Schmidt Spiele is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Mensch ärgere Dich nicht, a version of Ludo, or Pachisi, with three new versions of the game.
Mensch ärgere Dich nicht Gold-Edition is the same game upgraded with larger wood playing pieces and gold-colored dice.
Mensch ärgere Dich nicht: Das Kartenspiel, that is “The Card Game”, isn’t so much a translation of the original as it is inspired-by it. While trying to build and score rows, players have the opportunity to steal from each other, thus recreating the frustration of having a piece sent back to the start.
Closer in play to its namesake, Mensch ärgere Dich nicht: Mauerhüpfer, or “Wall Hopper”, is also a roll-and-move game where landing on a space occupied by an opponent sends his piece back to the start. In this one, though, the movement track is a zig-zag with walls separating the parallel paths. On that wall between each adjacent pair of spaces is a number. Two dice are rolled and each one can be used either to move along the path, or when a die matches the number on the adjacent wall, to jump that wall in a shortcut to the end.