Go Cuckoo Review

First we had the lovely but dippy DODO who couldn't keep hold of her wibbly wobbly egg. And now we have kooky KIKI who can't make her own nest because cuckoos never learn how to bed down their eggies! DEVIR’s latest dexterity game, GO CUCKOO will definitely send you cuckoo in the best possible way though! For 2-5 players and taking only around 15 mins to play, even the youngest gamers will be able to get in on the nest building action! But don’t let KIKI fool you; she will have even themost competitive grown up determined to win! Haha

GO CUCKOO has super simple rules. After dropping the sticks into the nesting site (aka the base half of the beautiful tin everything is packaged into) and letting them fan out, it’s time to play! On your turn, you get three attempts to pull out a stick from the nesting site that has the same colour top and bottom. After the first pull. if the colours on each end of the stick you pull out don't match, you place it in front of you and the top of the next stick you choose to pull must be the same colour as the colour on the bottom of the stick you pulled out before. If you still don't get a matchy-match, you get one more try. If the ends of that stick have the same colour top and bottom, you stop! Then you lay all the sticks you pulled out horizontally across the existing vertical sticks and then lay one of your eggies on it. Any sticks that fall during the building or laying must be placed back in by you. If you knock any eggies into the bottom of the tin, you have to take an eggie from the player with the most eggies! If they fall on the table, they are also yours! If all 3 sticks have different colours, you still place them horizontally into the nesting site, but you don't get to lay an eggie!

If at any time you run out of eggies, you don't pull any sticks,. Instead, on your turn you have to place KIKI in her nest! If any sticks fall out you have to place them back in. And if eggies fall into the next, you'll be taking one from another player (or keeping them if they fall onto the table)! If KIKI sits in her nest happily, however, then you win the game! But is KIKI falls into her own nest then you lose the game and, in a total flip reversal of fortunes, the player with the most eggies left over in their stash!

Final Thoughts

GO CUCKOO is ADDICTIVE! It’s so simple to set up, but you need a steady hand and a keen eye, not to mention nerves of steel, to help KIKI!

And although the stick pulling element may sound familiar, this isn't just a kiddo's Kerplunk in reverse. In our house, GO CUCKOO has us big gamers laser focussing on eeking out sticks 1mm at a time trying to stop KIKI's eggies from dropping! It’s a huge hit with our 8 year old but it is even more hilarious when we watch my husband sweating and swearing over trying to prevent KIKI's offspring from being dislodged!

We love DEVIR’s other beautiful dexterity game, CATCH THE MOON, and GO CUCKOO is another great, straight to the table option for big and little gamers!