Review: Grabbin’ Grasshoppers!
Publisher: Tyco
Year: 1990
Tagline: The Jumpin’ Grasshopper Game

This is a tall cover showing a cartoon man with a net trying to catch cartoon grasshoppers

how we met

Grabbin’ Grasshoppers! was dirt cheap and complete, but I still was not going to buy it. It looks fun for a one-time play but is it worth standing in line to purchase? However it has some resale value and so made it into the trunk.

how it plays

Grabbin’ Grasshoppers! is as simple as it gets. Press down on the grasshoppers, let go, wait until they jump, and see who catches the most! The most difficult part of the game is pressing down all 8 of them at once.

An overview of the board with red dots to show where the grasshoppers go
The board has red dots to show where the grasshoppers can all fit

The player that catches the most grasshoppers wins!

how it went

Keri is better at this game than I am, and she won several times. Those grasshoppers can really fly! And I think my mistake was in often not getting my basket high enough into the air. But I don’t think anyone ever caught more than two.

A close up of a grasshopper. The legs are metal and the bottom has a suction cup
A close up of one of our heroes, the grasshopper. They have suction cups on their bellies. Pro tip: you can bend those legs to really make them fly high

FUN FACT: Games like this always cause Keri to recollect the time we were playing Elefun and I smacked her in the head with my butterfly net. It was an accident!! Even though she won at that too.

To make things interesting I offered Keri a bazillion dollars if she could get all 8 grasshoppers to stick at once. She tried really hard, but I knew that was a safe bet. You just can’t get all the grasshoppers to stick at once as one human person.

play or pass

Pass, as I thought. It’s a fun, dumb game, but not at all gamely. And the launch method is very flawed. And Keri lost a bazillion dollars. But if you have fond memories of the game, it still works really well 30 years later.