Yubibo

• Designer: MAGNET
• Publisher: Jelly Jelly
• Players: 2-8
• Age: 6+
• Time: 5-10 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

YUBIBO is a cooperative dexterity game involving hands, sticks, and spongey balls. (Fun fact: Yubi means finger in Japanese, and bo means stick – “Fingersticks”!)

Based on the player count, choose the appropriate number of sticks. Additionally, each player takes a deck of cards in their chosen color.  All the cards are shuffled together.  Each player uses one hand to hold the sticks, the other will be used to draw cards.

Players take turns drawing cards that indicate which finger to use to support a stick.

If the color of the revealed card is not the active player’s color, the matching color player is nominated.

Nominated player: Connects the stick using the finger indicated on the revealed card.
Active player: Connects the stick using any finger of their choice.

If the color of the revealed card is identical to the active player’s color, the active player nominates a player of their choice.

Nominated player: Connects the stick using any finger of their choice.
Active player: Connects the stick using the finger indicated on the revealed card.

(Essentially, the finger shown on the card must be used!)

Can you hold up all sticks without dropping them on the table and defeat gravity itself?

You can spice up the challenge by trying to place balls atop the sticks, but be warned! Each pair of sticks can only support one ball, and the balls can’t touch any other balls or fingers!

The team wins if all the sticks (14 in a 5 player game, 12 in a 4 player game) are held aloft.  The team loses if a stick is dropped.

My thoughts on the game

Yubibo is a super challenging dexterity cooperative game – one which I’m not super good at…. Apparently I’m not very dextrous.  Also, I get sweaty hands when doing things like this, and welp, that’s no bueno.  Finally, I have really small hands, and unsurprisingly, that’s not great either.  But – that doesn’t mean that I don’t have fun playing Yubibo!

I had played a previous version of the game where each player had a deck of cards for each hand – but… it’s super hard to flip a card over when you’re using both hands!  We had to have someone sit out to essentially flip cards for people. This new version of the game fixes the problem by only using one hand per person for the sticks – leaving one hand free for the cards.

If your group is particularly good, you can add in the extra module of foam balls which must also be balanced on the sticks.  Let’s just say that any group that I’m a part of will likely not have to worry so much about those :)

The game is super easy to teach, and most people should be up and running in just a minute or two.  Game length is pretty short for an individual game, but it’s also the sort of game that players usually want to play again immediately.  It’s nice that the game can handle up to 8 players, as many dexterity games cannot stretch to that amount.  It’s actually quite fun at the higher player counts as you end up with lots of weird permutations of fingers being used as you try to keep all the sticks in the air.

If you don’t get sweaty hands, this is a fun one to try.

Also, i only used stock photos here because well, this isn’t the sort of game that you have a hand free to use your phone to take pictures!

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Joe Huber (2 plays, one of the basic game and one of the advanced game, with the foam balls) – This is a game.  It works, the rules are clear (noting that I was taught the game; I don’t know if the written rules are equally clear), and it’s fast.  Or, if you do as poorly as we did, really fast.  And I can’t ever imagine asking to play the game.  (I also can’t imagine turning it down if asked, though I can imagine trying for something I like more first.)  If you like this kind of game, you’ll probably enjoy it more than I did.

Dan B. (the same 2 plays as Joe): Like Dale I have small hands, and that really doesn’t work well for this game; maybe if everyone did it would be OK but I suspect not. That being said I would certainly be willing to try it again if asked as if it goes the way it did before it will be over in 90 seconds or so.

Matt C. My family has tried it out with three players a few times and had fun with it. I think I could bring it out again and everyone would be up for playing. However, balancing cats in Nekojima is our current go-to dexterity game and while it is longer than Yubibo, the fam will almost always go for it instead.  I have yet to throw it to the wolves that is the teenagers I work with, I think the the quick teach and group vibe might make it a keeper.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it.  Matt C.
• Neutral. Dale Y, Steph, Joe H., Dan B.
• Not for me…