not a game?

Michelle recently used the Wyeth (children's milk powder) bonus points to redeem an educational toy for the children. It is a puzzle game called Safari Hide & Seek. There are four squares on the game board, each consisting of 9 spaces in a 3x3 grid, and most of the spaces have animals in them - lions, gazelles, rhinos, zebras and elephants. There are four plastic jungle pieces in different shapes which can be placed into the squares in different orientations to hide some of the animals. The game comes with 48 challenges, in 4 difficulty levels. A challenge is basically a specific combination of animals, e.g. 2 zebras and 2 lions, and you need to place the 4 jungle pieces onto the board in such a way so that that exact number and combination of animals is visible. I found this quite interesting and not as simple as it looks at first glance.

I checked on BoardGameGeek and was surprised to find that this game has not been added to their database. So I quickly snapped some photos, and prepared to add this game. After I had filled in all the details, and had written a concise description of it, I suddenly read in the small print of the rules that you are not allowed to add solitaire / puzzle games. *sigh* All that effort for nothing. I was just about to click Submit. Well, since BoardGameGeek says this is not a game, I decided to post the information here instead at my own blog.

The packaging.

The back of the packaging.

The side of the packaging.

The game itself, with the four jungle tiles placed in such a way that exactly four lions are showing.

The game "board" without the jungle tiles. A total of 6 lions, 6 gazelles, 5 elephants, 5 zebras, 5 rhinos, and 9 blank spaces.

The four jungle tiles, which look roughly like a "U", a small "q", a capital "R" and a capital "H".

The rules, at the top, is just a 4-page, single-fold sheet. The challenge booklet is of good quality. All can be stored inside the game board, which is actually a box.

The inside of the challenge booklet. Solutions on the left (of the previous challenge), and challenges on the right. This is the easiest level.

Another challenge, this one from the 2nd hardest level.