SNAP Review – Tasso Banana

Hey, Anitra. I have a question for you. Do you agree with the premise that “Food makes everything better”?

I guess so?

Well, I hope so. Because this week we’re going to look at a game that was well regarded 20 years ago, and now, food is in the mix.

This is a SNAP Review for Tasso Banana.

Game

Tasso Banana is, kind of like Andrew said, a remake of the game Tasso from 20 years ago. This version has been brought to the US by 25th Century Games. 2-6 players can play this little dexterity game in just 10-15 minutes.

Art

So Anitra, let’s talk about the art in Tasso Banana.

Unsurprisingly, bananas are the main feature. There are 36 wooden bananas, and three cardboard banana leaves.

A really cool feature is that the box is held together with magnets – unfold it, and it becomes the jungle-themed gameboard, along with an area over here with all the instructions you need for the game.

Mechanics

So let’s talk about the mechanics.

Unfold the box, and split the bananas equally between the players. Put one or more of the leaves on the board as obstacles.

Who goes first? Maybe whoever last ate a banana? (Probably going to be me.)

On your turn, place a banana somewhere on the board. If it touches the board, it cannot touch any other banana; but it can hang over the side of the board, as long as it doesn’t touch the table or go past this dotted line.

If you stack your banana on another banana, it must touch EXACTLY two bananas that are not supporting any other bananas.

But if you do that, and successfully stack your banana on exactly two other bananas, you may take another turn and place another one of your bananas.

If your banana placement is unsuccessful, pick up any bananas that are now illegally placed. Then take a banana from the player on your right, and try again, resuming your turn.

The goal of the game is to get rid of all your bananas – the player who does this first, wins the game!

Expectations

So Andrew, what did we expect from Tasso Banana?

I don’t know. It’s a banana stacking game. I expected to come up with some clever Donkey Kong puns, but so far, I’ve come up with Diddy.

I admit, I was not looking forward to this game. I’m a little burned out on these stacking dexterity games, and I didn’t see how this one could possibly have a hook to draw me in.

Surprises

So, did anything surprise you about it?

Yes! It’s really fun! Since it’s so simple to pick up and start playing, it’s easy to convince me to start. And our family can get really mean – in a fun way – trying to block each other from having good places to put the bananas.

It’s also incredibly compact. We brought Tasso Banana to a restaurant, and our whole family could play while we were waiting for our food – without disturbing other diners!

Yep, and frankly this is where this game shined for me. It does fit on a restaurant table, and it’s a dexterity game without flicking things around, and I don’t have to think too hard to play, I just have to be kind of careful on my turn.

The board [editor: the box] being the playing field, you use all of the pieces, just about, to play it. You don’t have to figure out where to put extra stuff when you’re playing this game. It just fits in that space for me. And being able to play our entire family without taking up more space or really taking any longer or anything extra is just great. I love it.

Given how small the footprint is for this game, it’s also surprising that doesn’t feel undersized, either. The banana pieces are large enough they’re not going to slip out of your fingers, and there’s plenty of room on the board – at least when you get started.

Recommended?

So, do we recommend Tasso Banana?

We recommend Tasso Banana for exactly this purpose.

It’s a small enough game that you could just throw it in the car (or maybe keep it in the car) to take with you when you’re going to a restaurant, or going somewhere where you’re going to have some down time and a flat surface.

I don’t think it’s a great travel game for the car or anything since it is dexterity stacking, but it’s hard to be any more space efficient than this one is.

You can vary the difficulty in this game with how many banana leaves you use, and it goes quickly enough that it doesn’t really feel punishing if you’re left holding all the fruit at the end.

We give Tasso Banana 3½ banana peels out of 5.

And that’s Tasso Banana, in a SNAP!

Find it on Amazon, direct from 25th Century Games, or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Tasso Banana from 25th Century Games for this review.

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