Inspired by the success of Happy Salmon, a 2018 TOTY Game of the Year finalist, North Star Games is launching two more in what the company is now calling the Happy Planet Games line.

Tying together the line is a focus on light-hearted, high-energy fun. And really cute game pouches!

Funky Chicken follows its precursor with four new moves: spinning, hip-bumping, swinging, and arm-flapping. I played it one day down at the North Star office (on the condition there would be no pictures) and I can tell you it’s just as silly.

Monster Match is a fast-play game where players race to find illustrated monsters matching the features rolled on two dice (for example, 5 eyes or 3 legs). Improving on the standard grabbing game, this one allows slower players to be more competitive by limiting the field of cards to smaller batches and having a Zilch token for when there are no matches.

Both Funky Chicken and Monster Match will play up to six and are expected to retail for $18.

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Raucous demos of Happy Salmon (April, $15) were drawing attention, and orders, to North Star Games as I stopped by at Toy Fair. And so was the cute packaging. But here’s how the game plays…

Every player gets the same set of 12 cards shuffled in random order. As fast as they can, they call out the action on their top card, trying to find someone with a match. When a pair of players match, they high-five, pound it (fist bump), switcheroo (switch places), or happy salmon (sort-of wiggle their arms together) as indicated on the cards. Whoever goes through their deck first is the winner.

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