Get Ready for a Snowball Fight in Yeti Snowbrawl

Stack your snowballs and get ready for an impromptu snowball fight, in this dexterity-based stacking game.

Published by Big Discoveries, and designed for 2-4 players ages 6 and up, Yeti Snowbrawl is a family-friendly game of snow-throwing yetis.

Gameplay

Each player takes 10 snowballs and a tray. The cards are shuffled and placed in the center of the table. On your turn, you draw a card and perform the action stated. Actions include stacking 1-3 snowballs onto your tray (you can only have five snowballs on your base layer), blowing on another player’s stacked snowballs in an attempt to knock one or more off, choosing a single snowball in an opponent’s stack to remove, and flicking one snowball in an opponent’s stack. When your action causes one or more snowballs to fall out of an opponent’s tray, they are all returned to his supply, and he will have to stack them again on future turns.

The final card action is snowbrawl. When this card is drawn, everyone acts simultaneously, taking one snowball from their supply and trying to throw it so that it will knock another player’s snowball stack.  All snowballs that fall out of trays, and all thrown snowballs, are returned to their respective player’s supply.

Players take turns drawing cards and performing the indicated actions until one player has successfully stacked all 10 of his snowballs and wins the game.

Review

Yeti Snowbrawl is a very simple game. The dexterity of stacking the snowballs isn’t that difficult, although it can be fun to choose which is the best snowball to pick or flick on an opponent’s stack, to try to maximize the number they lose. But there’s a lot of luck involved in what card you draw on your turn.

The game is very visually appealing, coming in a large box where one side is a fuzzy, yeti face. The snowballs are large and fuzzy, but soft enough that they’re not likely to cause any unintentional damage to people (glass and decorative items are another matter, so you might want to be careful about where you choose to play because snowballs can easily go astray).

This is a game that feels like a good fit for children and families, and the snowbrawls are definitely fun. Perhaps a few extra action cards to mix up gameplay, and some more snowball fights would have spiced things up a bit, but it’s a nicely-produced game that is a good fit for its audience.

Pros: Components and box are a lot of fun, a good fit for children and families

Cons: A little too simple for adult audiences, very luck dependent on how many snowballs you get to stack

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.