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Players: 2-4 (ages 6+)
Playing Time: about 5 minutes
It may be a “kids’ game,” but the fast-paced fun of Ring-O Flamingo will keep players of all ages coming back for more.
Before you can begin playing, you need to set up the board by placing seven flamingo figures and two alligator figures in the designated spots. Each player then receives a colored lifeboat and 12 matching lifesavers.
Game play is a wild-and-crazy, ring-flinging free-for-all. On the count of three, players set one of their lifesavers in the notch at the front of their lifeboat, pull back, and simultaneously launch them at the board, aiming for the flamingoes—while trying to steer clear of the alligators.
When all of the lifesavers have been flung, players add up their points. The first player to ring each specific flamingo gets two points, while every additional ring counts for one point. If you ring an alligator, though, you subtract two points.
After the points have been tallied, the player with the most points wins the game.
When it came to testing Ring-O Flamingo, I had no shortage of test subjects—because once my seven-year-old niece and 11-year-old nephew gave it a try, they started calling their friends over to play, too. Since there are only four lifeboats, we sometimes had to take turns as we played round after round, flinging rings and giggling as they bounced off our opponents.
Unlike many kids’ games, though, Ring-O Flamingo isn’t just for kids. It doesn’t get old after a round or two, like so many others do. No one had to twist my arm to keep playing—and, after a while, I started calling other grown-ups over to play, too.
Ring-O Flamingo truly is fun for the whole family. It’s quick and easy to play, and there isn’t a whole lot of skill involved—so, really, anyone can win. In fact, even though the box recommends it for six-year-olds and up, we had younger players joining in, too. As long as they have some grown-up supervision (and some help with adding up the final score), I’d say that kids as young as four or five could keep up without much of a problem.
The colorful board and the cute plastic figures make Ring-O Flamingo a visually appealing game. It just looks like fun. But it’s more than just a pretty game; it’s a fast and funny game that you’ll want to play over and over again. It may take just a few minutes to play, but it’s so much fun that you could easily spend a laugh-filled afternoon flinging rings at flamingoes.
