Components:

• Game Base: The board with four hippos and the marble holding area in the center.

• 4 Hippos: Each player controls one hippo (typically colors are pink, orange, yellow, and green).

• 20 Marbles: Small white marbles that the hippos will try to eat.

• Marble Release Handle: A mechanism to release all marbles into the playing area at the start of the game.
  

Objective:

The objective of the game is to be the player whose hippo collects the most marbles by the end of the game.

Setup:

1. Assemble the Game:

   • Place the game base on a flat surface.

   • Attach the hippos to their respective slots on the game base.

   • Ensure each hippo’s lever mechanism (mouth and neck) works properly.

2. Distribute Marbles:

   • Place all 20 marbles in the marble holding area in the center of the game base.

3. Assign Hippos:

   • Each player chooses a hippo and sits behind it.
     

Gameplay:

1. Starting the Game:

   • One player or an adult releases the marbles by pulling the marble release handle, spreading the marbles across the board.

2. Catch the Marbles:

   • Players rapidly press the lever on the back of their hippo to make it lunge forward and open its mouth to catch the marbles.

   • The hippos’ mouths will open and close as they lunge forward.

   • Players continue pressing the lever until all marbles are captured.

3. Collecting Marbles:

   • As the hippo catches marbles, they will move down the hippo’s throat and into the player’s collection area.

4. End of the Game:

   • The game ends when all the marbles have been captured by the hippos.
     

Winning the Game:

• Once all the marbles have been captured, each player counts the number of marbles their hippo collected.

• The player with the most marbles is declared the winner.
  

Special Rules:

1. Ties:

   • In case of a tie (two or more players have the same number of marbles), the tied players can play a tiebreaker round with a subset of the marbles.

2. Rules for Younger Players:

   • For younger children, you can reduce the number of marbles or play until a certain number of marbles have been captured.
     

Strategy Tips:

1. Rapid Pressing: The game is all about speed, so rapidly press the lever to maximize your hippo’s chances of catching marbles.

2. Timing: Watch the marbles' movement and try to time your presses to catch multiple marbles in one go.

3. Positioning: Slightly angle your hippo towards areas with more marbles to increase your chances of collecting them.