Wouter & Ymke 
In Giraffe Raffe, a group of hungry giraffes gathers around apple trees, all trying to reach fruit hanging just a little too high above them. At first glance, it looks like a very cheerful little card game. Bright colours, goofy giraffes, tiny wooden apples… the sort of thing that gives off “nice family game” energy the moment the box hits the table.
Then somebody blocks the exact tree you needed and the mood changes very quickly.
The basic idea is simple. Players place card combinations onto different tree spaces around the table. Some trees want matching colours, others ask for pairs, sets, straights, flushes, or larger combinations. Every new play makes that tree harder to use for the next player. If you cannot play anything, you spend an apple token to pass. If you cannot do either, you lose immediately.
There is also a solo mode with a robot giraffe opponent, plus a longer variant using rotten apples for players who want multiple rounds connected together. The rotten apples are a nice touch, although receiving one after losing somehow feels more insulting than it probably should.
👥 1-5 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 15-30 minutes
📝 Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
🎨 Artwork: Bingo Kim
🏢 Publisher: Mandoo Games (Dutch/French version review copy provided by Geronimo Games)
Gameplay Overview
On your turn, you either play cards onto one of the trees or spend an apple token to skip your turn. The game continues until one player cannot do either anymore. There is no point scoring or final tally at the end. The game simply stops the moment somebody gets stuck.
Most of the game revolves around the different tree spaces and how they slowly become more difficult to use. Some trees require higher and higher values, while others ask players to spend increasingly large groups of cards. A tree that looked completely safe a few turns ago can suddenly become impossible to use without destroying half your hand.
That pressure is what the whole game revolves around. You are never only looking at your own cards. Every play changes the options for everybody else around the table. Sometimes a move helps the next player by accident. Sometimes you knowingly make life miserable for the person sitting beside you. Usually while smiling about it.
A few trees reward players with apple tokens or extra cards from the redraw deck. The redraw deck only contains four cards total, so those rewards disappear surprisingly fast. Early on, extra cards feel generous. Near the end, the game becomes much tighter once that small safety net is gone.
The copy cards ended up being one of the most interesting parts of the deck. They copy another card played alongside them, both in colour and value, which makes them extremely flexible later in the game. More than once, somebody held onto a copy card for half the round like it was emergency food during winter.
The rules themselves are easy to follow after a few turns. Reading the table properly is the harder part.
Artwork, Components, and Visual Design
The presentation does a lot of work here. The box is covered in giraffe patterns, bright colours, and cartoon artwork that immediately makes the game feel approachable. Sitting on the table, it looks much softer and friendlier than the gameplay underneath actually is.
The cards continue that same energy. The giraffes are expressive, silly, and occasionally look completely exhausted with life. Some are dancing, some are sleeping, and some just stare into the distance like they already know another player is about to ruin their plans.
Thankfully, the cards stay easy to read even once the table gets crowded. The numbers are large, the colours are clear, and nothing important disappears behind the artwork. That matters because late-game turns can become surprisingly tense, and nobody wants to pause the game to figure out whether a card is a 12 or a 13.
The tree tiles also work well visually. They stand out clearly on the table and make it easy to scan the available spaces during play. The little wooden apple tokens deserve a mention too. They are shaped like actual apples with tiny stems attached. Completely unnecessary detail… which also means everyone immediately likes them.
What works especially well is how the artwork softens the game’s harsher side. Mechanically, players are constantly cutting off options for each other and pushing the table toward somebody eventually failing. Without the cheerful giraffes and playful colours, the game could easily come across as much colder than it does.
That said, the art style will not work for everybody. A few people at our table expected something much lighter and more relaxed because of the presentation. Instead, they got a surprisingly competitive little survival game hiding underneath cartoon giraffes.
Our Experience
What surprised us most was how quickly the game changes mood once the trees start tightening up. The opening turns feel wide open. Everybody has options, players casually collect apples, and the game almost feels relaxed for a while.
Then somebody raises a tree just high enough that nobody really wants to touch it anymore.
A straight suddenly asks for more cards than anybody wants to spend. A pair tree climbs high enough that half the table quietly gives up on it. Somebody uses a strong combination in exactly the wrong place and accidentally ruins another player’s entire plan. The game gradually turns from managing your own hand into constantly watching what everybody else is doing.
That part worked really well for us because the table stays active the whole time. Even when it is not your turn, you still care about every card being played because the available spaces keep changing. We had several moments where somebody looked perfectly comfortable one turn, then completely trapped the next because two players changed the table before play came back around.
The apple tokens also became far more important than they first appeared. Early in the game, spending one barely feels like a decision. Later on, players start protecting them carefully because one pass at the right moment can completely change what the table looks like before your next turn. More than once, someone spent an apple too early and regretted it almost immediately.
The different tree types also help keep the game interesting throughout the round. Some spaces become difficult because the numbers climb too high, while straights and flushes slowly become expensive because they demand more and more cards. The pressure comes from different directions instead of repeating the same problem over and over.
The copy cards become especially valuable near the end of the game. Early on they are simply useful. Later, they often decide whether a player survives another turn or not. Holding onto one can feel safe, although waiting too long sometimes backfires when the table changes faster than expected.
The ending will probably divide groups the most. Since the game only cares about finding one loser, the final turns can become quite brutal. We had games where everybody laughed at the collapse, especially when someone got stuck holding one completely useless card. We also had rounds where a player felt a bit unlucky because the table shifted heavily before their turn returned.
Player count made a noticeable difference too. The game felt strongest with three to five players because the trees changed constantly and planning ahead became much harder. With fewer players, there is more control over the table, but some of the unpredictability disappears along with it.
Our Thoughts
This is not a calm card game where everybody quietly builds their own little strategy in front of them. The whole design revolves around shared spaces slowly becoming worse for everyone at the table.
As a filler, it worked very well for us. The rules are quick to explain, turns move fast, and new players usually understand the flow after only a few rounds. It also helps that the game creates reactions almost immediately. Somebody always groans when a useful tree suddenly becomes unusable, or laughs after realising they accidentally helped the next player survive.
One thing we appreciated after a few plays is how clean the design stays. The game does not rely on special powers, complicated scoring systems, or endless exceptions. Nearly all the interaction comes naturally from players fighting over the same spaces and making those spaces harder to use over time.
The game does depend heavily on the group, though. Players who enjoy direct interaction and slightly mean card games will probably have a great time with it. Players who dislike losing control of the situation may bounce off it quite quickly, especially because the ending can sometimes feel sudden or unfair.
The presentation helps a lot there. The colourful artwork and silly giraffes stop the game from feeling too punishing, even when players are quietly ruining each other’s plans every round. Without that softer presentation, the game would probably feel much harsher than it actually does.
After several plays, Giraffe Raffe ended up leaving a stronger impression on us than most small filler games usually do. Not because it reinvents anything, but because it knows exactly what it wants to be and sticks to it. Fast turns, shared pressure, a little bit of chaos, and players constantly getting themselves into trouble over apples.
And honestly, watching giraffes sabotage each other for fruit never really stopped being funny.
📝 We received a review copy of Giraffe Raffe from Geronimo Games.
