Happy Biiirthday
- Board's Eye View
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
Happy Biiirthday is a light singing game for children. It's designed by Mokumuku Works, with cute farm animal art from Chien-Yu Chen. Happy Biiirthday takes 2-6 players and is published by Taiwan Boardgame Design (TBD).
The game is played using a deck of cards showing candles: six cards for each animal plus three 'candle out' cards. Players each take the two tokens representing their choice of farm animal. The cards are shuffled and divided up among the players. Players sing the first verse of Happy Birthday and, simultaneously on the last syllable, all play one card. The player(s) who have the most candles showing with their animal have to sing the next verse. If a 'candle out' card is showing then nobody should sing. If a player sings when they shouldn't or fails to sing when they should then they lose one of their tokens. The game ends when a player loses two tokens.
The game is all about quickly spotting patterns and counting the candles so that you all keep to the rhythm of the song (and you can substitute any song if you don't want to sing to Happy Birthday). Think of it as Snap with singing. TBD suggest it's a filler-length game for players age 7 and up but it can be played and enjoyed too by much younger children.
The components lend themselves to tons of variants, and several are suggested in the rules sheet. You can play Happy Biiirthday as a cooperative game, with the aim of completing the song with no-one losing any tokens, and, with older players, you can play that when a question-mark shaped candle comes up, the next verse has to be sung in a foreign language.
With its simple rules and gameplay, this could be a good game to have to hand for a children's birthday party.