Loopin' Louie

Loopin' Louie hit shelves in 1990, the brainchild of designer Carol Wiseley and published by Milton Bradley. Three years later, it snagged the Kinderspiel des Jahres award. The core setup involves a central crane tower—assembled with a screwdriver—that holds a motorized arm.

At the arm’s end dangles a biplane carrying the game’s namesake, Louie. Up to four arms branch off the tower, each fitted with a canal, a barn, three chicken tokens, and a paddle-like lever. Two AA batteries power the crane’s rotation.

Players press their levers to keep Louie airborne, timing each press so his plane doesn’t knock chicken tokens off the barns and into the canals. Whoever still has at least one chicken token left when the chaos ends wins.

The game found a second life in Germany, where it became a popular drinking game. The Wall Street Journal noted in 2014 that over 1.3 million copies had sold there since 2006—far outpacing sales anywhere else. Modders have also tinkered with the original four-player limit, creating unofficial expansions for eight players, and later twelve using three planes. In 2016, Hasbro released a Star Wars variant called Loopin’ Chewie, designed for three players, which likewise saw an unofficial six-player mod.