Happy Salmon

2025-12-22T14:39:56+00:00

Vendor: Northstar Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 7.59

If you don't want to own a party game that comes packaged inside a fish then I'm not sure what you do want out of life, hopefully learning more about Happy Salmon will convince you.

Happy Salmon, published by North Star games and designed by Ken Gruhl and Quentin Weir, is a super simple to learn frenetic, family party game for three to six players.

In Happy Salmon, everyone stands in a circle and each player starts with a set of 12 action cards. The aim of the game is to discard all of your cards by matching the action with one of the other players. How do you do this? Well, when somebody says go, all players look at their deck and start shouting out the action that's shown on the card and listening out for another player also shouting out that action.

Once you find a match you carry out the action with each other and discard the card. The four actions are: High Five, Pound It (fist bump), Switcheroo (change places), Happy salmon (slap each other's forearm like a fish tail). The first person to get rid of all their cards wins. It's a quick game, so why not play best of three rounds?

Happy Salmon is accessible too, North Star Games have included alternative rules for people with mobility issues and people who want to keep things quiet. The of the game allows you to combine with the green version for up to 12 players, for twice the chaos.

The tiny size of the Happy Salmon pouch means you can take it with you anywhere, and it can be taught to anyone in a matter of moments. As a result it is ideal for pulling out at parties, conventions, shopping arcades, lifts, libraries, waiting rooms, or lazy Friday afternoons in the office.

Due to how it plays, it suits itself to more players, and a time and place where you can move around and be noisy and silly. When the time is right for a fun, active, loud and frantic game of silliness, Happy Salmon is the way to go!

Player Count: 3-6
Time: Two Minutes
Age: 6+