Hungry Hungry Hippos 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'. 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 , the 2001 cult filmDonnie Darko, and the 2020 Netflix series Space Force , S1:Ep5. There is also a battle level based on the game in the 2016 Micro Machines game.
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: The 1980s-era advertisement featured a different song: As of 2009, the song in the commercial is now the Elefun and Friends theme song that appears in the first five commercials.
Characters
There were four hippos in the original version of the game: Lizzie Hippo, Henry Hippo, Homer Hippo, and Harry Hippo. 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, Bottomless Potamus, Veggie Potamus, and Picky Potamus. The 2012 re-release has a slightly darker blue base and goes back to regular-colored versions of the Hippos: Sweetie Potamus, Bottomless Potamus, Veggie Potamus, and Hungry Hippo.
Video games
In 1991, 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, 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 has confirmed that they will work on an animated film adaptation of Hungry Hungry Hippos, along with Monopoly and Action Man. The movie's plot and other details are being kept secret. Production was scheduled to start in early 2016.
Tournaments
Rogue Judges, a volunteer judging group at Gen Con, 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. A Hungry Hungry Hippos Tournament was also hosted at Smash the Record 2017.
