The Fuzzies Review

The Fuzzies found its way into my collection by mere happenstance. I had been at my local Walmart, perusing the board game aisle. Nothing was really catching my eye, so I turned to leave. And that’s when I saw it – tucked away, behind other things on the shelf. I grabbed the box to check it out, and was intrigued. A dexterity game, akin to Jenga, but with cute little squishy puffballs? I was sold. If anything, I figured it could be a fun little game for kids! So I brought it home. How does it work, and was it ultimately worth the investment? Keep reading to find out!

The Fuzzies is an action/dexterity game in which players are moving puffballs around the tower, in hopes that they aren’t the one to knock it down! To setup for the game, shuffle the deck of cards and set them, color side up, within view of all players. Place the tweezers nearby too. Take all the Fuzzies and put them in the cup, pushing them down to compress them. Place the base of the cup onto the bottom, flip over the cup, and carefully remove the cup. This leaves all the Fuzzies standing on their own, in a tower, on the cup base. Choose a starting player, and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the starting setup.

On your turn, you need to remove a Fuzzy from the tower that is the same color as the topmost card of the deck. You can do so with the tweezers, or just your hand – the choice is up to you. You must then place that Fuzzy anywhere else on the tower, as long as it is higher than where it was before. Sounds simple enough? There’s a catch, though – you can place the Fuzzy on the sides of the tower, but you cannot place it on the top of the tower. The texture/fuzziness of the Fuzzy will allow it to ‘grab’ onto the other Fuzzies of the tower – in a sort of velcro-type way. You are not allowed to get out of your seat to perform your turn, but you are allowed to turn the tower base.

If you are able to remove and replace your Fuzzy with no other Fuzzies falling off the tower, you are in the clear! However, if any Fuzzies fall off the tower during your turn, you will be penalized. To start, you still must finish your original turn, putting your Fuzzy back on the tower. For the number of Fuzzies that fell, you will draw an equal number of cards from the deck. These will then be flipped over to reveal their Challenge side. On your next turn, you must play with these Challenges in effect. For example, one Challenge is to play your turn with your non-dominant hand. Challenge cards are discarded after they are performed, they do not stay in effect for the rest of the game.

Play continues in this fashion, with players taking turns moving Fuzzies, until one player knocks over the tower. That player loses, and everyone else wins! (According to the rules, if 10 or more Fuzzies fall off the tower, that is considered to be ‘knocked over.’)

So overall, The Fuzzies is a pretty simple and straightforward game. You take a Fuzzy off the tower, and put it somewhere else on the tower. Not really a game that’s going to burn your brain. But there is a small amount of strategy involved. As the game progresses, and the tower starts becoming more unstable and oddly-shaped, you have to be more calculating about which Fuzzy to move on your turn. You can’t just yank out the lowest Fuzzy when it’s obviously the last thing keeping the tower standing!

One thing that I really like about the Fuzzies as opposed to Jenga is that it is a quieter dexterity game. The Fuzzies are just little puffballs, and when the tower falls over, it’s not clattering wooden tiles on your table. Another thing that I like is that the Challenge cards add a cool twist to the gameplay. Even though knocking one or two Fuzzies off the tower isn’t going to lose you the game, there are consequences for not being careful enough. And if you have multiple Challenges going at once, it makes for quite an interesting turn!

Components. This game doesn’t come in a box – it’s a plastic cup/base that double as the tower-making tools. Nice and sturdy, they’ve held up well and really make a solid tower. The Fuzzies themselves are cute little puffballs in different colors. I’m not sure exactly what they’re made of – some sort of felt, maybe? – but their texture/material is what allows them to cling to each other. In all my plays so far, they’ve held up well, and don’t look like they’re going to start unraveling or coming apart anytime soon. The cards themselves are fine, and the little artwork on them is cute. All in all, pretty decent production quality.

Is The Fuzzies going to break into my Top 10 games? Nope. But it’s still a cute and fun game. I feel like it’s definitely aimed towards younger gamers overall. I know the age says 6+, and I’ve played it with Travis’s daughter (who just turned 6), and she did just fine with it. Yes, we adjusted a couple of the rules – like letting you get out of your seat – but overall the gameplay we kept the same. I gotta say, though, it’s been quite a hit with Travis’s kids. Whenever they come over to my house, they’re asking me to play ‘the puffball game,’ and they want to play several times in a row. It’s a cute little game that gets them thinking of strategy, while also practicing their dexterity skills. So while it may not be a game I pull out with a group of adults, it’s definitely one that is family-friendly. As you can see from our ratings above, Travis and I like this game, but aren’t over the moon for it. But like I said, I feel like it’s geared more towards younger gamers. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a teetering 6 / 12. It’s not a bad game overall, just not really one that we want to pull out for game nights without the kids.