Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Giant wooden bananas!
When you see a hand holding one of the bananas, you might think the size is exaggerated, but you’d be wrong. The bananas in Tasso Banana really are that big. Open up the box and you’re immediately struck by the size.
These, my friends, are game pieces of substance.
In Tasso Banana your goal is to be the first to get rid of all your bananas by placing them out on the game board. Bananas on the same level can’t touch each other, the table, or one of the included banana leaves, or go outside the boundaries of the playing field (as defined by the game board). A stacked banana can only be stacked on two other bananas, and a banana which already has another banana on top of it can’t support any other bananas. With these rules you’ll wind up with a crazed jumble of gently curving fruit, some stacked on their sides, some arch side up, as if poured out of the box by an insane greengrocer.
Adding to the fun is the rule which allows you to take an additional turn each time you successfully stack a banana. This means that players take turns placing a banana _just_ out of reach of other bananas so as to avoid setting up their opponents to stack and get an extra turn, or potentially multiple turns as bananas get closer and closer to each other.
Tasso Banana is a reimplementation of the game Tasso, released in 2004, which used plain rectangular shapes. This makes Tasso Banana a much more interesting game given that curved shapes are not only harder to stack, but look more interesting on the table.
25th Century Games has partnered with Playte Games, a Korean publisher, to bring Tasso Banana to the US. While I wouldn’t say this game has staying power, it’s certainly a blast to play, and is small enough and durable enough to be tossed into a bag or purse and brought to a pub or restaurant. Games only take a few minutes to play, which means that it’s perfect as a warm up to a longer play session or as a way to close out the evening. With all that Tasso Banana has going for it, I’m sure you can see the a-peel.
Tasso Banana details
- Designer: Junghee Choi, Philippe Proux
- Artists: Wanjin Gill
- Publishers: 25th Century Games, Jelly Jelly Games, Playte
- Release Date: 2022
- Player count : 2 - 6
- Age range : 8+
- Time range : 10 - 15 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Stacking and Balancing
- BGG Geek Rating: 6.53617 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about Tasso Banana.
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