Pooper Heroes

Pooper Heroes is a delightful, varied card game for families, with a hilarious concept and adorable artwork.

Bums away!

The overall idea behind Pooper Heroes is simple: when food turns into poop, flush it out of your hand with help from the Pooper Heroes. The winner is the least-pooey player at the end of the game.

First things first, the concept of this game is fantastic for engaging younger players with the card game. After all, what kid (or adult!) doesn’t love poo jokes? An entire game based on them is sure to be a success!

I was introduced to Pooper Heroes several years ago at a local board game cafe’s new games day, and enjoyed it so much that I ordered a deck for myself and one for my goddaughter. Since then, creator Zsolt Batki has added fun new characters like the Farty Godmother, and teamed up with artist Aga Gieko to add whimsical illustrations. The game is better than ever!

Featuring charming artwork, the deck itself is clear and simple to read, and the instructions include the lore of each character card, which is a hilarious touch. This storytelling element is especially fun when playing with children, and helps them to stay interested (as opposed to a game involving standard playing cards with very few pictures or stories attached). Cards with characters such as Pooperman, The Flush, and the Poop Fairy all have different functions and backstories, and they appear in different game variations.

This leads me onto excellent feature Number Two of Pooper Heroes…

A Bristol Stool Chart’s worth of plop-tions

One of the major plus points of Pooper Heroes is that it includes instructions for three separate games (or four if you go to the website listed in the leaflet), so you get more fun for your money than your average card game. Even better, these games are designed for different age ranges and player numbers, allowing groups to choose their game based on the players involved.

The games are:

Pooper Heroes (2-7 players, ages 7+)

The classic variant is a fun and simple game to get started with your Pooper Heroes deck. The other games build on or pare down this game. The aim of all Pooper Heroes games (except Go Poo) is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their ‘Poop Pile’.

The deck is made up of two types of cards: Food and Action. Action includes the rarer character cards mentioned earlier, as well as Uno-style forced pick-up or discard cards with fun names like Lollipoop and Pooper Scooper.

Happy Nappy (2-7 players, ages 5+)

Playing with beginners or younger children? Happy Nappy is the perfect game to start with. By removing certain Action cards from the deck and cutting the ‘chain cards’ moves from the game, Happy Nappy simplifies Pooper Heroes into a more streamlined game.

Pooper Troopers (3-7 players, ages 9+)

For more experienced Pooper Players, Pooper Troopers offers a more interactive and complex option. In this game, players can clear their ‘Poop Pile’ and attack other players with Action Cards, all in one turn! Pooper Troopers features plenty of back-and-forth between players, and reduces wait time between turns (which can be a concentration barrier for younger players).

Go Poo (2-10 players, no age guidance)

By removing the action cards, the Pooper Heroes deck can also be used to play a version of the classic game Go Fish. In Go Poo, players compete to collect ‘meals’ of five cards showing the same food or drink. This game has the simplest rules of any Pooper Heroes game, so would be a great beginner/introductory choice for new or young players.

A sticky situation

As you may have guessed, the number of different games means quite a few varied rules. The only element of this game which could use work is the instructions, where it seems that the game creator has focused more on the lore/storytelling sections than the rule sections.

The rules for the classic Pooper Heroes game are clear, and the inclusion of diagrams is helpful. However, the additional/different rules for the other variants playable with the deck are given as annotations on the original rules, which can be a little confusing on first reading.

Although it makes sense for the creators to want to maximise space in the booklet for the fun facts and stories about the characters, I do think user experience would have benefited from the secondary game rules being written out fully in separate sections. This would have involved repetition, but would be very helpful for beginner players and younger players reading without adults to help parse the different instructions.

That said, all game variations are quick to learn and easy to remember, so once players have their heads in the game, the instructions will only be used for the fun facts and character stories.

Pooper duper

The cute artwork, funny backstories and amusing concept of Pooper Heroes make it a wonderful game for kids and their families, and the flexibility of the different games is a great feature. You’ll be flush with success if you add it to your collection or gift it to a little one in your life!

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