Bananas. They are long, yellow, and delicious. Here are some fun facts about bananas according to my random googling:
- More than 100 billion bananas are eaten every year in the world.
- Banana plants are giant herbs, not trees.
- And for those looking for a Dad joke: I know how to spell “Banana, I just don’t know when to stop.”
OK, so why is this crazy person spouting random banana facts at you? Well, sometimes we reviewers struggle to come up with interesting intros, so we need to get creative… or stupid. You be the judge. In either case, today we are going to talk about Tasso Banana, a stacking game from 25th Century Games.
Gameplay Overview:
Each player starts with an identical number of bananas with the goal of being the first player to get rid of all of theirs. On a player’s turn, they can place a banana anywhere on the board with a few restrictions:
- If it falls, you take it back
- It must not touch the table
- It can’t touch any other banana
- However, it can touch exactly two other bananas if you stack it on them.
- A banana can only support 1 other banana.
- If you do stack a banana, you get to take another turn.
Congrats! You now know how to play Tasso Banana.
Game Experience:
Sometimes, as reviewers, we ask publishers for games that catch our eye that we want to cover. Other times, things randomly show up at our doorstep that we were not expecting. That was the case with Tasso Banana. But, frankly, I love dexterity games so I was willing to give it a shot.
The production values are quite well done. The wooden banana tokens look nice, but the most interesting part is that the box folds out into the game board. With a magnetic closure, it was a pleasant surprise to have everything all in one neat little packet. The rules are on the inside of the box, the board is there, and I just use a bag to hold the bananas.
And you know what, darn if the game isn’t pretty fun. The rules are a bit quirky in that bananas can only touch other bananas when you are stacking them, and each banana can only support 1 banana. So it leads to a bit of a game of chicken as the players take their turn.
At the start of the game, you are pretty much just placing a banana on the board as far from other bananas as possible. You don’t want to be the one to give the next player a stacking opportunity. But eventually, space starts to run out and players will need to get creative. You start placing bananas slightly hanging over the edge, super close to another banana that’s already supporting gone, or round side down.
This is all because being able to stack a banana is really powerful. If no one stacks a banana, then the first player will win by default. But even getting once extra turn can put you in the lead, and if you manage to stack 2-3 bananas in a row in different area, well you are setup pretty well then.
Depending on how things go, you might even get lucky and stack a banana on another banana that’s already stacked on some bananas. It’s rare for things to get that high, but it happens. Tasso Banana is at its best once the board fills up and players have to get creative.
This is also why I prefer to play with the variant that comes with the game. During setup, you place 3 banana leaf tokens on the board to basically clog up some space. That’s all they do, but it makes the board tighter much sooner, which in turn, makes the game much more interesting.
Final Thoughts:
Tasso Banana is a game that looked stupid when I was reading the rules, but everyone actually enjoyed it. I’ve played it with my kids and fellow gamers and it makes for a great little filler game. The rules take no time at all to explain, and there is actually a little bit of strategy in where you place bananas and how. Sure it’s not going to set the stacking world on fire, but for $15, it’s very portable and plays quickly. This one will happily sit on my shelf to be pulled out when we’ve got some time to kill.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – A fun stacking game with some good production values and quirky rules.
Hits:
• Easy to learn rules
• Quick, entertaining gameplay
• Banana leaves make things more interesting
• Good production values
Misses:
• A one-trick pony
