Fire in the Hole is all about throwing little cannonballs!

[Ad- gifted product] The creators of It’s Bananas have come out with another amazing game, called Fire in the Hole, and honestly it’s our favourite board game yet! Fire in the Hole is a two to four player board game about throwing cannon balls into a massive ship. It’s actually a pop-up style board, something I have never seen before as a board game, with the ship popping up as you open it! Along with the board, there are four different coloured cannon balls, a single black cannon ball, a little cardboard X, cards, dice and eye patches for everyone playing. A flag is also inserted onto the ship, dividing it.

At the start of the game the ship will be pointing at the youngest player. Then, each player will play a card from their hand. These cards have different actions like throw the cannon ball onto the ship with one eye covered by your eye patch, or throw in two with each of your hands but both eyes closed. There is a bunch of different combinations of eyes being closed or hands being used. When you throw a cannon ball, it states that your elbows need to be touching the table, so these have to be some pretty soft throws. Whenever you play a card that involves throwing a cannon ball, you then need roll a die before you do the action. The die will let you know if just you are doing the action, or if everyone who you are playing with is doing the action at the same time. Some other cards allow you to remove a cannon ball from the ship, move the ship, and even take someone’s colour and make it your own. There is a card that allows you to place the X onto the ship, basically blocking a space as well.

Once you have played your card, you can draw another card from the pile, and it moves onto the next person. The goal of Fire in the Hole is actually to connect four of your cannon balls on the ship wins. It’s a game that feels goofy and wacky – and can end up lasting a long time if people aren’t good at aiming their cannon balls! This game is also plastic free, biodegradable and carbon-neutral – making it a game that’s well worth having in your collection, between how fun it is to play and how environmentally friendly it is!

Robin, Amelia and Kai all had a great time playing this game, which was perfect for all of their ages. Some of the holes are a bit tricky to get our cannon balls into, which brings a lot of fun and challenge into the game. Fire in the Hole feels great for a variety of ages, and is really impressive to bring out and open up too, making for a fun party game for families or friends. I feel this would be perfect for Christmas time too!

Check out more of our toy reviews!