Hippos World Championship (BGM19151557) - Gen Con 2019". gencon.highprogrammer.com. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  7. Smash the Record 2017 Hungry Hungry Hippos Bracket
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