Hey! That's My Fish! gets a deluxe edition, 23 years on

It has been 23 years since the original version of Hey! That's My Fish! was created by designer Alvydas Jakeliunas. Alvydes would use the internet to contact Gunter Cornett at Bambus Spieleverlag where in 2003 Bambus would go on to publish Hey! That's My Fish!. The original title for the game was Pingvinas, which is Lithuanian for Penguin.

From that point on Hey! That's My Fish! would sell out and continue to sell out around the world in eight different languages.

I personally first played Hey! That's My Fish! in 2014. When I won the first game I ever played, I was completely hooked. Because the box was so small I took the game to parties and get togethers so other people could experience how fun and how fast the game can be played.

Fast forward to today when I played the deluxe version for the first time.

Now for those that aren't familiar with Hey! That's My Fish! it is a tile game that can be played by two to four people. Just about anyone can play this game, even those as young as five years old.

There are 60 ice flow tiles placed in a particular order. The number of penguins played by each player depends on how many people are playing. Going in order each player will add a penguin to the layout placing each of their penguins on a single fish.

Going in turns each player will move their penguin in a straight line from one ice flow to another. As they move that player will remove the ice flow they moved from and add it to their stack.

As the game progresses the field of play will start to have gaps formed between tile sections. Players will not be able to move their penguins passed these gaps so if they get stuck in a section then they will only be able to collect what they can land on.

The game ends when each player can no longer move their penguins. When the game ends each player will collect their penguin and add the last tile, they are on to their stack. The tiles left floating free are removed from the game.

To win the game, each player will count up how many fish are on each of the tiles. The player with the most fishes wins the game.

Hey! That's My Fish! is a fairly simple and easy game to learn and play. Each player has an opportunity to block and cut of sections from their opponents. What a player has to watch for it cutting themselves short on how many ice flow tiles they can split from their opponents. The number of fish in an area does make a difference so each player has to be mindful on what they can get.

The question I now have to ask myself if I liked the small box version or the deluxe version? Both have their charms. The small box version is portable enough to into a bag or even a pocket (just depends on how deep the pocket is). It comes with small tiles and little penguin miniatures.

The deluxe version comes in a much larger box with larger tiles and awesome looking penguin figurines.

I guess if I'm going to introduce a few people to the game the larger deluxe version would be the way to go. If I'm going to the game store to play with others and I'm taking multiple games, then the small box version would go.

Over the years Hey! That's My Fish! by multiple publishing companies. The last time it was published was in 2023 by Next Move Games which is still available on Amazon for around $30.

This is a game that would make a great gift for anyone that loves board games and penguins.

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